Part 5 — CHAPTER XXIII
Reading edition
CONCLUSION
It will not be expected that the result of the great movement traced in the chapters of this work can be summed up in a few words. We set out with a definition of our subject which we said could only be fully verified after religion had accomplished its growth and had fully unfolded its nature. We also set out with the assumption that all the religion of the world is one, and that it exhibits a development which is in the main continuous, from the most elementary to the highest stages. We shall not now attempt to justify by argument that definition or that assumption. The history which we have sought to place before the reader must itself be the proof of them. All that can be done in bringing this work to a close is to point out one great line of development, which may be recognised more or less distinctly in the growth of each religion, and may therefore be held to be characteristic of religion as a whole. No doubt the growth of religion, as of other human activities, has many sides and aspects, but perhaps it may be possible to specify the central line of growth in which the explanation of all the subsidiary and parallel forward movements is to be found.
It was stated in our first chapter that religion is the expression of human needs with reference to higher beings who are supposed to be capable of fulfilling men's desires, and it was also stated as an inference from this, that the growth of human needs is the cause of religious change and progress. If this is true, then the key to the progress of religion is to be found in the successive emergence in human experience of higher and still higher needs. If we can discover the order in which higher aspirations successively emerge in the growth of humanity, then we shall possess the chief clue to the course of religious advance. Now while there is infinite variety in the needs and desires of men, every land and each nation having ideals all its own, we can yet discern, on a broad view of human progress, an advance from lower to higher needs which is common to the human race, and manifests itself in the history of each nation. Three successive conditions of human life stand out before us as markedly distinct, and as occurring wherever civilisation continues to advance. The first is that in which material needs are all-absorbing; the second that in which freedom from material needs has been to some extent attained, and the highest aspirations are directed to the safety and advancement of the nation in which men find themselves united and secure; and the third is that in which the individual realises his own value apart from the state, and develops a personal ideal which is thenceforward his chief end. To these three stages of human existence three types of religion correspond, and the growth of religion consists in the main in its passage from the lower to the higher of these stages.
The religion of the tribe belongs to that stage of man's existence in which his energies are entirely occupied in the struggle against nature and against other tribes. The conditions of his life do not allow his higher faculties to grow, and while he is not without many glimpses and anticipations of higher things, his religion, as a whole, is a mass of childish fancies, and of fixed traditions which he cannot explain, but does not venture to criticise or change. His gods are petty and capricious beings, and his modes of influencing them, though used with zeal and fervour, have little to do with reason or with taste or with morality. It is in this kind of religion that magic of all sorts is at home.
The advance from the religion of the tribe to that of the nation was briefly described above, sqq.. The leading classes of the state at least having gained some measure of security and leisure, ideas of a nobler order spring up in their minds. The service of the great gods of the state is organised with befitting dignity and splendour; the best minds contribute to it all they can in the way of art, of poetry, of purified legend, of stately ceremonial. Patriotism and religion are one, the offices of worship are upheld by the whole power of the state, and the gods speak with new authority to the spirit of the worshipper. Now it is that great religious systems arise, so powerful, so highly organised, so splendidly adorned, and surrounded with such venerable traditions, that they seem to be destined for eternity. The priesthood becomes a very powerful class, and acquires a personal holiness which marks out its members as different from other men; the sacrifices acquire the character of divine mysteries, every detail of which, even the most trivial, has a sacred meaning; religious books are compiled or written, which by and by are regarded as inspired, and as possessing absolute authority. It is to be observed that the older style of religion is not at once driven out by the growth of the new, but continues to flourish beside it and under its shadow. The tribes of whom the nation is composed still cherish and adore their own special deities. That older worship is often thought to bring blessings which the new worship of the state does not command, and many a piece of ancient magic, many a practice which has no connection with the state religion, still goes on, especially among those who are not cultivated enough to appreciate the nobler faith which has arisen.
