244 Evolution of Theology. 



nevei'theless really, the Unity of the Godhead. It is possi- 

 ble to form an almost complete system of monotheism 

 from the Greek and Latin authors, which fact, if it does not 

 prove that such a system had been precipitated into dogma, 

 at least shows that it floated in the classic mind. * * * 

 Among the barbarous races of Africa and America, from 

 behind the veil of niyth, flash occasional gleams from the 

 face of the One God." To the instances collated by him 

 we may add the Dyaus-Pitar of Vedic mythology. The dis- 

 cussion, for and against Prof. Max Muller's claim that this 

 is a true monotheistic conception, whichever way determined, 

 serves to bring into relief the truth our author insists upon. 



Before passing to a brief further word on Hebrew mono- 

 theism, we must take note of an intermediate development ; 

 that is, intermediate in the development of theistic ideas, — 

 viz., the dualistic theologies. Of these we recognize three 

 schools : the strict theistic dualism of the Persians, the 

 mythological dualism of the Gnostics and the philosophical 

 dualism of the !N^eo-Platonists and the Kabbalists. Dualism 

 is simply a step in advance beyond polytheism, and, in the 

 natural sequence of religious thought, it issues in monothe- 

 ism. In Dualism, the factors, or at least the leading factors 

 in the system are reduced to two, — again a proof of the 

 tendency of the mind to progress from lesser to wider gen- 

 eralizations. In the case of the Persian religion, the duali- 

 ty was based upon the mutually opposing principles of Good 

 and Evil, which, as embodied and personified respectively 

 in Ormuzd and Ahriman, constituted a true theistic dualism ; 

 although, as subordinate to these, inferior deities, proceed- 

 ing from the highest by emanation, were admitted to exist. 

 The Gnostic systems, both the Syrian and Alexandrian, and 

 the later more abstruse Neo-Platonism, with all their mani- 

 fold unreal speculations and factitious systems, rested funda- 

 mentally upon the conception of Mind as opposed to Matter, 

 and of Absolute Being as opposed to the world-phenomena. 

 The philosophical interest for the history of religious thought 

 in all these, is in the efforts therein made to solve the 

 problems of apparent diversity in an underlying Unity, and 

 to account for the reason of the existence of antagonistic 

 forces in Man and Nature. 



It was not so much that the Hebrew prepared the way 

 for the reception of monotheism as a philosophical idea, but 

 that he infused into this idea a profoundly religious and 



