First Chapter, entitled "Religion in History". ANW considers "the type of justification which is available for belief in doctrines of religion."
He notes that it is the peculiar quality of religion that "humanity is always shifting its attitude toward it." There are grave doubts about doctrine, and no agreement on which religion is true or false. Is there any validity to a belief?
ANW goes on to his second, very famous contrast: "What is generally disputed is doubtful, and what is doubtful is relatively unimportant." After all, our conduct cannot be guided by unsettled general principles. He contrast religion with mathematics: "You USE arithmetic, but you ARE religious." And the author pursues this contrast, noting that no one is "justified" by his faith in the multiplication tables, but "justification is the basis of all religion". He assumes that "character is developed according to your faith". He takes this as the "primary religious truth from which no one can escape." As if Religion is a "force of belief" which can "cleanse the inward parts". And from that leap there, ANW concludes, "For this reason the primary religious virtue is sincerity, a penetrating sincerity."
Sadly, he offers no evidence of what any of this means. But he firmly grasps and conveys the idea that Religion can be defined "as a system of general truths which have the effect of transforming character when they are sincerely held and vividly apprehended." In a Chapter entitled "Religion in History", we are really forced to ask, What? What is this transforming effect of which you speak?