This, however, does not keep the national faith from growing in riches and consistency; and religion appears, as this growth proceeds, to have attained the highest degree of power and authority at which it can possibly arrive. Commanding as it does all the resources of the nation, enriched by all that can be brought to it of material or intellectual riches, placed in a position of absolute exaltation and inviolableness, to what further conquests can it still look forward? Yet when a national religion appears to be most firmly established, the forces are most certainly at work which must ere long lead to a far-reaching change. While the national worship has been growing up to its highest splendours, the lives of the citizens have also been growing richer and deeper, and the individual soul has become aware of wants and longings which cannot be satisfied in the national temple. The further progress of religion is apt to appear as a revolt against the system which has grown so strong. The individual sets out to seek a consistent intellectual view, and so figures as a sceptic. He aims at a higher moral law than that of the priestly system, and is accused of undermining public morality. He feels a new call to personal goodness, a new need for personal atonement with the ideal holiness which he has learned to apprehend; and as the public ritual does not meet these needs, he seeks for new religious associations and perhaps appears to preach a doctrine contrary to patriotism, as it is subversive of the established religion of his country, and to be wilfully destroying what his countrymen revere, and wilfully breaking through old ties and obligations. Thus the individualist stage of religion succeeds the national. But the individualist stage is also, in part at least, the universal stage. What the thinking mind and the pious heart seeks and cannot find in the national worship, is a religion free as the seeker himself has become free, from all that is unreasonable and artificial, a religion therefore in which every thinking mind and every pious heart can have a share. What is gained by individuals in this direction is capable, therefore, if circumstances favour, of proving an acquisition not only for the individual reformer or his nation, but for all men. But as the rise of national religion does not bring to an end the ruder worships of the tribes, which still go on beside it, so neither does the rise of individualism, even in its purest form, bring to an end the national worship. In the long run this may follow, but it does not take place at once. All three forms of religion go on together; the religion of magic, that of stately public sacrifices and ceremonials, and that of intellectual effort and pious meditation and prayer. Each no doubt influences to some extent the others, and is influenced by them in turn.
The movement thus indicated from tribal to national, and from national to individual and to universal religion, is the central development of religion, and all the minor developments which might be traced, as that of sacrifice from rude to spiritual forms, of the functions of the sacred class, of the morality dictated by religion at its various stages, or of the literature connected with piety, may be explained by reference to this one. This movement has taken place in every nation; we have seen something of it in each of our chapters. In some nations it has been early arrested, so that no important contribution has there been brought to the general religion of mankind, in others it has run its full course, and like a great river has arrived at the ocean at last, to mingle its waters with those of other mighty streams.
The story of the growth of the world's religion has therefore to be told in a number of parallel narratives, each dealing with the experience of a separate nation. There can scarcely be any general history of the religion of the world, in addition to those special histories. Some epochs, it is true, stand out as having witnessed simultaneous religious movements in many lands, as if the mind of the whole human race had then been passing through the same crisis of thought. The sixth century B.C. is the age of Confucius and of Laotsze in China, of Gautama in India, of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Unknown Prophet of the Exile, of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Xenophanes, and also of the rise into prominence of the Greek mysteries. Widely different as the movements are which thus took place contemporaneously in these lands, we may discern in all of them alike the tendency to plant religion in the mind and heart, and to create a deeper union than the old external one, a union based on common intellectual effort and spiritual sympathy. The period immediately before and after the Christian era might also appear to be one in which the mind of the world as a whole made a great step forward. The union of many nations under the sway of Rome, and the universal diffusion of the Greek language as a means of general communication, made men conscious at this time as they had never been before, of the unity of mankind in spite of all differences of race and speech. A philosophy also was popular at this time which was cosmopolitan in its character, and occupied itself with the great problems, which are the same for all, of man's relation to the gods and of his moral duty. If we add to this the combination which took place at Rome and wherever different races met, of various rites and creeds, we see that the age was one singularly disposed to the breaking down of artificial barriers between men, and singularly fitted to promote the growth of a belief in which men of all nations might unite and feel themselves to be brethren.
