habits and mores, customs and institutions vary with each
civilization. But does that mean that religion also should be
regarded as a 'function' or aspect of culture, as many contem-
poraries want us to think? There can certainly be no doubt that
a good deal of what is called religion belongs to the category of
culture and of custom. But it is the conviction of the author of
the following essays that we must carefully distinguish between
religious experience and its expression. We need history, we need
to study it well; but, beyond that, we need to reflect most
assiduously on the foundations upon which our own faith can
be built. The traditional argument is that, because it has been
the dominant religion in the history of the Western world,
Christianity is or ought to be the 'natural' form in which our
faith should be cast, just as Hinduism, because it has served
India in the past, or Buddhism, because it fits the Eastern
temper, are the appropriate religions for those parts of the
world. This argument implies a grave misinterpretation of the
nature of religious experience. What we wish to know is: what is
true? To decide for Christ does not mean a blanket endorsement
of all that has been thought, said, and done in the name of
Christianity, just as recognizing deep spiritual truth in Moham-
medan or Buddhist insights need not imply a total appropriation
of whatever has at any time been offered or regarded as
Islam or Buddhism. We have rather to apply ourselves again,
as each generation will have to do, to explore and investigate,
as we said above, the religious heritage of the past with the
intention of learning from it for the constructive task with which
we are faced. This means that we should avoid two extremes:
that of taking over notions and practices uncritically for no
other reason than that we have inherited them; and that of
rejecting, equally uncritically, tradition because it is tradition.
To tackle the task of articulating for our contemporaries the
content of our faith on a level such as its dignity requires, means
to refuse to be satisfied with artificial syntheses or cheap short-
cuts of the kind offered as a new World-faith, etc. But the
author of the following essays does not promise to propose a
programme or system that would fulfil a need which requires
the co-operation and sustained effort of a whole generation of
dedicated scholars and thinkers. He has concentrated on a

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