|
Stand beneath the waterfall and receive unreservedly
the flow of the hierarchy of Aquarius that comes through our embodied
messengers. When the waterfall ceases to flow, move on, for hierarchy
will not be stopped. We will open another stream and prepare a channel
for the crystal-clear waters of life
--Kuthumi
On September 7, 1875, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and
Henry Steel Olcott founded the Theosophical Society. They were directed
to do so by two eastern Adepts or Masters, Morya and Koot Hoomi.(1)
Besides its three
official objects (1a), the mission of the Theosophical
Society was to prepare the world for the coming of a great spiritual
teacher, expected in the last quarter of the 20th century.(2)
Annie
Besant, Blavatsky’s successor as leader of the Theosophical
Society, and Charles Webster Leadbeater, mediator between the Adepts
and the Theosophical Society, were directed to implement this project
fifty years in advance.(3) The
young Jiddu Krishnamurti was chosen and trained to be the vehicle through
whom the World Teacher Lord Maitreya would reveal himself.(4)
The Order of the Star in the East was the worldwide
organization to draw together all those who expected the coming of this
great teacher. Krishnamurti became its Head. Not all Theosophists were
in agreement with these developments.(5) Until
about 1927 all went relatively well(6) and
starting on December 28, 1925 Krishnamurti was overshadowed a few
times by Lord Maitreya.(7) Krishnamurti
and other Theosophists declared the project successful,(8)
others were of the opposite opinion.(9) From
about 1927 on Krishnamurti decided to go his own way and irrevocably
dissociated himself from the project by dissolving the Order of the
Star on August 3, 1929.
Through Theosophists Cyril Scott and David Anrias,
the Adepts communicated their evaluation of the project and declared
it an almost complete failure.(10) Krishnamurti
caused so much confusion in the ranks of the Theosophists, that the
Theosophical Society was disqualified as the spearhead of the work of
the Adepts. Nevertheless, some Theosophists,
such as C. Jinarajadasa and Geoffrey Hodson, were still in contact with
the Adepts(11), and They kept a continuing interest
in the affairs of the Theosophical Society.(12)
Furthermore the Adepts
worked also with Alice Bailey, which was not successful (13),
and with Nicholas and Helena Roerich, which was.(14)
Three months after Krishnamurti had dissolved the
Order of the Star, the crash on the New York Stock Exchange happened.
This event was the starting point of an unprecedented disastrous sixteen-year-cycle
of economic depression, militarism, fascism and war, culminating in
the Holocaust and the use of the atomic bomb. This
was no coincidence. One of its main causes was the earlier mentioned
confusion amongst many advanced souls. They were not able anymore
to keep the forces of darkness at bay.(15)
In the summer of 1930, the Adept Saint Germain approached Guy Ballard,
an American mining engineer with an interest in the occult, with the
request to become messenger for the Adepts. Ballard
wrote Unveiled Mysteries under the name Godfre Ray King and founded
the “I AM” Movement.(16) Through
Ballard the Adepts gave the revelations deemed necessary for the Age
of Aquarius, which originally were intended to be given through Krishnamurti.(17)
These revelations included original teachings
about mantra yoga, the divine self or the I AM Presence, and the initiation
of the ascension.(18) In
the 1930s the “I AM” Movement was very successful.(19)
Because of Guy Ballard’s passing in 1939, a string of lawsuits
and bad publicity, the movement experienced a setback. Guy Ballard’s
wife, Edna Ballard, succeeded him.
In 1944 the Adept the Maha Chohan, the chief of
El Morya and Kuthumi, contacted “I AM” member Geraldine Innocente.(20)
In April 1952 she founded anonymously the Bridge
to Freedom to spread some teachings by “Thomas Printz,” pseudonym
for El Morya.(21)
Mark Prophet, who was associated with the Bridge to Freedom, was contacted
by El Morya in the early 1950s. The Adepts directed him to found
The Summit Lighthouse, which he did on August 8, 1958. This
organization, now also known as Church Universal and Triumphant, has
been a very successful organization in spreading the revelations for
the New Age of Aquarius.(22) Its
current head is Elizabeth Clare Prophet, who was contacted in the
spring of 1961 by El Morya to join The Summit Lighthouse in order to
be trained as a messenger.(23) She
became its head in 1973 after the passing of Mark Prophet to whom she
was married.(24) Among her students she is
also known as Guru Ma or just Mother. In 1997
the organization lost its protection from El Morya (24a)
and unfortunately, in late 1998, Prophet was diagnosed with Alzheimer's
disease and soon after stopped transmitting messages from the Masters.
