An American Buddhist[1]
From time to time articles appear in Indian, European and American papers, comparing Theosophy and Christianity, which show an entire misconception of the meaning of the word “Theosophy” on the part of the writers. One such writer in an entirely friendly article writes but recently: “Theosophy seeks to develop the power of spiritual vision; Christianity presents to the soul’s opened eye satisfaction for its sight. Theosophy, is search for divine wisdom; Christianity is incorporation into its very being.’’
What does the writer mean by the term “Christianity?” Does he mean the Roman Catholic, the Episcopal, the Baptist, the Methodist, the Mormon Church, or any other of the many denominations, each of which claims to be in the possession of the only true doctrine; or does he mean Christianity in its highest aspect, defined as “The doctrines and precepts taught by Jesus Christ.” Undoubtedly he means the last. If so, then if we closely examine the matter, leaving aside the question whether or not the biblical Jesus ever existed, we will, find that pure Christianity, divested of all extraneous matter, is nothing else but pure Theosophy. Remove all the ornaments (or disfigurements, whichever you please), which in the course of time have been hung around the shining body of true Christianity by the prejudices and misconceptions of unenlightened writers and the naked truth will stand forth, proving that the real founder of Christianity, whatever his name may have been, cannot have been anything else but a being full of divine wisdom, or in other words a real Theosophist.
Taken in this sense—and only in this sense can it have any consistent meaning,—Theosophy and Christianity cannot be compared with each other, because Theosophy is simply the complement or the perfection of Christianity as well as of every other religion. Take away from Christianity the element of Divine Wisdom, and there will be nothing left but a formless mass of unauthenticated tales, misunderstood allegories, myths copied from other and more ancient systems, clerical dogmas and priestly assumptions. “Theosophy” is the divine light (at least that is what we mean by the word), without which no religious system can exist, and every religion is more or less permeated by its rays, which can be seen in spite of all the “theological” rubbish, wherewith priestly ignorance, has covered them in its blind effort to hide truth from the sight of the unenlightened masses.
Theosophy in its highest aspect is Religion confirmed by Science, and Science confirmed by Religion. The union of Religion and Science produces knowledge and knowledge establishes Faith. The highest development of the intellect leads to understanding and Faith; but Faith does not belong to the plane of mere Intellect. Men of the highest intellect have their faith confirmed by Reason; but reasoning from the material sphere alone, does not necessarily establish Faith. Faith belongs not, to the mere Intellect, it belongs to the spirit and can be obtained to a certain extent by the ignorant as well as the wise. But in the case of the ignorant; their, faith is always liable to be overturned by the injudicious use of their reason, while in the case of the true Theosophist, faith is firmly built on the rock of knowledge and understanding.
Truth is intuitively perceived by every healthy and unperverted mind. “Out of the mouth of babes shall come wisdom,” &c. and “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” But as a child grows up, Dogmatism, Bigotry and Sophistry step in and lead the mind astray. They dress it up and cut its wings and prevent its flight to the true source of all being; they blind-fold it and lead it from one door of the lodge-room to another, and fortunate is he, who in spite of all those self-appointed “guides,” finally finds his way to the eternal light.
Those that are gifted with spiritual wisdom will find their way; but those who desire to arrive at the truth by intellectual reasoning, have a long and weary road to travel. If they wish to find out which religious system is right and which is wrong, they must not only study one religious system, but they must study them all. They must study “comparative theology,” and in the end they will find that each of the various religious systems, has a certain amount of truth, on which it is based, and that this truth is one and the same in all systems, and only differs in degree; while the different superstructures which have been built upon this eternal truth, and upon which they all rest, are all more or less imperfect. These superstructures reared by imperfect man are the ones about which priests and bigots, philosophers, materialists and “theologians” have been wrangling and fighting and burning and killing each other for thousands of years. They are the ornaments hung around the beautiful form of the naked truth; but instead of adding to its beauty, they often only desecrate its body and hide its shining light under a more or less elaborately manufactured cloak, and its worshippers become idolators; because instead of beholding the truth, they adore the dress in which they have put it themselves.
To perceive the truth, or in other words to become a Theosophist in fact and not only in name, is to enter the right path in life and to progress forward unimpeded by any inherited or artificially acquired hankering after old superstitions; it is to make persistent efforts, on the part of Man’s higher nature, to arrange and organise into a system the various delusions and superstitions (the net product of human ignorance) of the different races in such a manner as to lessen or destroy their retarding and otherwise baneful influence on mankind. Theosophy attempts to rebuild the temple of the Spirit that has been destroyed. It is not her object to dispute about absurdities.
The various Christian sects have been denouncing and fighting each other so long, that the more intelligent classes have retired in disgust from the arena. The Christian “Churches” are no more a religious body, but have degenerated into mere social and financial organisations. The divine spirit has left their temples, driven from thence by the money changers and mountebanks, and the places of worship have become merely places for “religious” amusement.
To restore Christianity as well as all other religions to their original purity, to infuse Divine Wisdom into the cold material forms of dead systems, or perhaps better said, to gather what life is left in all the various systems and to construct from that one all embracing universal system of love and brotherhood, infused by wisdom and devoid of superstition, to strive to get rid of the hallucinations of the middle ages and to elevate man to the proper sphere to which he belongs, is the object of Theosophy, and those that properly understand the term will not only find the same not contradictory to their highest religious sentiments but eminently expressive of the same. To understand what Theosophy means is to become a Theosophist.
Notes
[1] Theosophy and Christianity. An American Buddhist [Franz Hartmann, M.D.]. The Theosophist 5, no. 7 (April 1884), 166-167. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2020}