401 religious encyclopedia nationalism

all religion, and are, in part, symbolic in signifi­

cance. For the greater multitude, the essential in

religion manifests itself in these forms of worship;

and, though they can not originate, they may rein­

force the content, specially in communal fellow­

ship. As the incorporation of the religious spirit

of the community, they are symbols of unity as well

as the medium of consensus on articles of belief.

Through both, objective religion is constituted. It

is striking how those who have rejected the previ­

ous metaphysics and all objective religion, like A.

Comte, nevertheless revert to the construction of

a ritual to the minutest detail, embracing both

prayer and sacrament. Outward worship, though

indispensable to objective religion, is not absolutely

such to subjective religion. Those who. realize su­

preme satisfaction in inner communion with the

highest superhuman and feel themselves freed from

all bodily and spiritual necessities may be said to

possess religion, although they do not bring their

inner, states to outward representative acts of

manifestation. For many the external must be re­

garded as a great aid in mediating the subjective

with its supreme infinite object, though it be not

regarded as essential. Self expression is only nat­

ural, and the continued association of form with

spirit clothes it with a validity that seems indis­

pensable to the inner life.

To generalize from the foregoing, it may be said

that religion pertains to the entire soul life. It is

practical not theoretical; though the

g. General  latter is warranted in the sphere of

ization. representation. The religious process

opening with a feeling of necessity

proceeds to desire of relief and happiness, and cul­

minates in the reconciliation of the aim with the

transcendent or immanent infinite. Optimism and

pessimism are thus interrelated. Redemption (or

salvation) is the most adequate term in the relig 

ious vocabulary. It implies first something to be released from, then, in succession, the inclination, the inmost yearning, and the final attainment. Law and Gospel, sin and grace, are the antitheses in Christianity, to be reconciled in salvation; the latter appearing also in Buddhism, although, as also in,the Kantian ethics, here man must save himself. Although the common principle of all re­ligions, from the lowest fetishism, is the aspiration for redemption, yet the representation of the higher powers as the objective of the desire is very much diversified; variously, according to geographical situation, customs, stages of civilization, as also the creative imagination, and, specially, according to the tremendous influence  of divinely gifted per­sonalities as mediators of a revelation, who deepen, illumine, and inspire, not only the representations but also the entire religious life. In Christianity thus is presented the God man as Redeemer. Though representations are indispensable to relig­ion, subjective and objective, yet they can not claim to belong to the concept or essence of religion. Monotheism may or must be assumed to satisfy religious requirement; yet it is not exclusively the only religious form. In the sphere of represents, tion evolution takes place, while the essential re­mains constant. On the whole, it is to be assumed that evolution was ascending toward the purer and more spiritual; but it is uncertain whether the orig­inal form was not monotheistic, and there was a downward process. Ethnic religions would not then be primitive, but degenerate growths. To regard henotheism as primitive is impossible because it can occur only with polytheism. Proper is it, indeed, not to assume only one primitive form but various forms that have developed gradually in different zones.

To estimate the relative truth value of religion, it is necessary to distinguish between the religions that turn toward a higher universal for redemption and those that seek it by themselves. The latter

are represented by Buddhism, al 

b. Relative though this soon, for the greater Estimation. masses, reverted to the other form. The question of truth depends on whether its aim is actualized, and there is no doubt that this comes to reality in experience. The same standard must hold true for the other' religions as well. However, there is involved also in this esti­mation of the true reality of a  religion its relation to the representations of its highest being or beings. The question would then be whether the represen­tations correspond to the reality which philosophical thought professes to attain. In monotheistic faiths and Christianity, which are regarded as the highest forms, a foremost subject of consideration is the existence of God with reference to which the community is to be established, and its closer deter­mination. Briefly, scientific thought arrives at the certain assumption of a being, which is absolute, in­finite, and as such is unity, and is all inclusive, even of man. If man finds himself constrained to re­gard the ultimate elements of being, as analogous to his subjective self, to be apprehended as spir­itual, inasmuch as this is immediately given in con­sciousness and matter dissolves in the effort to con 

