SON.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I MY CHILDHOOD, YOUTH AND EDUCATION
II SEEKING LIBERTY
III NEW VISIONS AND DISTURBANCES
IV NEARER THE CRISIS
V THE CRISIS
VI THE REACTION: A NEW CONFESSION OF FAITH
VII A NEW INTERPRETATION OF RELIGION
VIII JESUS OF NAZARETH

FROM BONDAGE TO LIBERTY IN RELIGION

A RELIGIOUS AUTOBIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER I

MY CHILDHOOD, YOUTH AND EDUCATION

Practically all people inherit their first religious opinions from
their parents, their early environment or both, as I did mine. The
trouble with most of us is that we never get beyond that stage. We
take it for granted that these opinions, whether about religion,
politics or anything else, are correct, because we have been told so,
and never go out of our way or trouble ourselves for a moment to
investigate their truth or error. And thus we go on from generation to
generation, traveling in the same old ruts, thinking the same old
thoughts, in the same old way, each of us assuming that our particular
ancestors could not possibly have been wrong about anything; and
although Christianity is divided into several hundred different
denominations and creeds, each believes his creed to be absolutely
correct and all the others partly or wholly wrong.

Like Saul of Tarsus, I belonged to the Pharisees of the strictest sect.
I was taught from infancy that the church of my parents was the one and
only true, scriptural and orthodox church on earth, with an unbroken
organic succession from Jesus Christ himself down to the present time;
that it was the only true exponent of apostolic faith and practice; the
only true and lawful custodian of the word of God, and the only
authority for the administration of the ordinances of the gospel; that
all other organizations claiming to be churches were not churches in
fact, but merely religious societies; and that while some of these
societies might do some little good in the world, and some of their
members might ultimately be saved, they could never reach those sublime
heights of glory reserved exclusively for the truly baptized members of
the true and only church. Just when and how these ideas first took
concrete form in my mind it is impossible for me now to remember. As
above intimated, in the plastic condition of my youthful mind, I
naturally absorbed them from the very atmosphere in which I lived, from
the common talk I heard around me, as well as from the direct
ins