Religion 67
the former there is at least a core, a saving remnant, who
openly challenge the materialism of public or private policy;
and it is a vital nucleus of great power; it is an essential
element in the culture as apart from the external civilization
of the nation. While it cannot be maintained successfully
that religion is always and solely the source of the moral
force in a community, if its voice should be drowned with-
out hope of recovery, there would be little reason for ex-
pecting that a healthy judgment would long survive among
the people. And religious faith depends, if not in individual
cases yet by and large, upon institutional expression in
churches, just as the promotion of knowledge and beauty
depends upon the maintenance of schools, universities, mu-
seums, and galleries with their staffs. The extinction of
organized religion would be followed by dark ages dis-
astrous for culture, which is the soul of civilization, though
in the murk and the gloom there might be a sufficient num-
ber of individuals in whom the spiritual would still shine
strongly enough to allow the world, under their lead, in time
to grope its way back into daylight.
In the greatest periods from which our culture has been
derived religion has been a factor of much significance. I
shall refer to the Greek, the Roman, the Mediaeval, and
the Renaissance.
“From the period during which Greek architecture was
being built up to its maturity, say from the seventh century
B.C. to the completion of the Parthenon in the fifth century
B.C., the whole life of the Greek was coloured and dom-
inated by his religion and its observances. . . . He himself
was content to live in a poor house, so long as he had his
market-place, his ceremonial theatre, and the glorious tem-
ples of his gods. Moreover, to whatever depths the Athe-
nians may have sunk in the time of St. Paul, in the heroic