Recent offshoots of Church Universal
and Triumphant are The Temple of The Presence founded by Carolyn and
Monroe Shearer; Ask the Real Jesus by Kim Michaels and Shangra-la by
Lorraine Michaels; New Wisdom University by Marsha Covington; and The
Hearts Center by David Lewis. All were members of Prophet's organization
and claim to be contacted by the Masters to inaugurate new Ascended
Master organizations. (25)
The revelations given through the Ballards, the
Prophets and the Shearers on one side, and the philosophy of Krishnamurti
(and others) on the other side might both lead to either the beginning
of a transformation of already existing civilizations like the Judeo-Christian
and the Indic, both of which might be stimulated to new levels of intellectual
and spiritual development, or--and this probably being the case with
Krishnamurti’s teachings--to the birth of a completely new, though
deeply flawed, religion and civilization.(26)
1.
|
“So casting about we found in America the man [H.S. Olcott]
to stand as leader... . With him we associated a woman [H.P. Blavatsky]
of most exceptional and wonderful endowments... . We sent her
to America, brought them together--and the trial began.”
Letter No.44, Morya to A.P. Sinnett, February 1882, in A.T. Barker,
compiler, The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett (Adyar, India:
Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), p. 259.
And in 1975:
“In 1876, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was ordered by the
Master Kuthumi and me, then known as the Masters K.H. and M.,
to write Isis Unveiled. Later she was given the responsibility
of imparting The Secret Doctrine to the world.”El
Morya, The Chela and the Path (Corwin Springs MT: Summit
University Press, 1975), p. 122.
[Quotes in notes 1, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23 and 24 were reprinted
with permission from the publisher. Copyright © 1975, 1976, 1979,
1980, 1994, Summit University Press, P.O. Box 5000, Corwin Springs,
Montana 59030-5000. (406) 848-9500. Web site: http://www.tsl.org].
Both Masters took their fifth initiation, the Ascension, at
the close of the last century, thereby becoming incorporeal Ascended
Masters. And as Blavatsky has written--referring to other saints,
that, when “unburthened of their terrestrial tabernacles,
their freed souls, henceforth united forever with their spirits,
rejoin the whole shining host, which is bound together in one
spiritual solidarity of thought and deed, and called the ‘anointed,’
”--the same glad tidings could be told, not only about these
two illustrious Masters, but also about many other brave souls
who followed them. [H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled (Pasadena
CA: Theosophical University Press, 1976 [1877]), II, p. 159].For
practical purposes the difference between an Unascended Master
and an Ascended one is not very great. Both can work in the physical
as well as in the spiritual realm and both have a wide array of
occult powers at their command to guide Their pupils and help
mankind. The difference is that an Unascended Master has its base
of operations in a physical body and an Ascended Master in a spiritual
body. To dismiss the latter as spooks, because They do not conform
to one’s idea of flesh-and-blood Masters, is to deny oneself
the great wisdom coming from the 'anointed' or Ascended Masters.
[Blavatsky wrote about the concept of Nirmanakaya:
"As a Nirmanakaya, however, the adept leaves behind him
only his physical body, and retains every other "principle"
save the Kamic, for he has crushed this out for ever from his
nature during life, and it can never resurrect in his post-mortem
state. Thus, instead of going into selfish bliss, he chooses a
life of self-sacrifice, an existence which ends only with the
life-cycle, in order to be enabled to help mankind in an invisible,
yet most effective, manner."
The Key to Theosophy (London: Theosophical Publishing
Co., 1889), pp. 353-354]
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1a.
|
The objects of the Theosophical Society are
the following:
-
To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity,
without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
-
To encourage the comparative study of religion, philosophy,
and science.