In these two periods we may recognise important steps in that great Education of the Human Race which the Apostle Paul refers to in a bold philosophy of history (Galat. iv.), and which later thinkers have striven to set forth in detail. After the long servitude of mankind to irrational practices and to gods who were no gods, there comes first the period when men recognise that the true God is to be found not merely outside them but within their hearts and minds, and then the period when they find that the true God is the same to all men, that they are all children of the same Father. But while these general movements of the human mind may be acknowledged, the education of the human race proceeds for the most part in nations. As each nation has to elaborate its own art, its own literature, its own system of law, so each nation has to perfect its own religion. Even after a universal faith has appeared, religion does not cease to be a national thing. Each people moulds the universal religion which it has adopted into a special form, continues by means of it the rites and traditions of the past, and expresses through it its own national character and aspirations. Each nation as well as each individual must necessarily have a faith specially its own, arising out of its own character and experience and in great part incommunicable to others. No two nations could possibly exchange religions.
But on the other hand every nation contains within itself forms of religion which differ from each other as widely as those of two separate nations. It has been said that no religious belief or usage which has once lived can ever be destroyed; and the proof of this may be witnessed in every nation. Even after that religion has come which has its main seat in the heart and soul, the ruder forms of piety live on, and even at times aggressively assert themselves. If there are classes for whom the struggle against material hardships still continues, no lofty religion can be attained by them any more than by savage tribes. As the conditions of their life forbid the growth of their higher faculties, their religion cannot be one of thought or of refinement, but must be one which promises palpable benefits or an escape from immediate dangers. At a somewhat higher stage is the class of those who, while partly escaped from the struggle against want, have not yet fully realised themselves as thinking and spiritual beings, and to whom the benefits of religion still lie outside, rather than in the inner life. When the benefits of religion are thus conceived, its processes must be of a mechanical nature. Hence the various systems of apparatus for connecting the worshipper with a source of good distant from him in time or space, and for fetching as it were from another region, with certainty and accuracy, needed supplies of grace.
The further development of religion in a community so mixed must depend on the progressive education and elevation of the people. As more and more of them are freed first from distracting wants and cares, and then from sordid and materialistic views, their spiritual nature will expand. The need for God himself rather than for his gifts, will arise and increase in their hearts, and they will grow capable of that highest religion which is the life of the soul with God; they will feel its beauty and will drink of the deep springs which it contains, of strength and peace.
To attain this true religion the human race has had to travel far and to make many experiments. Many temples were built and fell to ruin before the true temple of the soul was reached in which, as each finds what he as an individual requires, there is also room for all mankind. Even after this highest religion has been made known to men, it has often been obscured and lost, and many a struggle has been needed to vindicate its claims and help it to retain its rightful place. But with growing experience the world becomes more assured that the simplest and broadest religion ever preached upon this earth is also the best and the truest, and that in maintaining Christianity as at first preached, and applying it in every needed direction, lies the hope of the future of mankind. To those who agree in this conclusion the history of the religion of the world, full of errors and of grievous failures as it has been seen to be, cannot appear to have been a vain and purposeless excursion in a land of shadows. Not without a divine call, and not without divine guidance did man set out so early, and persevere so constantly in spite of all his disappointments, in the search for God.
INDEX
Aesir,
267
Ahura Mazda,
387
,
391
,
397
,
398
,
405
Allah,
222
Allat, "The Lady,"
165
,
173
,
219
Amartas,
44
Anaitis,
407
Ancestor-worship,
primitive,
33
,
40
China,
115
Aryan,
250
India,
338
Angels and demons, Persia,
400
,
407
Animals, worship of,
29
,
57
in Peru,
86
in Babylonia,
96
in Egypt,
130
how accounted for,
133
in Arabia,
219
in Greece,
277
Animation of Nature in savage thought,
24
Animism,
meaning of,
40
,
96
,
308
in Roman religion,
308
Anthropomorphism,
53
Babylonia,
96
Egypt,
132
Greece,
281
Apocalypse,
213
Arabia,
before Mahomet,
218
gods of,
219
Judaism and Christianity in,
223
Art,
Phenician,
174
Egyptian,
132
Greece,
280
,
292
Aryans, the,
245
description of,
248
in Europe,
256
religion,
250
etymology of names of gods,
250
Ascetics, Brahmanic,
350
Ashera, Canaanite goddess,
172
Ashtoreth,
176
Association, forms of religious,
Totem-Clan,
70
nation,
84
Greek mysteries,
298
Greek schools,
303
new form in Israel,
212
new form in Islam,
233
Asuras,
44
Baal, Canaanite god,
171
,
189
Babylon and Assyria,
religion of,
93
connection with Egypt,
94
,
96
,
97
connection with China,
93
,
98
mythology of,
100
Belief,
an essential part of religion,
9
,
13
less important than rite in primitive religion,
66
Brahman, etymology of,
339
Brahmanism,
338
Buddhism,
353
,
sqq.
