On Making Religious Progress

In this chapter, the author examines the idea of religious progress, and begins with some brief remarks about what he call the “functions of religion, " by which he mean the roles that religions actually play in people’s lives. He discusses two sorts of religious progress, and considers the relationship between them. Religious progress is best understood as combining two rather different elements. First, there is the matter of achieving a deeper understanding of the truth, of what is the case. Second, there is practical progress. This is progress in fulfilling the practical functions of religion. Various factors may have impeded human religious progress. Anyone who thinks that any form of religion involves awareness of a religious ultimate is thereby committed to the further thought that one sort of primate developed to the point where this awareness became possible.