-
To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers
latent in humanity.
|
2.
|
“If the present
attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds better than its
predecessors have done, then it will be in existence as an organized,
living and healthy body when the time comes for the effort of
the XXth century. The general condition of men’s minds and
hearts will have been improved and purified by the spread of its
teachings, and, as I have said, their prejudices and dogmatic
illusions will have been, to some extent at least, removed. Not
only so, but besides a large and accessible literature ready to
men’s hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and united
body of people ready to welcome the new torch-bearer of Truth.
He will find the minds of men prepared for his message, a language
ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings, an
organization awaiting his arrival, which will remove the merely
mechanical, material obstacles and difficulties from his path.
Think how much one, to whom such an opportunity is given, could
accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the Theosophical
Society actually has achieved in the last fourteen years,
with out any of these advantages and surrounded by hosts
of hindrances which would not hamper the new leader. Consider
all this, and then tell me whether I am too sanguine when I say
that if the Theosophical Society survives and lives true to its
mission, to its original impulses through the next hundred years--tell
me, I say, if I go too far in asserting that earth will be a heaven
in the twenty-first century in comparison with what it is now!”
H.P.
Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (London: Theosophical Publishing
Co., 1889), pp. 306-307.
|
3.
|
“It may interest
members to recall the fact that Mme. H.P. Blavatsky, one of the
founders of the T.S., regarded it as the mission of the T.S. to
prepare the world for the coming of the next great Teacher, though
she put that event perhaps half a century later than I do. Which
of us is right as to date, only time can show. I do not say that
she was necessarily right in making this its mission, but as she
proclaimed this view in the supposedly ‘uncolored’ days,
under ‘the old régime,’ the repetition of the statement
by myself does not imply any change of policy. She wrote: ‘The
next impulse will find a numerous and united body of people
ready to welcome the new torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the
minds of men prepared for his message, a language ready for him
in which to clothe the new truths he brings, an organization awaiting
his arrival, which will remove the merely mechanical, material
obstacles and difficulties from his path.’ That was the view
of one of our Founders--really of both--as to ‘the future
of the Theosophical Society,’ and my crime is that I share
it, and do what my poor powers permit in preparing the minds of
men for that coming.”
Annie
Besant, “Freedom of Opinion in the T.S.,” letter to
The Vâhan 21\8 (March 1912), p. 153.
|
4.
|
“Shortly after meeting Krishna for the
first time, Leadbeater revealed to [Theosophist Ernest] Wood that
the boy was to be the vehicle for the Lord Maitreya ‘unless
something went wrong’ and that he, Leadbeater, had been directed
to help train him for that purpose.”
Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening, (New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), p. 21.
|
5.
|
In particular the German Section of the Theosophical
Society, led by Rudolf Steiner, expressed its intolerance towards
members of the Order of the Star, by stating that membership of
both organizations was mutually exclusive. This policy was obviously
contrary to the principle of freedom of thought and association,
a cornerstone of the Theosophical Society. The defiant stand taken
on this issue by the German Section led eventually to the cancellation
of their charter.
|
6.
|
During the Jubilee Convention of the Theosophical
Society in 1925 a message originating from an Adept was read to
the participants. This happened a few days before December 28,
when the first overshadowing of Krishnamurti by the Lord Maitreya
occurred. A part of the message reads:
“A second half-century of fine promise lies before you.
We say to you: You have the power to do more in the immediate
future than any other body of men and women has ever achieved
before. We say to you: Within this next half century you can make
Brotherhood a living reality in the world. You can cause the warring
classes, castes, and nations to cease their quarreling, the warring
faiths to live once more in brotherhood, respect and understanding.
Make Theosophy a living force in your lives, and through your
example those class and caste distinctions, which for so long
have bred hatred and misery, shall at no distant time come to
be but distinctions of function in the common service of the nation-family
and of the World-Brotherhood... ."
"It is the Law that Our Blessed Lord comes among you, be
His welcome what it may, though even he may not outstay His welcome.
And only at long intervals, so far, has He been able to bestow
upon you the priceless benediction of His immediate presence in
your midst. We have to wait. So be it. Yet, if His welcome lasts,
perchance grows, He may dwell long with you, and the doors thus
be flung wide open between Our world and your, and between other
worlds and yours, that they may become one world, Ourselves restored
to Our natural place among Our younger comrades, and Devas and
mankind be once more together in happy comradeship.”