in China,
123
Burnt Njal
,
264
Burton, Captain,
Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca
,
236
Caaba,
220
,
236
Cabiri,
177
Canaanites,
170
religion of,
171
,
191
Caste,
338
Celts,
257
China,
106
connection with Babylonia,
107
state religion of,
111
Christianity,
411
,
sqq.
Civilisation and religion advance together,
15
origin of,
19
Classification of religions,
80
Confucius,
107
,
117
,
sqq.
Continuity of growth in religion,
6
Curiosity, an element of religion,
12
Daniel,
213
Decalogues,
202
Definition of religion,
preliminary,
8
fuller,
13
Degeneration in civilisation,
19
in religion,
38
Deuteronomy,
201
Devas,
44
,
396
Development of religion,
8
,
51
,
sqq.
,
430
,
sqq.
Domestic worship,
origin of,
33
China,
115
Aryans,
251
Iceland,
264
Greece,
275
Rome,
311
Brahmanic,
342
Dualism,
56
Eddas,
266
Egypt, religion of,
126
,
sqq.
Elijah and Elisha,
190
Elves,
265
Ephod,
188
Etruria, religion of,
318
Exile of Israel,
202
Ezra,
204
Fairy Tales (German),
262
Fate,
289
Festivals, Greek,
294
Fetish-worship,
35
Fetishism,
38
Fire,
31
Frazer, Mr.,
58
,
59
;
Golden Bough
,
28
,
279
Frisia, religion in,
263
Functional deities,
Greece,
275
Rome,
308
Funeral practices,
62
Egypt,
149
Icelandic,
264
Greece,
282
,
290
India,
332
Persian,
405
Games, Greek,
294
Gautama Buddha,
356
his death,
361
Germans, the ancient,
258
their gods,
259
their gods identified with Roman,
260
working religion of,
260
later religion,
263
Ghosts,
34
Gods, the great,
in Babylonia,
98
in Egypt,
137
of the Aryans,
252
German,
259
Icelandic,
266
of Homer,
285
Roman,
311
Indian,
326
Gomme,
Ethnology in Folklore
,
60
,
249
,
254
Greece,
274
Grimm, German Mythology,
260
Hades,
291
Hammurabi,
93
,
95
,
202
Hanyfs,
224
Hartmann, Edward von,
46
Heaven,
52
an object of primitive worship,
31
,
53
Babylonia,
93
China,
112
Arabia,
219
India,
318
,
326
,
333
Hegira,
231
Hell,
229
,
265
,
392
Henotheism,
56
Heroic legends,
Babylonian,
100
German,
262
Hesiod,
291
Homer,
283
worship in,
287
Homeric gods,
285
Hymns,
Babylonian,
101
Egyptian,
144
Vedic,
328
Persian,
383
. See
Psalms
Iceland,
264
decay of old religion of,
272
Idols,
none in primitive religion,
73
Arabia,
219
,
220
German?
