Articles on the Origin of Christianity

MISCELLANEOUS. Once did man a wise God's nature say ' : ' whom God to 187 He his only knows mercy shows." E. Martinengo-Cesaresco. ARTICLES ON THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. It is natural that Emperor William asked himself what effect on Christianity an application of the Higher Criticism to the New Testament would have, and we prophesy that the problem of the origin of Christianity will now come more and more We have long prepared our readers for a better comprehension by publishing in both The Monist and The Of en Court series of intended to shed light on the religious conditions in the age of Christ. We to the front. of the subject articles following titles: " The Birth of Christianity," by Prof. H. Gratz, published in The Open Court for November, 1899; "Apollonius of Tyana, " by T. Whittaker, published in The Monist for January, 1903; a series of articles on Mithraism, by Prof Franz Cumont, which appeared in The Open Court call special attention to the . during the year 1902 ity, by Albert J. ; a series of articles on the relation of Edmunds, which appeared years; "Gnosticism in in Buddhism The Open Court to Christian- for the past two Relation to Christianity" {Monist, July, 1898), an essay which proves that Gnosticism existed prior to Christianity, and that Christianity itself its was a Gnostic movement which by its superiority remained victorious accord- "The Food of Life and the Sacraand April, 1900, 1900), a discussion of the sacrament showing its relations to the ceremonies of sacramental God-eating and religious cannibalism in general; "The Personality of Jesus and His Historical Relation to Christianity" {Monist, July, 1900), including an allusion to the Resurrection problem; "The Greek Mysteries, A Preparation for Christianity" {Monist, 1900); "The Fairy-Tale Element in the Bible" {Monist, April, 1900, and July, 1900), containing translations of the Babylonian Creation and Deluge tablets Yahveh and Manitou " {Monist, April, 1899), comparing the beliefs of the nomadic Israelites and the American Indians, both being characteristic of a certain phase of man's religious evolution; "Jew and Gentile in Early Christianity" {Monist, January, 1901); "The Nativity" {Open Court, December, 1899), showing similarties "The Lord's Prayer " {Open Court, August, 1898); "Babylonian in religious art and Hebrew Views of Man's Fate After Death {Open Court, June, 1901); " Seven " {Open Court, June, 1901, and July, 1901), showing the Babylonian origin of the Pagan Elements of Christianity and the Signifisacredness of the number seven cance of Jesus" {Monist, April, 1902); " Alpha and Omega" {Open Court, October, 1902); " Zarathushtra " {Open Court, June, 1900); "Mithraism and Its Influence on Christianity" {Opeti Court, February, 1903). The climax is capped by an article, to appear in the next or the following Monist, by Hermann Gunkel, Professor of Old Testament Theology in the University of Berlin, and the well-known author of The Legends of Genesis, Commentary on Genesis, Creation and Chaos, and other productions of remarkable scholarship. He has written an article entitled "The Religio-Historical Interpretation of the New Testament," which is as bold and radical in outlining the nature ing to the law of the survival of the fittest; ment" {Monist, January, ' ; ' ; ' ; of the New Testament as is ' Dr. Delitzsch's article concerning the composition of the Old Testament. While we were preparing the present number of The Open Court, a pamphlet I THE OPEN COURT. 88 under the name The Age of Christ has been printed, and will be ready for the market within a few days. It discusses in brief outline the problem of the origin of Christianity, touching upon several of the problems discussed in the articles p. c. mentioned above. BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES. Beitrage zur Kritik des psychophysischen Parallelismus vom Standpunkte der Energetik. Von Edzvard Gleason Spaulding. Halle: Max Niemeyer. Pages, 1900. vii, 109. This essay was worked out in the psychological seminary of Prof. B. Erdmann of Bonn, and the Professor warns us in a prefatory remark attached generally to the labors of his scholars, that since they enjoy full liberty of investigation, he Spaulding criticises the thedepends upon definition, for ory of parallelism, although he grants that everything the word is utilised in various ways, sometimes as a correlation of two factors and sometimes as an extension of the law of energy. He accepts the main characteristics of parallelism according to the interpretation of Mach, Hering, and Miiller. must not be considered responsible He for their results. — Wundt and Sigwart, the former an opponent of the theory of main advocate and supporter; and finally comes to the conclusion that "not the psychical, the ego, the free will, or any Copernican standpoint, but the physical, energy, plays the main part in cosmic processes. Within the individConsciousness originates and passes away matter persists. opposes both parallelism, the latter its ' ; ual,' we can t ay with Fechner, 'physical conditions are active underneath the threshold and condition the causal connection.' are physiological elements of unequivocality, the soul of man, man." di etica. k. Di Giovanni Vidari, Professor Milan: Ulrico Hoepli. The mention the University of Moreover, the fate of consciousness, the moral course of the universe, which of entropy. irredeemably tied to is Ganglia, the ends of nerve fibres, they are subject to the law of energy, of conservation, and the law takes no account of Elementi ; 1902. all' Universita di Palermo, Pages, 334. The Elements of Ethics, by Giovanni Vidari, of Palermo, affords opportunity of commenting upon the great pubof this work, lishing activity of Italy, which, according to the statistics of the year just passed, produced more books than the United States. The series " Manuali Hoepli," of which Professor Vidari's book forms a volume, was begun in November, 1901, and now counts some 700 volumes, manuals of small format, running from 100 to 400 pages, and treating of every branch of science from mathematics and astronomy to agriculture, and of every branch of literature, law, history, language, education, The series is intended for independent stuart, industry, commerce, and sports. — dents and the general public, and containing many is international in its character to the extent of translations from the other languages of Europe. Professor a simple and popular exposition of the conception of ethics laid down in a larger work by him, and forms a compendium of the subject intended for young men in academies, high schools, and colleges, as well as for all educated persons desirous of obtaining an idea of the direction which the Vidari's work, here mentioned, modern study of ethics is is assuming.  (...truncated)