Anonymous Master, “A
Message to the Members of the Theosophical Society from an Elder
Brother,” The Theosophist 47\4 (January 1926),
supplement, pp. 3 and 4. And what did Krishnamurti do? Instead
of opening, he slammed the door in Their face.
|
7.
|
“As he [Krishnamurti] speaks, the spirit of the Christ
descends, as a great collective inspiration, into the hearts and
minds of all. It draws nearer and nearer in a great ring-shaped
cloud of golden light. It hovers over our heads, descends still
lower, slowly and gently, like a warm summer rain, till all are
enwrapped in its beauty, its peace and all-compelling love...
. Night after night, as he ceases to speak, a miracle occurs.
Two thousand sevenhundred people remain perfectly still. In that
silence the splendor of splendors is revealed to the inner eyes.
The figure of the Lord appears above the head of Krishnaji. The
silence deepens. We are enfolded in His embrace, filled with tenderness
and compassion as he draws near.”
Geoffrey Hodson, Thus Have I Heard (Adyar, India: Theosophical
Publishing House, 1929), pp. 107-108.
Leadbeater wrote in 1930:
“This is He who should come, and there is no need to look
elsewhere; as I have said, I know that the World-Teacher often
speaks through Krishnaji, but I also know that there are occasions
when He does not.”
C.W. Leadbeater, “Art Thou He That Should Come?” The
Theosophist 51\9 (June 1930), p. 472.
|
8.
|
“I know my destiny and my work. I know
with certainty and knowledge of my own, that I am blending into
the consciousness of the one Teacher and that He will completely
fill me.”
Letter from Krishnamurti to Leadbeater February 9, 1927, quoted
in Lutyens, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening, p. 241.
“I never said: I am the World Teacher; but now that I
feel I am one with my Beloved, I say it.”
Talk by Krishnamurti, August 2, 1927, quoted in Lutyens, p.
250.
Annie Besant declared in 1927:
“The Divine Spirit has descended once more on a man, Krishnamurti,
one who in his life is literally perfect, as those who know him
can testify... . The World Teacher is here.
”Annie Besant, “The Way of Sorrows and the Way of
Happiness: The New Message” The Theosophist 48/7 (April
1927), p. 6d.
|
9.
|
“I had a talk with [Theosophist] Jinarajadasa,
who staggered me by saying that the gathering at Eerde [in August
1927] had been a tragedy and a failure and had almost wrecked
the Plan of the Brotherhood.”
Lady Emily Lutyens, Candles in the Sun (London: Rupert
Hart-Davis, 1957), p. 163.
“C.W.L. declared privately when in Adyar in 1927 that ‘The
Coming had gone wrong.’”
Adrian G. Vreede, “An Attack on Bishop Leadbeater,”
The Liberal Catholic 34\7 (February 1964), p. 150.
|
10.
|
“[His mission was] a success while still
overshadowed by the world-Teacher,.. a failure afterwards.”
An
English Master, “Sir Thomas” in His Pupil [Cyril
Scott], The Initiate in the Dark Cycle (London: Routledge,
1932), p. 141.
“It became all but impossible for him to be used any longer
as my medium.
”Lord
Maitreya in David Anrias [Brian Ross], Through the Eyes
of the Masters: Meditations and Portraits (London: Routledge,
1932), p. 66.
|
11.
|
“State how... you received the information
from Brother Jinarajadasa--Our Agent at that time--affirming that
he had passed the Initiation during the night that preceded your
experience on waking, at Mt Maunganui.”
Message from Master Polidorus Isurenus, June 30, 1975, to Geoffrey
Hodson in Sandra Hodson (Comp.), Light of the Sanctuary: The
Occult Diary of Geoffrey Hodson (Manila, Philippines: The
Theosophical Publisher, 1988), p. 265.
|
12.
|
“The Master M. [El Morya] and K.H. [Kuthumi]
together with the Maha Sahib [the Maha Chohan] will renew the
hundred-year cycle of their service through the chelas at Adyar
[the international headquarters of the Theosophical Society].”
