nce, clarified their theistic view,
attaining a practically pure monotheism, only retaining their apparatus
of angels and demons. This theistic scheme passed over in complete form
to early Christianity, in which, however, greater prominence was given
to the chief demon, the Satan; his larger role arose from the fact that
he was brought into sharp antagonism with the Christ, the head of the
kingdom of God. When Christianity was adopted by the Graeco-Roman world,
the doctrine of the Trinity was worked out and formulated in accordance
with Greek and Roman philosophic thought, but was held not to impair the
monotheistic view since the three Persons were regarded as being in
substance one. Islam adopted the Jewish form of monotheism, with its
Satan and angels, retaining also the old Arabian apparatus of demonic
beings (the jinn).

+1003+. A certain tendency to a practically unitary view is discernible
in the cults of Isis and Mithra, which were widely diffused in the Roman
Empire.[1823] In both these cults the main interest of the worshipers
was centered in a single deity, though other deities were recognized.
The unifying impulse was devotional, not philosophic.

So far as a unitary conception of the divine government of the world
existed it must be referred to the spirit of the age which had outgrown
the old crude polytheism. Such modern monotheistic movements as the
Brahma-Samaj and the Parsi in India, the Babist in Persia, and the
reformed Shinto in Japan owe much to European influence, though
doubtless some part of them is the outcome of natural progress in
intellectual and moral conceptions.

PANTHEISTIC AND NONTHEISTIC SYSTEMS

+1004+. The systems of theistic thought considered above all make a
sharp separation between God and the world. Plato and Aristotle regarded
mind or spirit as a force that dominated matter. The Persian, Hebrew,
and Christian theologies conceive of the deity as transcendent, standing
outside of and above the world and entering into communication with it
either by direct revelation or through intermediaries. To certain
thinkers of ancient times this dualistic conception presented
difficulties--an absolute unity was held to be incompatible with such
separation between the world and God. The precise nature of the
reflections by which the earliest philosophers reached this conclusion
is not clearly set forth, but it may be surmised that in general there
were two lines of thought that led to th