Chapter VI: The Moral Justification of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

I. THE DEFINITION OF RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

The sound practical motive in religion, 214. Religion
as belief, 216. Summary definition of religion, 218.

II. THE TESTS OF RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

The measure of religion, extensive and intensive, 218.
The test of truth the fundamental test, 220. The
therapeutic test, and its confusion of the issue, 222.
The two forms of the truth test, cosmological and ethical,
224. The working of these critical principles, 226.
Cosmology and ethics are independent of religion, 228.
The optimistic bias, 231. Summary of religious
development, 231.

III. SUPERSTITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

The prudential character of superstition, 232. The
ethical idea in primitive religion, 233. The
cosmological idea, 234. The method of primitive religion,
235. Superstition in Christianity, 235. The ethical
and cosmological correction of superstition, 236.

IV. TUTELARY RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

The deity identified with the purpose of the worshipper,
237. The national religion of the Assyrians and
Egyptians, 238. The correction of tutelary religion, 239.

V. PHILOSOPHICAL RELIGION. METAPHYSICAL IDEALISM . . . . . 241

Religion formally enlightened, 241. Metaphysical and
moral idealism, 242. The inherent difficulty in
metaphysical idealism, 242. The swing from formalism to
materialism. Pessimism, other-worldliness, mysticism,
panlogism and aesthetic idealism, 243. Aesthetic
idealism falsifies experience and discredits moral
distinctions, 246.

VI. MORAL IDEALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Moral idealism reflects moral judgment, 248. Evil real
but not deliberately perpetrated. The knowledge of
evil, 249. The ground of moral idealism, 252.

VII. THE GENERIC VALUE OF RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Religion morally inevitable, 252. The value of the
religious generalization of life, 253. The immediate
reward of service, 254. Religion and moral
enthusiasm, 254. Culture and religion, 255.

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

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THE MORAL ECONOMY