CONFERENCE ON LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE EMPIRE From left to right: Rev. Tyssul Davis: Dr. Margoliouth; Sir Francis Younghusband; Sir Thomas Arnold (Vice-Chairman); Sir E. Frontispiece to The Open Court. A MONTHLY MAGAZINE Devoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, and VOL. XXXVIII (No. 12) DECEMBER, 1924 Copyright by THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1924 (No. 823) EDITORIAL One of the objects for which THE OPEN COURT was founded was that of fostering the Religious Parliament Idea. Much has happened since the first Parliament of this kind was held in Chicago in 1893. At that time only a few pioneers of human unity foresaw the possibility that a new science-the science of comparative religion-might one day be born. It seemed incredible that men might achieve more light and less heat, and so reach a stage at which they could study with sympathetic understanding the beliefs of those outside their own faiths. "It has been claimed," wrote Dr. Paul Carus, in THE MONIST for 1893, "that it is impossible to study religious subjects with impartiality." But he added, "we must make it possible." To that end this magazine has been dedicated. The winning of this power of dispassionate study has not been easy; nor is the battle completely won, for all men and women, even now. Speakers at Conferences of Religions have not always been able to refrain from exalting their own religion above others; but at the London Conference of Living Religions within the Empire it was notable. that no single instance of this occurred. Each of the speakers, with the utmost variety of view and belief, scrupulously confined himself to a plain statement of what his religion was, and of what he personally found in it of help and guidance. No doubt the tendency towards unity in the Christian churches has formed a basis for toleration of other beliefs, and even laid the foundation for the appreciation of the special good in other faiths; but many other civilizing influences have played their part. It is, indeed, the mark of a truly civilized society that its members possess sufficiently balanced and controlled personalities to be able to tolerate those with fundamentally different beliefs from their own. Under the variations they see the common human stuff. Nay, by their frank and unheated acceptance of difference they assert a fundamental human solidarity. We hope that the account of the London Conference to which the greater portion of this number of THE OPEN COURT is devoted will serve as a call to action in America. Conferences have been held, since the Chicago meeting, in Paris, Basel, Oxford, Leiden, and now London. The circle would be completed by another Parliament of Religions in America. We have spoken of civilizing forces; but there are also in our modern world forces of division and ignorance. In the battle against these all men and women of goodwill must be enlisted. A PARLIAMENT OF LIVING RELIGIONS AN ACCOUNT OF THE "CONFERENCE ON SOME LIVING RELIGIONS WITHIN THE EMPIRE," HELD AT THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 22ND TO OCTOBER 3RD, 1924. BY WILLIAM LOFTUS HARE I I. INTRODUCTORY N WRITING about anything faintly resembling The World's Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, it is inevitable that one should go back in thought to that great event, even though to do so may seem to Americans like "carrying coals to Newcastle." Time, however, has brought with it a new generation, one which-if I may venture to speculate-hardly goes back in its reminiscence to 1893, and can afford to be reminded of a great historic incident. Many influences led to the attempt to hold a Congress in which, not the votaries of one faith or sect alone should assemble, but the representatives of many. The most potent of these influences was undoubtedly the general zeitgeist of the nineties. The hopes fostered by the Great Exhibition of 1851 had been largely disappointed. The world of humanity had not been brought into a haven of peace by the process of buying and selling of merchandise; it had, it is true, learned more about its own psychological structure, its diverse political and commercial aims. Science, more than commerce, was uniting men who by many forces were otherwise kept apart; and religion was already fully under the speculative eyes of science, whose glance was partly critical and partly friendly. The seventies and eighties witnessed the most notable attempt to bring before the peoples the contents of the Sacred Books of the East and the Science of Comparative Religion attained to its second birth. But there was in the nineties a popular and a moral movement towards a greater understanding among peoples-or at least a wish for mutual understanding-which was more influential than either Commerce or Science; the amateur and the idealist as well as the specialist claimed the right to know, to admire, and to be heard. It was at this moment that "The World's Fair," as it was popularly called, was opened at Chicago in 1893. It had to be, of course. greater than anything else of its kind; and one of its marks of greatness, as of novelty, was "The World's Parliament of Religions." The objects proposed were as follows: 1. To bring together in conference, for the first time in history, the leading representatives of the great Historic Religions of the world. 2. To show to men, in the most impressive way, what and how many important truths the various religions held and teach in com mon. 3. To promote and deepen the spirit of human brotherhood among religious men of diverse faiths, through friendly conference and mutual good understanding, while not seeking to foster the temper of indifferentism, and not striving to achieve any formal and outward unity. 4. To set forth, by those most competent to speak, what are deemed the important distinctive truths held and taught by each religion, and by the various chief branches of Christendom. 5. To indicate the impregnable foundations of theism and the reasons for man's faith in immortality, and thus to unite and strengthen the forces which are adverse to a materialistic philosophy of the universe. 6. To secure from leading scholars, representing the Brahman. Buddhist, Confucian, Parsee, Mohammedan, Jewish and other faiths, and from representatives of the various churches of Christendom, full and accurate statements of the spiritual and other effects of the religions which they hold upon the literature, art, commerce. government, domestic and social life of the peoples among whom these faiths have prevailed. 7. To inquire what light each religion has afforded, or may afford, to the other religions of the world. 8. To set forth, for permanent record to be published to the world, an accurate and authoritative account of the present condition and outlook of religion among the leading nations of the earth. 9. To discover, from competent men, what light religion has to throw on the great problems of the present age, especially the important questions connected with temperance, labor, education, wealth and poverty. |