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 IDOLATRY

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IDOLATRY

assigns to the idolatry prevalent in his time and en- vironment, are sufficient to account for the origin of all idolatry. Man's love for sense images is not a vagary but a necessity of his mind. Nothing is in the intellect that has not previously passed through the senses. All thought that transcends the sphere of direct sense knowledge is clothed in material gar- ments, be they only a word or a mathematical symbol. Likewise, the knowledge of things impervious to our senses, that comes to us by revelation, is communi- cated and received through the senses external or internal, and is further elaborated by comparison with notions evolved from sense perceptions; all our knowledge of the supernatural proceeds by analogy with the natural. Thus, throughout the Old Testa- ment God reveals Himself in the likeness of man, and in the New, the Son of God, assuming human nature, speaks to us in parables and similitudes. Now, the human mind, when sufficiently ripe to receive the notion of God, is already stocked with natural imagery in which it clothes the new idea. That the limited mind of man cannot adequately represent, picture, or conceive the infinite perfection of God, is self-evi- dent. If left to his own resources, man will slowly and imperfectly develop the obscure notion of a supe- rior or supreme power on which his well-being depends and whom he can conciliate or offend. In this process intervenes the second cause of idolatry: ignorance. The Supreme Power is apprehended in the works and workings of nature; in sun and stars, in fertile fields, in animals, in fancied invisible influences, in powerful men. And there, among the secondary causes, the "groping after God " may end in the worship of sticks and stones. St. Paul told the Athenians that God had "winked at the times of this ignorance " during which they erected altars "To the unknown God", which implies that lie had compassion on their ignorance and sent them the light of truth to reward their good intention (.\cts, xvii, 22-31). As soon as the be- nighted heathen has located his unknown god, love and fear, which are but the manifestations of the instinct of self-preservation, shape the cultus of the idol into sacrifices or other congenial religious practices. Ignorance of the First Cause, the need of images for fixing higher conceptions, the instinct of self-preservation — these are the psychological causes of idolatry.

Idolatry in Israel. — The worship of one God is inculcated from the first to the last page of the Bible. How long man, on the strength of the revelation trans- mitted by Adam and subsequently by Noe, adored God in spirit and truth is an insoluble problem. Mono- theism, however, appears to have been the starting- point of all religious systems known to us through trustworthy documents. The Animism, Totemism, Fetishism of the lower races; the nature- worship, ancestor-worship, anil hero-worship of civilized na- tions are hybrid forms of religion, evolved on the psychological lines indicated above; all are incar- nations in the uncultured or cultured mind, and mani- festations of one fundamental notion, namely, that there is above man a power on whom man is dependent for good and evil. Polytheism is born of the confu- sion of second causes with the First Cause; it grows in inverse ratio of higher mental faculties; it dies out under the clear light of reason or revelation. The first undoubted mention of idolatry in the Bible is in Genesis, xxxi, 19: "Rachel stole away her father's idols [teraphim]", and when Laban overtook Jacob in his flight and made search for " his gods", Rachel " in haste hid the idols under the camel's furniture, and sat upon them" (xxxi, 34). Yet Laban also worshipped the same God as Jacob, whose blessing he acknowl- edges (xxx, 27), and on whom he calls to judge lie- tween him and Jacob (xxxi, 53). A similar practice of blending reverence to the true God with the idola- trous worship of surrounding nations runs through

the whole hi.story of Israel. When Moses delayed to come down from the holy mount, the people, " gather- ing together against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go before us". And Aaron made a molten calf, "and they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And . . . they offered holocausts, and peace victims, and the people sat down to eat, and drink, and they rose up to play" (Exodus, xxxii, 1 sqq.). In Settim " the people committed fornication with the daughters of Moab, . . . and adored their gods. And Israel was initiated to Beelphegor" (Numbers, xxv, 1-3). Again, after the death of Josue, " the children of Israel . . . served Baalim . . . and they followed strange gods, and the gods of the people "that dwelt round aljout them" (Judges, ii, 11 sq.). Whenever the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of Jehovah, swift retri- bution overtook them; they were given into the hands of their enemies. Yet idolatry remained the na- tional sin down to the times of the Machabees. This striking fact has for its causes, first, the natural endeavour of man to come in contact with the oliject of his worship; he wants gods that go before him, visi- ble, tangible, easily accessible; in the case of the Israelites the strict prohibition of worshipping images added to idolatry the allurement of the forbidden fruit; secondly, the allurement of the pleasures of the flesh offered to the worshippers of the strange divinities; thirdly, mixed marriages, occasionally on a large scale; fourthly, the intercourse in peace and war and exile with powerful neighljours who attri- buted their prosperity to other gods than Jehovah. The less enlightened Israelites probalily conceived of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "their God", Who laid no claim to universal rule. If so, they may frequently have become idolaters for the sake of temporal advantage.

But why tlid God permit such deviations from the truth? If in His judgment idolatry, as practised by the Jews, is the unmitigated evil which it appears to our judgment, no satisfactory answer can be given to this question, it is the eternal problem of sin and evil. The best that can be said is that the constantly re- curring cycle of sin, punishment, repentance, forgive- ness, were for God the occasion of a magnificent display of justice, mercy, and longanimity; to the Chosen People a constant reminder of their need of a Redeemer; to the members of the Kingdom of Christ a type of God's dealings with sinners. It may also be pleaded that idolatry in Israel had more the character of ignorant superstition than of contempt of Jehovah. Like the superstitious or quasi-superstitious practices and devotions to which even Christian populations are prone, much of the idolatrous cult in Israel was an excess of piety, rather than an act of impiety, to- wards the Supreme Power distinctly felt but dimly understood. The well-meant but ill-directed worship never became the religion of Israel; it was never more than a temporary invasion of extraneous reUgious practices, often deeply overlaying the national re- ligion, but never completely supplanting it. As a last consideration, the punishment of idolatry in Israel was always national and temporal. The proph- ets held out no eternal bliss or eternal torments as incentives to faithful service of God. And the Prophet of prophets, Christ the Judge, may well repeat from the seat of judgment the words He spoke on the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

Idolatry among the Heathen. — The causes at work in the genesis of idolatry have produced effects as varied and manifold as the human family itself. The original idea of God has taken in the mind of man all the distorted and fanciful forms which a liquid is liable to assume in a collapsible vessel, or clay in the potter's hands. As, in the course of ages, the power of healing has been attributed to almost every substance