attribute of the supreme powers and of human
individuals also. Let us see how these beliefs appear in characteristic
systems of religion.

In all forms of Christianity the central idea is the conception of a
triple unity personified as God. He is regarded as the Creator who has
made all things and who demands reverence from his subjects. He is the
Author and Finisher of the faith as well as the sole Cause of the universe
itself. Much of this element is directly derived from Judaism, the
progenitor of Christianity; but a difference consists in the triple nature
of the supreme being according to the newer creed. As the original and
supreme being, God is not only the Creator, but the watchful Judge as
well, demanding reverent obedience to the laws of the world in which he
has placed man, and imposing sacrifices and penitential observances when
his mandates have been disobeyed. As the God of Mercy he is incarnated in
the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and offered as a vicarious sacrifice for
sinners who are thus enabled to escape the penalties they would otherwise
have suffered. As the Holy Ghost, God is the vaguely personified ultimate
source of the higher and nobler elements of human thought, aspiration, and
life in general. The second basic tenet of Christianity is that of human
responsibility to God, to whom man is related as the created to a creator,
as a subject to a ruler, and as one saved to his redeemer. The
institutions of sacrifice and ritual are outward signs of human subjection
to God himself and to his laws, according to which the universe is
conceived to operate. Finally, Christianity teaches that just as God in
his single and triune form is eternal, so the soul of man is immortal,
with or without its earthly temple of flesh and blood. The essential
thinking individual is believed to pass to heaven, where rewards for right
living are bestowed, or to hell, in order to suffer punishment for sin
during all eternity, or some part of it, according to different views
regarding the efficacy of Christ's vicarious atonement.

It is true that the manifold sects of Christianity differ somewhat in the
detailed forms of these three essential beliefs, but not to the same
degree as in the case of the secondary additions. God's laws, Christ's
teachings, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost are the recognized guides
to conduct; but human frailty has been such that the history of Europe
presents a panorama of warring sects in a