264
Immortality,
China,
115
Egypt,
152
Incas, the religion of,
85-88
India,
324
Individual, the, not considered in primitive religion,
76
Individual religion,
Babylonia,
104
Israel,
205
Greece,
300
India,
346
a high stage of religion,
429
the porch to universalism,
430
See
Buddhism
Indo-Europeans. See
Aryans
Isaiah xli.-lxvi.,
203
Islam,
217
. See
Mahomet
meaning of,
226
spread of,
237
a universal religion,
240
weakness of,
241
Israel,
179
Israel and Canaanites,
184
Prophets,
189
reforms of religion,
200
exile,
202
the return,
204
Istar,
101
Jainism,
362
Japan,
115
Jehovah,
182
Jesus Christ,
413
,
sqq.
Jewish religion,
205
spiritual elements of,
209
heathenish elements of,
210
Persian influence on?
215
Jinns,
220
Job,
215
Judaism,
205
sqq.
Hellenistic period of,
412
at time of Christ,
413
Kathenotheism,
55
,
336
Koran,
225
,
227
,
239
Lang, Andrew,
25
,
59
;
Myth, Ritual, and Religion
,
22
Legge, Dr.,
110
,
113
Literatures, sacred,
179
Babylonia,
93
,
100
Buddhist,
353
China,
108
Eddas,
266
Egypt,
127
,
154
Koran,
225
,
227
,
239
Israel,
179
,
207
Sibylline books,
319
Vendidad,
406
Zend-Avesta,
382
Local nature of early religion,
60
Local observances,
Aryan,
253
old German,
262
Icelandic,
264
Lockyer,
Dawn of Astronomy
,
94
Magi,
405
Magic,
74
Babylonia,
95
Egypt,
155
Mahomet,
225
,
sqq.
preaching,
228
leaves Mecca,
231
at Medina,
232
breach with Judaism and Christianity,
234
domestic,
235
Manicheism,
408
Mannhardt,
Feld- und Waldkulte
,
59
,
262
Manu, law of,
344
Massebah,
172
Maya,
349
M
c
Lennan,
59
Mecca,
220
becomes capital of Islam,
235
Meyer, E.,
247
Mithra,
407
Moloch,
174
Monarchical Pantheon of the Aryans,
253
Monotheism,
not primitive,
37
,
56
in Egypt?
144
emergence of, in Israel,
196
in India,
348
Morality,
in primitive religion,
77
Egyptian religion,
155
Greece,
279
Vedic religion,
335
Brahmanism,
345
of Buddhism,
372
Moslem,
meaning of,
226
duties of the,
238
Müller, Mr. Max,
10
,
42
,
246
,
250
,
332
his theory of the origin of religion,
43
Mycenæ,
282
Mysteries, the Greek,
298
Mythology,
origin of,
51
Babylonia,
100
Egypt,
138
Greece,
280
Icelandic,
267
Indian,
333
National religion,
how different from earlier form,
81
,
428
Israel,
191
Natural religion,
80
Nature gods, growth of,
51
Nature-worship,
the greater,
30
,
43
the minor,
32
,
42
,
57
Nirvana,
361
,
373
Omens,
290
Roman,
312
Orientation, of temples,
100
Origin of religion,
(1) Primitive revelation,
26
(2) Innate idea,
26
(3) Psychological necessity,
27
Orphism,
302
Other World, the
in Egypt,
151
with the Semites,
167
Jewish beliefs about,
214
Arabia,
220
Iceland,
265
,
266
Homer,
283
Pantheism,
in Egypt,
148
India,
336
,
348
Patriarchal society and religion of Aryans,
248
Perkunas,
36
Persia,
381
primitive religion,
385
contact of Jews with,
401
,
406
Pfleiderer, Otto,
47
Phenicians,
170
religion of,
176
influence on Greece,
282
Philistines,
170
Philosophy,
Greek,
301
Indian,
347
Polytheism,
origin of,
53
Indian,
335
Prayer,
primitive,
71
Israel,
198
,
212
Indian,
339
Persian,
382
,
394
Priestly code,
202
,
403
Priests,
none in the earliest religion,
72
not necessary in early Israel,
187
Roman,
313
Brahmans,
338
Primitive religion, the,
21
difference between it and later forms,
79
Prophets, in Israel,
189
their criticism of the old religion of Israel,
192
Psalms,
210
. See
Hymns
Purity, laws of,
Israel,
209
Persia,
404
Rationalism,
Greece,
297
India,
350
Reforms,
of Israelite religion,
200
of Augustus,
322
Renouf, Le Page,
145
Revealed religion,
80
Réville, M.,
25
,
31
,
42
Resurrection,
214
Retribution, after death,
in Egypt,
155
Mahomet,
229
Israel,
214
Rig-veda, the,
325
Ritualism,
Brahmanic,
343
Roman,
314
Persian,
403
Jewish,
204
,
208
Rome,
305
,
sqq.
