Chapter III: Preface: To the Fourth Edition

This book is now being reprinted in a somewhat larger type, and an opportunity is given, less restricted than the last, for making changes in it. It is impossible for me at present to re-write it; it appears substantially as it was. Some alterations and additions have been made in the earlier chapters, and the bibliographies have been brought more nearly up to date. I would take this opportunity of directing the attention of readers of this book to the published Proceedings of the Oxford Congress of the History of Religion, held in September 1908. They will there see how large this field of study has now grown, and what varied life and movement every part of it contains. I have given references only to the addresses of the Presidents of the Sections of the Congress, in which a fresh review will be found of recent progress in the study of each of the great religions.

ST. ANDREWS, _July_ 1910.

CONTENTS

PART I THE RELIGION OF THE EARLY WORLD

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION PAGE Position of the science--Unity of all religion--The growth of religion continuous--Preliminary definition of religion-- Criticism of other definitions--Fuller definition--Religion and civilisation advance together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-18

CHAPTER II THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION

Origin of civilisation--It was from the savage state that civilisation was by degrees produced--The religion of savages--All savages have religion--It is a psychological necessity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-28

CHAPTER III THE EARLIEST OBJECTS OF WORSHIP

Nature-worship--Ancestor-worship--Fetish-worship--A supreme being--Which gods were first worshipped?--Fetish-gods came first--Spirits, human or quasi-human, came first--Theories of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Tylor--Animism--The minor nature-worship came first--Theories of Mr. M. Müller and of Ed. von Hartmann--The great nature-powers came first--Both nature-worship and the worship of spirits are sources of early religion--Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-50

CHAPTER IV EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--BELIEF

Growth of the great gods--Polytheism--Kathenotheism--The minor nature-worship--The worship of animals--Trees, wells, stones--The state after death--Growth of the great religions out of these beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51-65

CHAPTER V EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--PRACTICES

Sacrifice--Prayer--Sacred places, objects, persons--Magic-- Character of early religion--Early religion and morality . . 66-78

CHAPTER VI NATIONAL RELIGION

Classifications of religions--Rise of national religion--It affords a new social bond--And a better God--Example--The Inca religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79-90

PART II ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS

CHAPTER VII BABYLON AND ASSYRIA

People and literature--Worship of spirits--Worship of animals--The great Gods--Mythology--The state religion . . . 91-105

CHAPTER VIII CHINA

History of China--The literature of the religion--The state religion of ancient China--Heaven--The spirits--Ancestors-- Confucius--His life--His doctrine--Taoism--Buddhism in China 106-125

CHAPTER IX THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT

History and literature--1. Animal worship--Theories accounting for it--2. The great Gods--They also are local-- Mythology--Dynasties of gods--Ra--Osiris--Ptah--Was the earliest religion monotheistic?--Syncretism--Pantheism-- Worship--3. The doctrine of the other life--Treatment of the dead--The spirit in the under-world--_The Book of the Dead_-- Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126-157

PART III THE SEMITIC GROUP

CHAPTER X THE SEMITIC RELIGION

Home of the Semites--Character of the race--Their early religious ideas--Difference between Semitic and Aryan religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159-169

CHAPTER XI CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS

The Religion of the Canaanites--The Phenicians--Their gods-- Astral deities of Phenicia--Influence of Phenician art . . . 170-178

CHAPTER XII ISRAEL

The sacred literature--The people--Jehovah--The early ritual was simple--Contact with Canaanite religion--Danger of fusion--Religious conflict--The monarchy--Religion not centralised--The Prophets--The old religion national-- Criticism of the old religion by the prophets--Appearance of Universalism--Ethical monotheism--Individualism of the prophetic teaching--The reforms--Deuteronomy--Earlier codes-- The exile--The return; the reform of Ezra--Character of the later religion--Heathenish elements of Judaism--Spiritual elements--The Psalms--The Synagogue--The national hopes--The state after death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179-216

CHAPTER XIII ISLAM

Arabia before Mahomet--The old religion--Confusion of worship--Allah--Judaism and Christianity in Arabia--Mahomet, early life--His religious impressions--The revelations--His preaching--Persecution--Trials; decides to leave Mecca-- Mahomet at Medina--New religious union--Breach with Judaism and Christianity--Domestic--Conquest of Mecca--Mecca made the capital of Islam--Spread of Islam--The duties of the Moslem-- The Koran--Islam a universal religion . . . . . . . . . . . . 217-242

PART IV THE ARYAN GROUP

CHAPTER XIV THE ARYAN RELIGION

The Aryans, their early home--Their civilisation described-- Little known of their gods--Their worship was domestic . . . 243-255

CHAPTER XV THE TEUTONS

The Aryans in Europe--The ancient Germans--The early German gods--The working religion--Later German religion--Iceland-- The Eddas--The gods of the Eddas--The twilight of the gods . 256-273

CHAPTER XVI GREECE

People and land--Earliest religion; functional deities-- Growth of Greek gods--Stones, animals, trees--Greek religion is local--Artistic tendency--Early Eastern influences-- Homer--The Homeric gods--Worship in Homer--Omens--The state after death--Hesiod--The poets and the working religion--Rise of religious art--Festivals and games--Zeus and Apollo-- Change of the Greek spirit in sixth century B.C.--New religious feeling; the mysteries--Religion and philosophy . . 274-304

CHAPTER XVII THE RELIGION OF ROME

Roman religion was different from Greek--The earliest gods of Rome are functional beings--The worship of these beings--The great gods--Sacred persons--Roman religion legal rather than priestly--Changes introduced from without--Etruria--Greek gods in Rome--The Graeco-Roman religion--Decay and confusion 305-323

CHAPTER XVIII THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA

I. _The Vedic Religion_

Relation of Indian to Aryan religion--The Rigveda--The Vedic gods--Hymns to the gods--To what stage does this religion belong?--It is primitive--It is advanced--In spite of many gods, a tendency to Monotheism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324-337

CHAPTER XIX INDIA

II. _Brahmanism_

The caste system: the Brahmans--The growth of the sacred literature--Sacrifice--Practical life--Philosophy-- Transmigration--Later developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338-352

CHAPTER XX INDIA

III. _Buddhism_

The literature--Was there a personal founder?--The story of the founder--Is Buddhism a revolt against Brahmanism?--The Buddha--The doctrine--Buddhist morality--Nirvana--No gods-- The order--Buddhism made popular--Conclusion--Buddhism is not a complete religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353-380

CHAPTER XXI PERSIA

Sources--The contents of the Zend-Avesta are composite-- Zoroaster--Primitive religion of Iran--The call of Zarathustra--The doctrine--Its inconsistencies--Man is called to judge between the gods--This religion is essentially intolerant--Growth of Mazdeism--Organisation of the heavenly beings--The attributes of Ahura--Ancient testimonies to the Persian religion--The Vendidad: laws of purity--How this doctrine entered Mazdeism--Influence of Mazdeism on Judaism and in other directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381-408

PART V UNIVERSAL RELIGION

CHAPTER XXII CHRISTIANITY

State of Jewish religion at the Christian era--The teaching of Jesus--His person and work--Universalism of Christianity-- The Apostle Paul--What Christianity received from Judaism-- And from the Greek world--The different religions of Christian nations and the common Christianity . . . . . . . . 409-425

CHAPTER XXIII CONCLUSION

Tribal, national, and individual religion--This the central development--Has to be studied in nations--Periods of general advance in religion--Conditions of religious progress . . . . 426-434

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435-440