The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

THE IGLESIA FILIPINA INDEPENDIENTE 153
as able as his had been equipped with a better theological
knowledge and that he had enjoyed access to books in some
languages other than Spanish. De los Reyes, upon a totally
inadequate foundation, set about to construct a religion for
his nation. In his early pamphlet, "La Religion Katipanan,"
he boldly advised the Filipino people to return to their primitive religion of pre-Spanish days. All religions, he thought,
were good at bottom. The worship of Bathala (as Paterno
had imagined it to be) seemed to De los Reyes very much
like the worship of God by the Christians. The fact that
God allowed so many religions in the world seemed to De los
Reyes proof that God desired a distinctively Filipino religion.
He found the temper of the other leaders wholly against such
a drastic step and gave it up. He had never for a moment
thought of simply going back to an ancient period. The idea
of Bathala was so free from past associations that it seemed
to him a vehicle for progress. De los Reyes is by temperament progressive. He takes delight in new ideas just because
they are new. The rationalists of Europe he quotes with
approval but never the Catholic fathers. "How can we go
back to St. Thomas and the middle ages," he asks, "living as
we are in an age which has produced Edison, Tolstoy and
Flammarion?"
The position which the Independent church holds is described in a brief statement which was released for publication in I905:
"Its doctrines are rationalistic, conforming vigorously to
the results of modern science. It accepts Darwinism, harmonizing it with Biblical doctrine. It denies the trinity of
persons of the divinity, but believes in a trinity of attributes
and names. The explanation of this idea accepted by the
church is entirely new and peculiar to itself, founded upon
reasoning, based upon scriptural text and upon rational writings. It denies original sin, as well as the view that the
consequences of such sin were expiated through Jesus Christ,
but it maintains that Christ's sacrifice has redeemed us from
our errors, passions, and weaknesses by means of his divine