Goddess of Liberty, “The Mutable Soul is Entrusted with
the Immutable Spirit,” Pearls of Wisdom 23/12 (March
23, 1980), p. 66.
But the backing does not come without critical evaluation: “Look
at those who have had the dispensation of the Ascended Masters
in the Theosophical Society, the Rosicrucian Order, the Agni Yoga
Society, the I AM movement and other forward movements that have
begun to unveil the presence and teachings of great adepts in
the earth. Look at the members of these organizations, beloved.
Some have almost become intellectual snobs, for they do not use
the teachings to challenge the forces of Darkness in the earth
but only to elevate themselves as the wise ones, for they have
such and such teaching that other earthlings do not have. This
was never the Brotherhood’s intent in the founding of esoteric
organizations.”
Mighty Victory, “Becoming more of God Day by Day,”
Pearls of Wisdom 37/32 (August 7, 1994), pp. 376-377.
|
13.
|
Kuthumi wrote in 1975:
“In the past we have had to withdraw our support from those
who were given the opportunity to represent us. The one who for
a time had the opportunity of representing the master Djwal Kul
soon lost that authority through intellectual pride and the brittleness
of the lower mental body, which can never be the channel of the
mind of God. Thus I expose to you the false teachings subtly woven
into the work of Alice Bailey, whose failure to surrender totally
rendered her unfit as an instrument of the Tibetan Master.”
Kuthumi, “An Exposé of False Teachings” Pearls
of Wisdom 19/5 (February 1, 1976), p. 28. (Relevant
Paragraphs)
|
14.
|
“The Roerichs set forth the word of Morya
destined to reach both the Russian and the American people with
the energy and the enlightenment that should deter the red dragon
of World Communism.”
El Morya, The Chela and the Path, p. 122. (Relevant
Paragraphs)
|
15.
|
Thus the stage was left for all kinds of black
magicians and their ilk to play out their nefarious plots. Chief
amongst them were the German Nazis, whose involvement in the occult
and borrowing from Theosophy has been well documented. See for
example Nicholas Goodrick Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism
(New York: New York University Press, 1985); Dusty Sklar, The
Nazis and the Occult (New York: Dorset Press, 1977); and the
more speculative, but from an esoteric point of view more interesting,
The Spear of Destiny (New York: Putnam, 1973) by Trevor
Ravenscroft. The contrast between the expectations for humankind
as presented in endnotes 2 and 6, and what actually happened indicates
that we have to face up to a tragedy of immense proportions.
|
16.
|
For a basic overview of the history and teachings
of the “I AM” Movement see Charles S. Braden, These
Also Believe: A Study of Modern American Cults and Minority Religious
Movements (New York: Macmillan, 1949), pp. 257-307.
|
17.
|
This is the pivotal statement connecting on
one side the story of the Adepts’ involvement with the Theosophical
Society and Krishnamurti from 1875 till 1929, and on the other
side the story of Their involvement with the Ballards, Innocente
and the Prophets from 1930 till the present. The rationale of
the Masters’ changing allegiance to their embodied representatives
is as follows:
“The Ascended Masters are the authority of the true teacher
and the true messenger. We release the energy, the light, the
teaching, the initiations, and the discipline to and through our
representatives. If at any time the teacher or the messenger who
has surrendered his human will to the divine will should elect
to take back that human will, our dispensation will terminate.
The light...would be withdrawn and the trained disciple would
receive the certain sign of hierarchy that the instrument had
become a dry reed, hollow and without the authentic vibration
and backing of the entire Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood...
. Stand beneath the waterfall and receive unreservedly the flow
of the hierarchy of Aquarius that comes through our embodied messengers.
When the waterfall ceases to flow, move on, for hierarchy will
not be stopped. We will open another stream and prepare a channel
for the crystal-clear waters of life.”
Kuthumi, “An Exposé of False Teachings,” Pearls
of Wisdom 19/5 (February 1, 1976), p. 29. (Relevant
Paragraphs)
|
18.
|
“In the 1930s came the twin flames Guy
W. Ballard and Edna Ballard imparting the sacred mystery of the
law of the I AM, further knowledge of hierarchy, the invocation
of the sacred fire, and the path of the ascension.”
