A. Religion implies man's union with God.
A. Religion implies man's union with God.
I. Religion (from the Latin religare – to bind back or fasten), taken in its widest sense, signifies a living union of man with God; or the homage paid to God by man's acknowledgment of, and submission, obedience and love towards His infinite majesty. We call this union a living one, because it is effected by the vital acts of man – by his thoughts, desires, and actions. Religion is called, by way of excellence, a bond or union; because, on the one hand, there is no other tie so noble, so powerful, so necessary; and, on the other hand, this bond is the foundation of every other human tie (St. Aug. de vera relig. c. 55, n. 111; Lactant. div. inst. IV, 28).
II. Religion may be considered either objectively (in its substance) or subjectively (in its exercise). Objectively considered, it consists in that assemblage of truths, laws, and precepts by which the living union of man with God is effected, and by which man's thoughts, desires, and actions in regard to God are actuated and governed. When a man rules his intellect and will – his thoughts, desires, and actions – according to these dictates, he is said to exercise religion.
We speak of a true religion, and of false religions. The true religion is that which pays to the true God that homage sanctioned by Himself or dictated by right reason. Those religions are false in which either a false god is worshiped or a false worship is paid to the true God. Thus idolatry is false, because it worships false gods; Protestantism is false, because it offers to the true God a false worship. The true religion alone deserves to bear the name of religion, because it puts man in the proper relation to God.
B. Religion is a strict obligation incumbent on man.
I. That man has the obligation, by submission, obedience, and love, to enter into a living union with God – that is, to practice religion, becomes evident on a little reflection.
(a) God exacts man's homage and, consequently, his submission and love. God in His infinite wisdom and sanctity must demand right order in all things. Now, order requires that the inferior beings should be subordinate to the Supreme, the creatures subservient to their Creator and Lord, each in accordance with its nature. But while irrational beings do the will of the Maker unconsciously and of necessity, man, endowed with reason and free will, then only subjects himself to God in a manner conformable to his nature when he uses God's gifts for the Giver, when with his intellect he acknowledges God's supremacy, and with his free will he fulfills God's law; when he loves God and seeks Him as his last end, and thus enters into living communion with Him.
(b) Man owes this homage to God. For man knows that God necessarily requires it. He knows that homage is due to the Infinite Being, submission to the Lord of lords, thanks to his supreme Benefactor, and love to the Sovereign Good. He knows, moreover, that in finite things he cannot find that happiness for which he is created, but only in the Infinite, and that this happiness is to be obtained only by submission to God and obedience to His holy will – in other words, by practicing religion.
II. The whole human race bears testimony to the obligation of worshiping God. All nations, both ancient and modern,
whether savage or civilized, by their altars and temples testify their conviction that homage is due to the Deity. This truth was too plain
not be recognized by all men. By the voice of conscience God Himself speaks so audibly that He cannot be unheard. Nor did it escape
the notice of philosophers that without the knowledge and worship of God, society itself could not subsist, and that religion,
though chiefly a union between man and God, is at the same time the strongest bond of human society, and the basis of all social virtues.
They all plainly perceived that justice could not exist without religion. Without justice,
in the words of St. Augustine,
states are nothing else than large bands of robbers, as bands of robbers are nothing else but little states
(de Civ. Dei, IV, 4).
Hence the universally acknowledged principle that religion should claim the foremost place in our attention; hence the conviction that he who
undermines religion brings ruin upon society at large and is an enemy of his country.
It follows, therefore, that religion is a necessary result of our rational nature, or that man from the very fact of his being endowed with reason owes to God the tribute of homage. Religion does not, as a matter of fact, rest upon reason alone, since God from the beginning vouchsafed to man a special revelation, traces of which are to be found in the religious systems of all nations.
As religion is the outcome of rational nature, it cannot be regarded as a result or prejudice of education. It would be rather singular that the same prejudice should exist among all nations. Moreover, prejudices are laid aside in maturer life, and are not shared by the more enlightened. Nor can we attribute the origin of religion to the imposition of law-givers, who might recognize in it a salutary restraint for subjects. For, that all legislators should happen to hit upon the same expedient, unless it were founded in the nature of things, is in itself improbable; still more improbable is it that such a measure could have obtained such universality and permanence. Besides, we find religion even among savage tribes, with whom there is, properly speaking, no trace of legislation. We find it before all political institutions, at the very cradle of the human race. And where revolutions have destroyed political institutions, religion still maintains its footing. Nor can a vague and groundless fear on the part of man have given rise to religion; for it has been practiced not merely by timid minds. Religion is not only the expression of fear, but of joy and gratitude as well. We love to call God the All-bountiful (Deus Optimus Maximus). We fear Him, it is true, as the just Judge, because rational nature recognizes Him as such. It is the knowledge of God, thus urged upon us by reason, which is the source of religion in general, as well as the cause of the fear of God's justice.