473 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA ReRgg Philosophy of. B,ligions Corporations

ceive it, then infinite being as such is spiritual, and man has his ground in the infinite spiritual Being, and is dependent upon it. If the religious consciousness assumes this final universal as God, it is easy to regard the same as transcendent, with­out this being essential for religion. If it further ascribes to God personality and ethical attributes, these involve the conception of the being of God in contradictions, and can not define the same meta­physically; they become matters of faith, or objective conceptions adaptable to human need, whose satis­faction may be regarded as necessary; but accord­ing to their content these determinations defy proof. The intellectual proofs for the divine exist­ence from the time of Aristotle, as also the apolo­getic arguments, are not final. Most convincing is the teleological, yet this halts before the evidence of much that is not purposive, and before evil in the world, which is regarded by the religious as be­longing to the plan of the whole and is overcome, but not convincingly explained, by intellectual thought. The weakest is the moral argument, which assumes unproved premises. Though not final, these arguments at most increase probability. Proofs for other specifically religious, in a measure Christian, dogmas, such as that of the Trinity, are still less convincing. Here appeal must be made to faith, not to reason. See RELIGION; GOD, IV.

(M. HEINZEt:)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: For the history of the philosophy of relig­ion consult: J. Berger, Geschichte der Religionsphiloso­phie, Berlin, 1800; C. Barthohness, Hist. critique des doc­trines religieuses de la philosophie moderne, 2 vols., Paris, ,1855; A. Stbekl, Lehrbuch der Religionsphilosophie, Mainz, 1878; B. Pfinjer, Geschichte der chriatlichen religionsphi­losophie selt der Refonnation, 2 vols., Brunswick, 1880­1883; idem, Grundriss der Religionsphilosophie, ib. 1880; G. Runze, Der ontologische Gottesbeweis. Kritische Dar­stellung seiner Geschichte, Halle, 1881; H. K. H. Delff, Grundzgge der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Religion, Leip­sic, 1883 A. Gilliot, E*tudes historiques et critiques our les religions et institutions compares, Paris, 1883; L. Carran, La Philosophie religieuse en Angleterre depuis Locke jus­qu h nos fours, Paris, 1898; O. Pleiderer, Religionsphi­lo8ophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage, 3d ed., Berlin, 1898, Eng. transl., Philosophy of Religion on the Basis of its History, 4 vols., London, 1897; idem, Philosophy of Religion, 2 vols., London, 1894 (Gifford Lectures); A. Caldecott, The Philosophy of Religion, in England and America, London, 1901; N. H. Marshall, Die gegenwtir tigen Richtungen der Religionaphilosophie in England and ihre erkenntniystheoretischen Grundlagen, Berlin, 1902.

For studies in the philosophy of religion consult: J. Matter, Philosophie de la religion, 2 vols., Paris, 1857; A. M. Fairbairn, Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and History, London, 1870; 1. Richard, Essai de philosophic religieuse, Heidelberg, 1877; H. Lotze, GrundzRge der Religionaphilosophie, Leipsic, 1882; J. Martineau, Study of Religion, its Sources and Contents, Oxford, 1888; idem, Seat of Authority in Religion, 2d ed., London, 1890; R. Seydl, Religionsphilosophie in Umriss, Freiburg, 1893; J. Caird, Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, 8th ed., Glasgow, 1890; A. Sabatier, Esquisse d'une phrloso­phie de la religion, 7th ed., Paris, 1903, Eng. tramL of earlier ed., Outlines of a Philosophy of Religion, London, 1897; F. Engels, Religion, philosophic, aocialisme, Paris, 1901; R. Eucken, Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion, Leip­sic, 1901; A. Dorner, Grundriss der Religionaphiloaophie, leipeie, 1903; G. Galloway, Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, Edinburgh, 1904; E. TrOltaeh, in Die Philoso­phic zu Beainn des ,t0. Jahrhunderu, Festschrift fur Kuno Fischer, pp. 104 182, Heidelberg, 1904; J. Watson, Phi­losophical Basis of Religion, Glasgow, 1907; B. Wehnert, Wissenschaft. Philosophic, Kunst and Religion, Dortmund, 1910. Much of the literature in and under ReLIaxort is pertinent.

RELIGION, PRIMITIM See ComraRSTivs RELIGION, VI., 1.

RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS IN THE

UNITED STATES.

Legal Basis (¢ 1). Method of Incorporation (¢ 2). Corporations Sole and Aggregate (g 3). Objects of Incorporation ($ 4). Powers (¢ 5).

The corporation formed for the purposes of relig­ion is an important element in American ecclesias­tical organization. The American religious corpo 

ration differs in origin, function, and I. Legal power from the ecclesiastical corpora,

Basis. tion known to European law which is

the product of canon law, and has been

developed by analogy from the corporation of the

civil law based upon the Roman law. It is not an

American development of the English legal ecclesi­

astical corporation, which is composed entirely of

ecclesiastical persons and subject to ecclesiastical

judicatories. The religious corporation in the

United States belongs to the class of civil corpora­

tions, not for profit, which are organized and con­

trolled according to the principles of common law

and equity as administered by the civil courts.

Distinction is necessary between the corporation

and the religious society or church with which it

may be connected. The church is a spiritual and

ecclesiastical body, and as such does not receive in­

corporation. It is from the membership of the re­

ligious society that the corporation is formed. The

corporation exercises its functions for the welfare of

the church body, over which, however, it has no

control. It can not alter the faith of the church, or

receive or expel members, or dictate relations with

other church bodies. While the religious corpora­

tion is frequently organized to carry on some relig­

ious enterprise without connection with a local

church body, the greater number of religious cor­

porations in the United States are directly con­

nected with some local church body, and it is in this

connection that their powers and duties will be

considered.

Only a sovereign power can create a corporation, and this power now rests with the legislative branch

of the state governments and of the s. Method federal government. Prior to the

of Incor  American revolution religious corpo 

poration. rations were created either by royal

charter or by provincial authority de­rived from the crown. After the revolution they were incorporated either by special acts of the state legislatures or under the provisions of general stat­utes. In its charter are contained the organic law of a corporation and the legal evidence of its right to the exercise of corporate franchises. When in­corporation is effected under the provisions of a general statute, the terms o_ such a statute applica­ble to that particular corporation are by law read into its charter. Such a charter is a grant of powers by the State, and it also has the nature of a contract in such a sense that it can not thereafter be altered or revoked without the consent of the corporation unless the State has reserved to itself the right so to alter or revoke. The general statutes under which

Religious Corporations Religious Dramas

THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG

religious corporations can now be formed in most of the American states contain provisions authori­zing the legislature to alter, amend, or repeal any charter granted. Another limitation of corporate powers is that charters granted to corporations by the'State may be seized either for non use or mis­use of powers. Further, the granting of a charter does not prevent a state from exercising to a rea­sonable extent its police or judicial powers. In some states the duration or life of a religious cor­poration is limited by statute. If no limit is speci­fied, the corporation may enjoy a perpetual exist­ence. The life of a religious corporation dates in law from its organization, not from the time it be­gan to exercise its corporate powers. That a relig­ous corporation is a corporation de facto may be proved by showing the existence of a charter at a prior time, or by showing some law under which it could have been created and an actual use of the rights claimed to have been conferred. Where such a body has for a number of years and in good faith exercised the privileges of a corporation, its legal incorporation will be presumed. If the statute which provides for the incorporation of religious societies does not make incorporation obligatory upon such societies but merely prescribes the mode of incorporation, in case there is no evidence that a society took any of the steps prescribed or as­sumed to act as a corporation, its incorporation under the statute will not be presumed. But a mere use of corporate powers limited to the maintenance of religious observances is not sufficient to estab­lish a corporation de facto (Van Buren vs. Reformed Church, 62 Barb. N. Y. 495).

