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.To be sure, the earlyChristian prophecy contained very definite elements of "retribution" doctrine, in the senseof the future equalization of human fates (most clearly expressed in the legend ofLazarus) [74] and of vengeance as God's business.[75] Moreover, here too the Nation ofGod is interpreted as an earthly kingdom, in the first instance apparently a realm set apartPDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com particularly or primarily for the Jews, for they from ancient times had believed in the trueGod.Yet, in Christianity, precisely the characteristic and penetrating resentment ofJewish pariah religiosity was rooted out by the consequence of the new religiouspromises.To be sure, Jesus' own warnings, according to the tradition, of the dangers of wealth forthe attainment of salvation were not motivated by asceticism or resentment.For thetradition has preserved many evidences of Jesus' intercourse, not only with publicans(who in the Palestine of that period were mostly small usurers), but also with otherwealthy nobles.[76] His waring of wealth was rather based on his teaching of theindifference to worldly matters due to the immediacy of advent expectations.Certainly,the rich young person was unable to leave his wealth and the "world" unconditionally tobecome perfect, namely, a disciple.But for God all things are possible, even the salvationof the wealthy, despite the difficulties in the way.[77] There were no "propertyless'sinstincts" in the teaching of Jesus, the prophet of universal love who brought to the poorin spirit and in material the good news of the immediate coming of the Kingdom of Godand of freedom from the power of demons.(E.9.c.3) Buddhist DoctrineSimilarly, any proletarian denunciation of wealth would have been equally alien to theBuddha, for whom the unconditional withdrawal from the world was absolutepresupposition for salvation.Buddhism constitutes the most radical antithesis to everytype of resentment religiosity.[78] Buddhism clearly arose as the salvation teaching of anintellectual stratum, originally recruited almost entirely from the privileged castes,especially the warrior caste, which proudly and aristocratically rejected the illusions oflife, both here and hereafter.Buddhism may be compared in social provenience to thesalvation teachings of the Greeks, particularly the Neo-Platonic, Manichean, and Gnosticdoctrine of salvation, even though they are radically different in content.The Buddhistmonk (bhikshu) does not desire the world at all, not even a rebirth into paradise nor toteach the person who does not desire salvation (Nirvana).Precisely this example of Buddhism demonstrates that the need for salvation and ethicalreligion has yet another source besides the social condition of the disprivileged and therationalism of the citizen, who were conditioned by their practical situation of life.Thisadditional factor is intellectualism as such, more particularly the philosophical needs ofthe human mind as it is driven to reflect on ethical and religious questions, driven not bymaterial need but by an inner need to understand the world as a meaningful cosmos andto take up a position toward it.(F) INTELLECTUALISM AND RELIGION(F.1) Privileged Intellectualism(F.1.a) PriestPDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com The course of religions has been influenced in a most diverse way by intellectualism andits various relationships to the priesthood and political powers.These relationships werein turn influenced by the provenience of the stratum which was the carrier of specificintellectualism.At first the priesthood itself was a carrier of specific intellectualism,particularly wherever sacred scriptures existed, which would make it necessary for thepriesthood to become a literary guild engaged in interpreting the scriptures and teachingtheir content, meaning, and proper application.But no such development took place inthe ancient city-states, and notably not among the Phoenicians, Greeks, or Romans; norwas this phenomenon present in the ethics of China.In these instances the developmentof all metaphysical and ethical thought fell into the hands of non-priests, as did thedevelopment of theology, which developed to only a very limited extent, for example, inHesiod.By contrast, the development of intellectualism by the priesthood, was true to the highestdegree in India, in Egypt, in Babylonia, in Zoroastrianism, in Islam, and in ancient andmedieval Christianity.So far as theology is concerned, the development ofintellectualism by the priesthood has also taken place in modern Christianity.In thereligions of Egypt, in Zoroastrianism, in some phases of ancient Christianity, and inBrahmanism during the age of the Vedas (1500-1000 BC, namely, before the rise of layasceticism and the philosophy of the Upanishads) the priesthood succeeded in largelymonopolizing the development of religious metaphysics and ethics.Such a priestlymonopoly was also present in Judaism and Islam.But in Judaism it was strongly reducedby the strong impact of lay prophecy, and in Islam the very impressive power of thepriesthood was limited by the challenge of Sufi speculation.In all the branches of Buddhism and Islam, as well as in ancient and medievalChristianity, it was the monks or groups oriented to monasticism who, besides the priestsor in their stead, concerned themselves with and wrote in all the areas of theological andethical thought, as well as in metaphysics and considerable segments of science.Inaddition, they also occupied themselves with the production of arts and literature.Thecultic importance of the singer played a role in bringing epic, lyrical and ironic poetryinto the Vedas in India and the erotic poetry of Israel into the Bible; the psychologicalaffinity of mystic and pneumatic emotion to poetic inspiration shaped the role of themystic in the poetry of both the Orient and Occident.But here we are concerned not with literary production but with the formation ofreligiosity itself by the particular character of the intellectual strata who exerted adecisive influence upon it.The intellectual influence upon religion of the priesthood,even where it was the chief carrier of literature, was of quite varied scope, depending onwhich non-priestly strata opposed the priesthood and on the power position of thepriesthood itself.The specifically priestly influence reached its strongest degree in lateZoroastrianism and in the religions of Egypt and Babylonia.Although Judaism of theDeuteronomic and exilic periods (600-400 BC) was prophetic in essence, the priesthoodexerted a marked formative influence upon the developing religion.In later Judaism,however, it was not the priest but the rabbi who exercised the decisive influence.Christianity was decisively influenced by the priesthood and by monasticism at the end ofPDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com Antiquity (400-500 AD) and in the High Middle Ages (1000-1200 AD), and then again inthe period of the Counter-Reformation (1600-1700 AD).Pastoral influences weredominant in Lutheranism and early Calvinism.Hinduism was formed and influenced toan extraordinary degree by the Brahmins, at least in its institutional and socialcomponents.This applies particularly to the caste order that arose wherever the Brahminsarrived, the social hierarchy of which was ultimately determined by the rank theBrahmins assigned to each particular caste.Buddhism in all its varieties, but particularlyLamaism, has been thoroughly influenced by monasticism, which has to a lesser degreeinfluenced large groups in oriental Christianity.(F.1
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