Mustapha and the host: Some reflections on inferences in religious language

✍ Scribed by John P. Langan

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 730 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7047
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00143432

✦ Synopsis

in the course of an extended comparison between theism and polytheism in his Natural History oJReligion (1757) , relates the following anecdote, which he tells for the purpose of showing the absurdities which even a learned sect is capable of believing, but which may also serve as an illustration of some of the difficulties involved in the use of religious language:

A famous general, at that time in the Muscovite service, having come to Paris for the recovery of his wounds, brought along with him a young Turk, whom he had taken prisoner. Some of the doctors of the Sorbonne (who are altogether as positive as the dervishes of Constantinople) thinking it a pity, that the poor Turk should be damned for want of instruction, solicited Mustapha very hard to turn Christian, and promised him for his encouragement, plenty of good wine in this world, and paradise irt the next. These allurements were too powerful to be resisted; and therefore, having been well instructed and catechized, he at last agreed to receive the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper. The priest, however, to make everything sure and solid, still continued his instructions and began the next day with the usual question, How many Gods are there? None at all, replies Benedict; for that was his new name. How! None at all! cries the priest. To be sure, said the honest proselyte. You have told me all along that there is but one God: And yesterday I eat him. Such are the doctrines of our brethren the Catholics. But to these doctrines we are so accustomed, that we never wonder at them: Though in a future age, it will probably become difficult to persuade some nations that any human, twolegged creature could ever embrace such principles. And it is a thousand to one, but these nations themselves shall have