In a general survey of pagan natural religions, we come to the
conclusion that all these religions represent in themselves the history of the
natural development of religious consciousness of ancient man. Each individual
religion fixed on some one aspect of this development which was the nearest to
the spirit of its people. A full expression of the true substance of religion,
however, is represented neither by any one of them nor by all of them taken
together. Every different religion had its sources, its golden age, and its
decline. The sources of all religions bear witness to the fact that the
Ancestral Religion contained the ideal of monotheism. The golden age of a
religion was often preceded by the personality of a reformer (for example,
Confucius, Lao-tse, Buddha, Zoroaster). The decline of
a religion, however, for the most part, was related to later times, as each
individual religious system of ancient times outlived its contents. The dying
out of a religion — if not of the whole cult and its rites, then of its very
spirit or essence — most vividly bears witness to the absence within it of
authentic revelation.
If, in the
Chinese religion, God is almost in no way different from the world, in the
Hindu religion, He is represented as somewhat different from the world even
though He is still impersonal and not fully separated. In the Persian religion,
there are already tendencies toward the idea of a personal God. And, finally,
in the religion of the Greeks and Romans, personality becomes a necessary
condition of divinity. Already among the Greeks and Romans there is not the overwhelming
force subjugating man to external nature characteristic of the ancient East.
Absent, for the most part, too, are the bloody cults of ancient oriental
paganism.
In view of this,
the ancient pagan religions portray more than just a series of continuous
fallacies. The Holy Fathers reckoned that the pagan world was not excluded by
the design of God from the circle of divine care. Although not having
supernatural Revelation, the pagan world was not deprived of natural
revelation. With the correct use of the natural abilities of his spirit, man
can have definite knowledge of God, of the world, and of himself. In addition,
having an innate idea of God in his mind and an inborn knowledge of the Divine
Will in his conscience, man was capable of realizing the limits of his
knowledge and, by a spiritual renunciation, was capable of looking for aid from
above. However, paganism did not utilize all the possibilities of natural
religious development. Pagan religion could have been considerably higher and
purer than it was in fact.
Therefore, the
Apostle Paul regards as answerable before the countenance of divine truth not
only the Hebrews, who had the law given through supernatural revelation, but
also the pagans, who, while not having the same revelation, were not left
without natural means of knowing God. For that reason, from a strictly
religious point of view, pagan religions will forever remain monuments,
witnessing not only the weakness of man’s mind and the poverty of his spiritual
feeling, but also the presence of a fateful corruption of man’s will. All
systems of ancient religions are guilty of distorting both the theoretical and
the practical principles of true religion and ethics, of mixing a portion of
truth with a mass of fallacies. Therefore, we do not find one among them in
which we would be given a correct understanding of God, the world, and the
spiritual nature of man.
The religions of
paganism did not elevate their followers to an intellectual worship of God.
Among the most prominent and learned ancient thinkers, we do not see any who
would have taught the people religious truth. The thinkers that were most
prominent in mental and moral qualities openly acknowledged their complete
helplessness in solving such a problem. The highest attainment of ancient man
is acknowledged in the teaching of Socrates and Plato that there is not
anything more important than the true perception of God, which perception can
only be given by God Himself. In the language of contemporary thought, this
implied a theoretical recognition of the inadequacies and limitations of
natural, human means for perceiving the truth of God, and a
recognition of divine Revelation as the only adequate method of
perceiving this truth.