A review of Spiritual Evolution or Regeneration — Hartford Courant, Nov 7, 1903
“Spiritual Evolution” by R. C. Douglass. Is a book that will have an especial Interest for every student of modern metaphysical tendencies, but it will also obtain a wider hearing. It is a study of the Biblical story of the creation and of the life of Christ from an allegorical standpoint and an effort to bring about in the individual reader a “realisation of the Christ in consciousness.” The author affirms that the story of creation “while seeming to be statements of fact, is in the real intent and purpose of the allegory a sort of compendium of the high esoteric teaching and metaphysical philosophy known to the ancients.” Without denying the historic Christ, Mr. Douglass’s belief is that he is rightly to be regarded as an allegoric character, typifying the ideal life. These theories are interesting, but like most ex-parte religious and metaphysical writing they lose in effect because they are apt to strike the average reader as being carried to extremes. Nor does the author entirely escape the shortcoming of most of those who argue for the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures, for he gives the impression of cleverly working out a puzzle, of piecing together bits of circumstantial evidence, rather than of propounding an inevitable and convincing truth. There is much, however, in this book that does carry conviction, and no one can read it discriminatingly without gaining help from it for right living and thinking.
You may obtain a PDF of Spiritual Evolution or Regeneration at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/spiritualevoluti00doug. I have placed a copy here so that I can apply markups and comments to the PDF and share them with you.
