The Sphere of Religion 269 



But, on the other hand, should we define gods more vaguely 

 as unseen powers, while our definition would then cover all 

 religion, it would include much else. Magic is also belief in 

 unseen powers, and magic has been sharply distinguished from 

 religion by the most profoundly religious persons, such as the 

 Hebrew prophets. Further, there is a wide range of belief in 

 vague unseen influences, such as has recently been called the 

 " numinous," which may be merely the " spooky " and have no 

 necessary connection with religion. 



More recently the observance of some kind of worship or cult 

 has been regarded as the distinctive characteristic of religion. For 

 example, it has been argued that there is no common element in all 

 forms of Christianity except that Jesus has been the centre of all 

 forms of its cults, and that, so long as this continue, it will remain, 

 in spite of all its variety, one religion. And this importance of the 

 ritual could be maintained with still more certainty for other 

 religions, such as Confucianism or Brahmanism. 



But, even if the cult could be regarded as the mark of a par- 

 ticular religion, it could not, by any narrowing of the meaning of 

 the word, be made to exclude all that is not religious. There are 

 elements in many cults which are mere social traditions, and not in 

 any strict sense religious. Still less can it, by any stretching of the 

 meaning of the word, be made to include all that is religious. 

 There have been beliefs which have been the more religious for 

 remaining a secret of the heart, except in so far as they may work a 

 visible change in the believer ; and there are practices which have 

 been the more religious for turning attention from pubHc cere- 

 monies to common human relations. The most conspicuous 

 example in history is the religion of the Hebrew prophets, who 

 constantly declared that a religion marked only by the cult was 

 mere profane trampling God's courts, and who made no attempt 

 to replace the existing cult by a better, but declared that true 

 religion was to do justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with 

 one's God. Nor, though Jesus visited the synagogue and the 

 temple, can it be said that his religion had much to do with either. 

 In face of these examples to the contrary, it cannot be, as has been 

 maintained, that what makes doctrines religious and not merely 

 philosophical, and practices religious and not merely ethical, is 

 their relation to the cult. 



