304. ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
accept the interpretation of religion as given by Jesus,! but again 
turns aside from all super-naturalism although apparently he 
rejects the religion of naturalism.? 
On the whole Ross seems to consider religion to be an idealiza- 
tion of social relations and experiences, and one of the most potent 
factors in securing both order and progress. ‘‘ A body of religious 
belief of the kind I have described [the faith that makes for ethical 
religion] ”’, he says, “is a storage battery of moral emotion. It 
is a means of storing up for society the moral energy of the ethical 
élite, and enabling it to do work by producing sociable emotions 
and modifying conduct in desirable ways.” ® 
Comparing the value of social religion with other means of 
social control he says: “‘ The palm must always belong to that 
influence which goes to the root of man’s badness, and by giving 
him more interests and sympathies converts a narrow self into a 
broad self.” * He concludes that “ social religion has a long and 
possibly a great career awaiting it.” ‘‘ As it disengages itself 
from that which is transient and perishable,” he continues, ‘‘ as 
the dross is purged away from its beliefs and the element of social 
compulsion entirely disappears from it, social religion will be- 
come purer and nobler. No longer a paid ally of the policeman, 
no longer a pillar of social order, it will take its unquestioned place 
with art, and science, and wisdom, as one of the free manifesta- 
tions of the higher human spirit.” 
IDEALIZATION AND RELIGION ACCORDING TO BALDWIN 
Professor Baldwin’s Social and Ethical Interpretations * so 
abounds in material bearing on this phase of our subject that 
selection or a brief summary is difficult. 
The imagination, according to our author, is not merely con- 
structive in its activity but “creative” for the products of its 
activity are ‘“‘ new forms into which the materials of our thought 
are cast as a result of variations in our actions in the process of 
1 Social Control, pp. 204 f. 
? Ibid., p. 213. The Religion of Naturalism is not given the best possible 
interpretation. 
3 [bid., p. 212. 4 Ibid., p. 216. 5 Also his Individual and Society. 
