On Merging the Faiths

The task of covering the heritage of Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism in 93 pages is not an easy one. Mr. Lamprecht, professor of Philosophy at Amherst, has managed to catch the main currents of thought of each but has failed to prove his thesis that cooperation among them is possible.

The author considers these three religions from a philosophical, not a practical, point of view. Judaism, he says, is a covenant which binds together one chosen group of people in an exclusive pact with God. Catholicism "is the enterprise of establishing in some effective fashion a synthesized tradition which will embody the wisdom of the ages." Protestantism is the most adaptable member of the triumvirate, and exists in a different form in the mind of each believer.

These three ideas are "pure, friendly, and cooperative"; it is their institutionalized forms which conflict. Professor Lamprecht's answer to this problem is to put all religions on a "Hellenistic" foundation, where moral standards, not supernatural beliefs, determine religions practices.

But the author protests his belief that the continued separation of the three doctrines is desirable, he insists that "the values for which men may properly strive" exist independently of what God is, or whether God exists at all. He explains neither how these values are derived, nor how any religion would maintain its individuality after surrendering many of its "historic trappings."

The Weakness

This is the fundamental weakness of Mr. Lamprecht's solutions. He assumes that a religion can give up these "trappings" and substitute objective knowledge of its rich heritage for a partisan devotion to its cause. But the result of this would be a metamorphosis in the philosophical as well as the practical realms. Neither the "covenant of Judaism" nor "the genius of Catholicism" nor "the adventure of Protestantism" could continue in any recognizable form.

Religion is not an objective thing; this is what differentiates the believer from the student of religions practices. The analyses in this book, of the three traditions, are the observations of a particularly acute student. The solution offered is also that of a student and disregards too much the psychology of the believer.