Speak

But when we speak of the development of religion, we mean not only the gradual growth of individual religions, but also the development of religion in General; starting in the human race with the simplest forms, religion gradually reaches the expression of the most ideal and sublime concepts. This successive development “may be represented as the evolution of a religious idea in history, or better still, as the progress of a religious man or of a humanity religious in its very nature” (Thiele).

Even outright religion, such as Christianity, is not a perfect exception in this case. It is true that there is an eternal and immutable element to which the idea of gradual development and improvement cannot be applied. But even this element, unchangeable in itself, is modified in the human consciousness; man assimilates this element and expresses it outwardly, both in word and in liturgical actions and rites, according to his spiritual development. The Christianity of the gospel and the Apostle Paul is not the same as the Christianity of our uncultured people. Moreover, Jesus Christ, as the Herald of divine and absolute religious truth, has revealed to us mainly the foundations of the doctrine and the highest morality; as for worship, it is largely the result of human creativity and therefore subject to the laws of natural development.

But some think that the idea of development even in the application of natural (not explicit) religion can not be fully justified because, in addition to religions that are the product of the natural growth of a certain people, the collective fruit of popular wisdom, there are so-called founded religions that owe their origin to individuals. Religious reformers such as Mohammad, Confucius, and Buddha, as well as missionaries who propagate higher religions among uncultured peoples, seem to cut off the natural growth of popular religion and introduce apparently entirely new religious concepts into its environment. But this does not eliminate the idea of development. The founders of religions themselves are in most cases the product of all the previous development of a known people, the sons of their tribe and time. Thanks to their talents, they act only as the foremost representatives and best exponents of the concepts and feelings of their people; they do not introduce into the religious consciousness of their people anything entirely new, but only that which “was already vaguely wandering in the minds and hearts of their contemporaries and countrymen, and they only give a definite form to those needs which were already felt by the best part of the society around them” (Thiele).