Rougé, M. de la,
145
Sacred places,
59
Semitic,
165
Canaanite,
184
,
200
Arabia,
219
Germany,
261
Sacred seasons,
75
Sacrifice,
primitive, generally a meal,
67
in China,
114
Semitic,
164
human (Phenician),
175
human (Israel),
187
human (Icelandic),
265
early Israelite,
183
denounced by O. T. prophets,
193
Jewish,
207
Icelandic,
264
Homeric,
287
Persia,
394
Saussaye, P. D. Chantepie de la,
17
Savage elements in all the great religions,
21
Savages,
their religion falls short of the definition,
8
represent the original state of mankind,
19
mental habits of,
23
all have religion,
25
the religion of, described,
29
,
sqq.
their beliefs furnish the elements of the great religions,
63
Schrader (Aryans),
247
,
252
Semites,
161
religion of,
162
gods of,
164
,
173
goddess of,
99
,
165
,
219
Seraph,
220
Shin-to,
115
Sin,
Babylon,
103
Israel,
205
Slavs,
256
Smith, Robertson,
61
;
Religion of the Semites
,
58
,
70
,
162
Spencer, Mr. H.,
11
,
39
Spirit, the great,
39
36
Spirits,
of dead persons,
33
worship of, the origin of all religion?
38
in Babylonia,
95
in China,
114
in Arabia,
220
in Greece,
275
in Persia,
398
Standing stones,
60
Sun,
30
Sun-gods,
Babylonia,
99
Egypt,
140
,
148
Phenician,
176
Arabian,
219
Supreme Being, an object of primitive worship?
36
Survival of savage state in the great religions,
21
Synagogue,
212
Syncretism, of gods in Egypt,
148
Taboo,
72
Taoism,
121
Taylor, Dr. I.,
247
,
248
Temples,
not primitive,
72
Babylonia,
99
Egyptian,
128
,
130
,
136
Phenician and Jewish,
178
Greek,
292
Roman,
318
,
323
Teraphim,
188
Teutons,
256
. See
Germans
Thunder,
30
,
265
,
270
Tiele, Dr. C. P.,
15
Totemism,
58
,
135
,
277
Transmigration,
302
,
351
,
368
Tree-worship,
primitive,
32
,
59
,
278
Babylonia,
101
Canaanites,
172
Arabia,
219
Greece,
278
Tribal religion,
57
,
77
,
427
Tylor, Mr.,
Primitive Culture
,
10
,
20
,
25
,
29
,
39
,
62
,
63
,
68
Under-world, the,
Babylonia,
100
,
102
Egypt,
140
,
142
,
152
Unity of all religion,
4
Universal deities of the Aryans,
252
Universalism,
in O. T. prophets,
195
in Islam,
240
in Christianity,
419
Urim and Thummim,
188
Vedic hymns,
328
Vedic religion,
324
,
sqq.
its gods,
326
is it early or late?
331
Vow, original meaning of,
75
Waitz and Gerland's
Anthropologie der Naturvölker
,
29
Wellhausen, J.,
163
,
218
Wells, sacred,
32
,
57
,
59
Worship,
an essential element of religion,
9
primitive,
66
Chinese,
112
Egyptian,
147
Canaanite,
173
Israelite,
187
Jewish,
207
Roman,
309
See
Sacrifice
Zeus, etymology of,
250
,
286
,
296
Zoomorphism,
53
Zoroaster,
384
his call,
388
his doctrine,
391
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