Ancient Faiths And Modern A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, Before the Christian Era. Showing — Background and Themes

A Physician's Skepticism

Inman's medical background shapes his methodology. He writes that after thirty years of study, he concluded that recovery is 'little influenced by the medicine given,' and that doctors 'magnify their office to the utmost.' This distrust of professional authority extends to theologians, whom he accuses of 'systematically break the ninth commandment' by bearing false witness against other faiths. The preface frames the entire work as an investigation into truth, unafraid of 'imaginary dangers.' Inman's tone is combative: he compares theologians to merchants using false weights, a metaphor drawn from Washington Irving. This opening establishes a pattern of using secular expertise to critique religious claims.

Parallels Between Buddhism and Christianity

In the excerpts, Inman proposes a direct comparison between Buddhism and Christianity, claiming that if miraculous elements were removed from the Bible, little would remain except 'a certain amount of morality which is sound.' He suggests that the Bible could be improved by 'the teaching of Buddha or from the sayings of Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, and even of Confucius.' The text includes a 'parallel between Buddhism and Christianity' that Inman has drawn up, though the full table is not shown. This section reveals his method: he treats religious texts as human documents subject to emendation, and he insists that morality is universal, not divinely revealed to a single tradition.

The Medo-Persian Faith and the Devil's Origin

Chapter VII examines the Medo-Persians and Parsees, focusing on Zoroastrianism's influence on Biblical theology. Inman questions the authenticity of the Avesta, calling it 'condemned,' and relies on Herodotus for an account of ancient Persian faith. He identifies a key innovation: the 'period of introduction of the Devil to the Bible.' This suggests that the concept of a dualistic evil force entered Jewish thought through Persian contact. Inman's approach is comparative and historical, not devotional. He accuses Christian divines of 'blazoning everything which is good, and veiling from sight everything which is doubtful' in other religions, a charge he applies across denominations.

Readers should approach Ancient Faiths And Modern as a polemical work of comparative mythology, not a neutral survey. Inman's medical lens and his explicit goal to 'disprove the assertion that God has selected a very small percentage of His creatures' give the book a consistent argumentative thrust. The excerpts show a writer who values universal morality over doctrinal purity and who is unafraid to accuse his opponents of deceit. For those interested in 19th-century freethought or the history of comparative religion, this text offers a vivid example of how Victorian skepticism used ancient sources to challenge Christian exclusivity.

That rainy afternoon, Inman’s brittle pages weighed heavy in my lap, his old arguments about borrowed gods settling like damp tea leaves. Yet somewhere between his insistence on universal ethics and the chill outside, I remembered a far gentler voice. By lamplight, I opened The Song of our Syrian Guest — Reading Companion, and the rain seemed to soften, its steady patter becoming something closer to companionship.