C. Religion may be natural or supernatural.
Religion, objectively considered, may be natural or supernatural, according as its substance and the manner in which it is communicated are natural or supernatural.
I. If religion embraced only such truths and obligation as rest on the fact that God is an infinite Being, the Creator of the universe, and of man in particular, endowed as he is with reason and free will, it would be natural in substance; for man would, in that case, acknowledge, honor, and imitate God's perfections only in as far as God would have revealed them to him through creation. Natural religion would teach, for instance, that God is wise, powerful, bountiful; that there is a difference between good and evil; that we owe God homage; that murder and theft are wrong, etc.
A man who reflects on himself and on nature around him may gain such truths by the light of reason; and therefore, we may say that the substance of natural religion consists in those truths and obligations which may be arrived at merely by the light of reason.
II. If the truths and precepts which form the contents of natural religion were manifested only through creation, religion would be natural both in substance and in the manner of communication. But if God makes known these truths and obligations by other means than creation, namely, by speaking to us directly Himself, or indirectly through His messengers – in short, by a special positive revelation – that religion which is natural in substance becomes, owing to the manner in which it is communicated, supernatural in form.
III. If a religion contains truths regarding God which cannot be arrived at by the consideration of created things, or institutions or precepts which depend on God's free will, it is, owing to these contents, which transcend the natural order, supernatural in substance.
God can, for instance, reveal Himself as the Trinity – a truth which He has not manifested through nature. He can impose upon us certain obligations which are not founded alone upon our relations to Him as our Creator; He can destine us for a happiness consisting in the immediate contemplation of His Divine Essence, while our natural end would be a knowledge of God obtained through the contemplation of His creatures. Now, man is not by nature fitted for the immediate contemplation of God. This is a gift of a higher order, which he cannot acquire by the exertion of his natural energies, a reward which he could not merit by the greatest efforts of his natural will. God's goodness alone can propose this reward to him, and, by supernatural aid, make it possible for him to obtain it.
A religion supernatural in substance is necessarily supernatural also in form, i.e., revealed; because its substance cannot be inferred from nature by the exercise of reason, but must be communicated by divine revelation. We shall show in following articles that the Christian religion is supernatural in both these respects.
D. The science of religion surpasses all others in excellence.
A mere knowledge of religious truths and obligations, such as every Christian ought to possess, is to be distinguished from the science or more perfect knowledge of religion. Religious knowledge deserves the name of science then only when, after having proved the existence of a divine revelation, and consequently, the truth of religion itself, it proceeds to demonstrate the various truths of revelation from their sources, establishes its conclusion one upon another, and constructs the whole into a harmonious system. Thus the science of religion has the same functions as any other, with this difference – that, while other sciences take their principles from reason, religion takes its fundamental truths from revelation.
The excellency of a science depend chiefly upon the certainty with which it establishes its conclusions; for certainty alone affords the mind full satisfaction. Next comes into account the dignity of the subject-matter, and, if it pursues a practical end, also the importance of its object. In each of these respects, the science of religion excels all others, and consequently deserves to be called the queen of sciences.
I. The science of religion affords the highest and fullest certainty conceivable. For the truths upon which it rests are attested to by the authority, that is, by the wisdom and the truthfulness of God Himself, while the principles of other sciences rest upon the light of reason. As far, then, as God's intelligence surpasses the knowledge of man, so far does the certainty of the science of religion excel that of other sciences.
II. The subject-matter of which the science of religion chiefly treats is God; and everything else comes into consideration only as far as it relates to God. Yet the subject-matter of this sacred science is still more perfect from the fact that it is presented to us, not only in the light of reason, but in a light which transcends all our natural powers. The science of religion unfolds truths which no finite intellect of itself can grasp. And it is in this chiefly that it excels all the other sciences. For, although the mind cannot penetrate those mysteries which go beyond its sphere, yet it is more ennobled even by the merest glimpse of them than by the result of all human sciences together.
III. The science of religion, in giving us precepts regarding our conduct, pursues the noblest of all objects – our future happiness, consisting in the direct contemplation of God. Though pagan philosophers may have laid down laws of morality, and though they may have aimed at leading man to a state of happiness, yet they generally knew not that man's happiness consisted in the possession of God, or, if they did know it, still that happiness, consisting in the beatific vision of God, which religion alone enables us to obtain, was unknown to them.
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