Classified as to the number of natural persons

vested with corporate powers, religious corpora­

tions are either aggregate or sole. By far the greater

number are aggregate, composed of

3. Cor  three or more persons. The corpora­porations tion sole is found where one person Sole and holding an ecclesiastical office is by Aggregate. law vested with all the attributes of a corporation. Such corporate attributes attach to the office and pass to each succeeding in­cumbent, thereby maintaining continuously the life of the corporation. During a vacancy in the ecclesiastical office the law regards the corporate functions as suspended merely and not as destroyed. The ecclesiastical corporation sole has not been favored in American legislation. It is expressly for­bidden in the states of Delaware, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania. It is provided for by statute in the states of Oregon and New Jersey. Massachusetts and several other states have granted charters of incorporation to single church officials by special legislative acts. The object of the churches in securing such incorporations was to make more effective certain features of their poli­ties. Incorporation of this kind has been sought by denominations having an episcopal form of polity. Thus the Oregon statute provides for the granting of corporate powers to bishops, overseers, and pre­siding elders. The composition of the religious cor­porations aggregate depends upon the provisions of the statute in each state, and in this matter the states are broadly divided. The language of many

474

statutes is to the effect that any religious society or church may become incorporated by following a prescribed procedure. The language of other stat­utes is to the effect that religious societies or churches having appointed or elected trustees, the same may become a civil corporation. This differ­ence is not as radical as would appear, for in cases where the law permits churches to be incorporated, provision is made for the election or appointment of trustees in whom are vested the corporate func­tions, thereby leaving to the church body the sole duty of producing such trustees. Under either sys­tem the corporations have the same functions in law. In a number of states supplemental provi­sions have been enacted to provide corporations composed of certain officials for the benefit of churches of particular denominations.

The primary object of religious incorporation in the United States is the care of real property de­voted to the purposes of religion. In

4. Objects the corporation as such is vested the

of Incor  title. to church property. Along with

poration. the vesting of such title go all the, at­

tributes of legal ownership, to be ex­

ercised, however, solely for the benefit of the relig­

ious body which the corporation serves. In this

relation the corporation is a trustee and the church

is the party with the full beneficial interest. While

the corporation so serves the church, it is not with­

in the jurisdiction of the church judicatories, but is

responsible for the proper performance of its duties

to the civil courts, before whom it may be brought

by any party in interest. The courts have recog­

nized, in. addition to the primary trust for the hold­

ing of specific property and its right use for the

benefit of a certain religious body, religious corpo­

rations as possessing the inherent capacity of exe­

cuting additional trusts of a distinctly religious,

charitable, or educational nature if not too far re­

moved from the primary object of the particular

corporation acting as trustee. With this sanction

many special trust funds have developed in the

hands of local religious corporations. The dissolu­

tion of a local church body does not cause the dis­

solution of the corporation so long as there is real

property to be held or transferred or trusts to be

administered.

In order properly to perform their functions re­ligious corporations are now vested with ample powers. The granting of increased

5. Powers. powers was a marked feature of legis­lation during the second half of the nineteenth century. Conspicuous was the increase in the amount of real property which religious cor­porations might hold. Moreover, all the normal powers of private corporations have been recog­nized as belonging to religious corporations. Spe­cifically, these corporations have power to preserve their existence by filling vacancies. They may for their own government adopt by laws, which, how­ever, may not be inconsistent either with the pro­visions of the statute under which the corporation was organized or with the rules adopted by the church body with which the corporation is con­nected. If the local church is a member of some denominational organization, the by laws of a local

475

RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

Religions Corporations Religious Dramas

religious corporation may contain nothing adverse to the denominational connection of the local church body. If a corporation is found to have adopted such by laws, the remedy is in the civil courts where such by laws and all corporate acts based upon them will be nullified. Another power is that of adopting and using a corporate seal. This seal is affixed to all formal documents signed by the officers of the corporation as such and should appear over all instruments intended to bind the corporation. The religious corporation must act as a body in regular meeting. The separate and individual acts of members of the corporation, even though such acts are by a majority of the whole number, are not binding upon the corporation and can not of themselves create corporate liability. A power either specifically granted or necessarily implied is that of purchasing, leasing, exchanging, or mortgaging all forms of real property, provided that such property is necessary and convenient for the purposes of the church body. This question is decided by the civil courts alone. A religious cor­poration may not engage in business transactions for profit. It may, however, hold revenue produ­cing property, not used by the church, as invest­ment in the form of an endowment. It has the im­plied if not the express right to contract money obligations to be evidenced by bonds or notes. The mortgaging of real property by a religious dor­poration generally requires the consent of some su­perior ecclesiastical authority, as well as an order of court. Because one of the objects of religious in­corporation is to give a legal person standing in court, such corporations have the right to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, in courts of law and of equity. It is in the civil courts and not in the ecclesiastical courts that the religious corporation has standing; and it is from the civil courts that orders or writs will issue, directing or restraining corporate action. A corporation has the right to be represented by counsel, and the necessary cost of litigation is recognized as a legitimate expense. Un­like private corporations, the religious corporation can neither merge nor dissolve without the consent of the local church body and the higher church au­thorities. The statutes provide when and how there can be a consolidation of such corporations, and also under what circumstances a religious cor­poration can proceed to its own dissolution.

