Elements of Morals / With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the State

by Paul Janet

RELIGIOUS MORALITY.—RELIGIOUS RIGHTS AND DUTIES.

SUMMARY.

Are there duties toward God?

Duties toward God.—Analysis of the religious sentiment.—Two elements: 1, the sentiment of the infinite; 2, the need of hope and consolation.

Can sentiment become a duty?

Indirect duties toward God.—Piety united with all the acts of life: 1, obedience; 2, resignation; 3, love of God united to that of man.

The idea of God in morals.—God the surety of the moral law.

Religious society.—Fénélon and Epictetus.

Religious rights.—Liberty of conscience: liberty of opinion, liberty of worship, liberty of propagandism.

It is not our purpose to speak here of the different forms of religious thought among men: this is the special domain of conscience; but among all these forms, is there no common ground which may be said to belong to the human soul, and which is found to be the same with the sages of pagan antiquity and the modern philosophers, although they may not have adopted any special form of worship? Yes. This common ground of all religion is the idea of God.