ABSTRACT
By the time of the appearance of Christianity, we have found that there existed, and had existed for almost three millenia, a pattern of thought and action which had gripped and continued to grip the minds and emotions of men from the Persian Gulf far to the western gates of the Mediterranean. In the course of these millenia, and under the impact of the deep-seated needs of many peoples, this pattern underwent many significant changes, and particularly in the direction of symbolization and spiritualization. I do not mean to suggest that this process of adaptation was of the character of inevitable progress from superstition to religion, but, on the whole, the movement may be seen as proceeding in that direction. This statement, however, implies no more than that, as various peoples took up the myth and ritual pattern and adapted it to their needs in terms of their special characters, they built on the efforts of their predecessors and in the course of time refined out the dross, leaving the pattern clear and capable of sustaining and symbolizing the most elevated ideas, and particularly is this true of the Hebrews; more than this I do not mean to suggest, nor do I wish to be thought of saying that the process of refinement was inherent in the process of history as an inevitable development which slowly but surely prepared the way for the emergence of Christianity. Such an attitude does a grave injustice to the character of the peoples who left their imprint on the pattern; it makes them out to be the pliable and lifeless clay being worked by an omniscient creator, without force and vitality of their own; it sees Christianity as the final stage in the evolu-tion of man’s spiritual hopes and abruptly stops the process of history at that point, everything from that time on being regarded as retrogressive, even futile. But the myth and ritual pattern seems capable of yet further transformations, for neither man nor history stops; new conditions produce new needs for which new solutions, based on old experience and fresh insight, are brought forward; man keeps on remaking himself. To think of God as dwelling in the inter-stices of history through which he silently performs his will is to deny to man that which distinguishes him from the rest of creation—his ability to transform himself when he wills to do so.