The American law of religious corporations has developed largely with reference to local churches; yet the practise of incorporation by superior eccle­siastical bodies and by special organizations, such as mission and educational boards, has become general. These general corporations do not differ in their legal character from the local corporations; but because their property interests are widely dis­tributed throughout the possessions of the United States and in foreign lands, they come more often under the jurisdiction of the federal courts and the tribunals of foreign countries.

GEORGE JAMES BAYLEs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. H. Roberts, Laws Relating to Religious Corporations: Collection of the general Statutes of the States and Territories, Philadelphia, 1896; Laws Relating to General Religious and Non Business Corporations (New York), Albany, 1899; R. C. Cumming, Membership and

Religious Corporations, ed. A. J. Danaher, ib. 1900 04; C. T. Carr, General Principles of the Law of Corporations, New York, 1905.

RELIGIOUS DRAMAS.

Origins and Earliest Specimens (§ 1). Gradual Extension of Action (¢ 2).

Rise of Objections; Vernacular Plays (§ 3).

Increasing Elaborateness of Production (¢ 4).

Literary Style; Corpus Christi Plays and Moralities (§ 5). Early Protestant Attitude (§ 6).

The Oberammergau Passion Play (§ 7). The Christmas Plays (§ 8).

The religious drama, as setting forth events re 

corded in the Bible or moral lessons to be drawn

from religious teaching, is distinctively medieval in

character, and in origin is closely connected with

the services of the Church. At a very early period

a quasi dramatic effect was given by

r. Origins the division of the choir into anti­

and phonal semi choruses and in the re­

Earliest sponses of the congregation to the

Specimens. clergy, though it was not until the

tenth century that there was any ap­

proximation to dramatic action. Then, however,

tropes, or texts interpolated during the service, as

in the introit, were added, the oldest specimens

being contained in a St. Gall manuscript of about

900. In many monasteries the crucifixion and res­

urrection were dramatically represented from Good

Friday to Easter; and the custom thus inaugurated

received accretion after accretion, such as a scene

between Mary Magdalene and Christ, added in the

twelfth century. In like manner the antiphon and

the trope sung at Christmas gave rise to a little

drama, probably modeled on the Easter playlet, the

earliest Easter tropes extant dating from the

eleventh century; and similar provision was made

for the feasts of Holy Innocents and Epiphany. As

a specimen the little drama acted on the latter

feast may be described. Three of the clergy, robed

as kings, came from three sides of the church and

met at the altar, whence they solemnly proceeded,

with a star swinging before them from a cord, to

the crib, where they were received by two priests

vested in dalmatica. Having offered their gifts, they

were warned by an angel (a white robed boy) to

escape the wrath of Herod, whereupon they made

their exit from the church through the transept. A

combination of Christmas, Holy Innocents, .and

Epiphany was also effected by having the three

kings brought before Herod while on their way to

Bethlehem, the introduction of that king giving

the moment of opposition and thus inaugurating

true dramatic life in Christian drama. Yet an­

other drama was evolved from a homily attributed

to Augustine and read as a lesson on Christmas.

Assailing the Jews for their stubborn refusal to

hear their own prophets concerning the Christ, the

opportunity was afforded, in the eleventh century,

of presenting not only the prophets, but also Vergil

(on account of the fourth Eclogue), Nebuchadrez­

zar, and the Sibyl. The feasts of the Annunciation,

Easter Monday, and the Ascension gave rise to minor

dramas; while the dramatic representation of escha­

tological events, e.g., the wise and foolish virgins,

traces its origin to the gospel for the twenty fourth

Sunday after Pentecost, the last of the church year.