"Wells, H G - God, The Invisible King" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wells H G)

THE COSMOGONY OF MODERN RELIGION





1. MODERN RELIGION HAS NO FOUNDER





Perhaps all religions, unless the flaming onset of Mohammedanism be

an exception, have dawned imperceptibly upon the world. A little

while ago and the thing was not; and then suddenly it has been found

in existence, and already in a state of diffusion. People have

begun to hear of the new belief first here and then there. It is

interesting, for example, to trace how Christianity drifted into the

consciousness of the Roman world. But when a religion has been

interrogated it has always had hitherto a tale of beginnings, the

name and story of a founder. The renascent religion that is now

taking shape, it seems, had no founder; it points to no origins. It

is the Truth, its believers declare; it has always been here; it has

always been visible to those who had eyes to see. It is perhaps

plainer than it was and to more people--that is all.



It is as if it still did not realise its own difference. Many of

those who hold it still think of it as if it were a kind of

Christianity. Some, catching at a phrase of Huxley's, speak of it

as Christianity without Theology. They do not know the creed they