El Morya, The Chela and the Path, p. 122. (Relevant
Paragraphs)
|
19.
|
“At its apex in the late thirties, it
must have represented the greatest popular diffusion Theosophical
concepts ever attained... . One cannot but admire the effectiveness
with which Ballard presented in a truly popular and American manner
the basic teaching and sense of wonder which underlies Theosophy.”
Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Religious and Spiritual Groups in
Modern America (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1973), p.
121.
|
20.
|
J. Gordon Melton, “The Church Universal
and Triumphant: Its Heritage and Thoughtworld,” in Church
Universal and Triumphant In Scholarly Perspective, edited
by. J.R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton (Stanford: Center for Academic
Publication, 1994), pp. 13-14.
|
21.
|
“The condition of the consciousness of seekers after Truth
warranted the opportunity to find peace in the comradeship of
the Masters, without homage to personality. It was my thought
to give such opportunity, letting the balm of the Presence, the
joy of the Masters’ friendship and the freedom of conscience
which such an Open Door would allow, to flow freely to all life,
without requiring allegiance to any human form.”
Thomas Printz (El Morya), The First Ray (Mount Shasta,
CA: Ascended Master Teaching Foundation, 1986: originally published
by the Bridge to Freedom in 1954), p.31.
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22.
|
In an academic study, conducted by a group
of religious scholars, some notable conclusions regarding Elizabeth
Clare Prophet and Church Universal and Triumphant were presented.
In the introduction one can read that “many of the contributions
to the present volume are shaped by, or at least address, the
various accusations that have been leveled against Church Universal
and Triumphant over the years. Some of us, and perhaps most of
us who participated in the study, brought certain negative stereotypes
along with us on our first trip to Montana [where the Church has
its headquarters]. Yet, once there, our preconceptions quickly
evaporated in the encounter with a group of generally very likable,
intelligent, flesh-and-blood human beings. ... Beyond simple positive
intentions, I think they have managed to establish one of the
most intrinsically interesting religious communities to come into
being in this century. The range and complexity of their worldview,
just to mention one facet of the Church, deserves a half-dozen
studies of the length we have undertaken in the present volume.”
J.R. Lewis, “Introduction,” in Church Universal
and Triumphant In Scholarly Perspective, pp. xii-xiii.
|
23.
|
Elizabeth Clare Prophet said in 1979:
“Within a matter of a few weeks [after having met Mark
Prophet], I was crossing a park to Boston University to one of
my courses. And there crossed my path a being of Light that I
had never heard of or seen before. But the moment I saw him, I
knew him. It was the Ascended Master El Morya... . Morya said
to me ‘I have need of a female messenger. Go to Washington
and I will train you through Mark Prophet. If you pass your initiations,
Saint Germain will come and anoint you as messenger for the Ascended
Masters.’”
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, “I’m Stumping for the Coming
Revolution in Higher Consciousness,” Audio-tape no. A7945,
(Corwin Springs MT: The Summit Lighthouse, 1979).
|
24.
|
The History of the Summit Lighthouse
(Livingston MT: Church Universal and Triumphant, 1994), p. 4.
|
24a.
|
"I, El Morya Khan, Chief of the Darjeeling Council, hereby
announce the removal of the thread that originates from my mantle
to the heart of the messenger to your hearts for the holding of
the balance of your lifestreams. The dispensation of this thread,
which is a thread of protection, was made possible because of
the codes of conduct established and sponsored by me in the past.
Your merit for intercession will now be based upon your own decree
momentum, your devotion to your God Presence and your service
to mankind. May you pass every test!"
Read by Elizabeth Clare Prophet at a staff meeting on May 13,
1997.
|
25.
|
For some more background information about
these post-Prophet organizations see "Beyond
Guru Ma." [This paragraph was added in 2001 and revised
in 2005]
|
26.
|
For a philosophical-historical discussion
of the relationship between religion and civilization, see Arnold
J. Toynbee, Universal Churches, vol. 7B, A Study of
History (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), pp. 381-544.
|
|
