Evolution of Religion - 2 Vols in 1 Author:Edward Caird Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE THIRD. THE RELATION OF JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY. Jewish Conception of the Relation of the Moral Ideal to the Objective World, in Contrast with the B... more »uddhist and the Christian Conceptions—-That in Buddhism, Spirit absolutely excludes, and in Judaism dominates Nature—But in Christianity Spirit is the Highest Manifestation of the same Principle revealed in Nature—Union of Monotheistic and Pantheistic Ideas in Christianity—Difficulties arising from this Synthesis—, Solution of them by means of the Ideas of Organic Unity and Evolution—The Moral Ideal as Prophetic—How Judaism passes into Christianity. In the last lecture I spoke of the Jewish religion as a religion of subjectivity. It is a religion which recoils upon an inward ideal, as opposed to the immediate aspect of the external world and the immediate phenomena of human life; but which, at the same time, rises to the belief in a God who will ultimately bring the course of things into harmony with that ideal. And I showed how the crude synthesis of goodness and happiness, which was the first expression of this religious idea, was gradually purifiedand expanded by a higher view of both its terms, and also of what is meant by their connexion. Thus the development of goodness was seen to involve an inward struggle with the natural self, and an outward discipline of suffering and sacrifice; and, as this process lengthened, it put to a greater distance the fruition of joy to be earned from the harmony of the soul with itself and God. The consummation, therefore, could not be reached by the individual who had to suffer, but was only to be won by him for future generations of men. Or, if it was to be enjoyed by the individual at all, it could only be in another life beyond this. Or, finally, if it was to be attained by him ...« less