Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/833

 RELIGION

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RELIGION

it. Again, as a result of such intuition, man should be found everywhere with a monotheistic religion. The widespread existence of Polytheism and the religious apathy of many individuals are inconsistent with such an intuition of God.

D. Max Mailer's Perception Theory. — This is but a slight modification of the intuition theory. Miiller thought the perception of the infinite was the source of religion, being acquired by "a mental faculty which, independent of, nay in spite of, sense and reason, enables man to apprehend the infinite under different names and under varying disguises" ("Origin and Growth of Religion", London, 1880, p. 2.3). But apprehension of the infinite or even of the indefinite is suited rather to philosophic than to simple minds, and is not to be found in the generality of religions. It is the apprehension of sovereign personality that gives rise to religion, not the mere apprehension of the infinite. How man arrives at the notion of such per- sonahty, this theory does not explain.

E. Fear Theory. — A common theory with the Greek and Roman philosophers, favoured by a few writers of modern times, is that religion had its origin in fear, particularly fear of lightning, tempests, and other dangerous features of nature. But fear is a feeUng, and no mere feeling can account for the idea of per- sonality, which may or may not be associated with a dangerous or terrifying object. Fear, Uke hope, may be one of the motives prompting man to the worship of the Deity, but such worship presupposes the recog- nition of Deity, and fear cannot account for this recognition. We have already seen that fear is not the predominating tone even in lower religions, as is shown by the universal use of rites e.xpressing joy, hope, and gratitude.

F. Animist Theory. — A favourite theory of modern times is the animist theory. It has been set forth with great erudition by E. B. Tylor. According to this theory, in consequence of a strong tendency to per- sonify, primitive peoples come to view everything as alive, even stocks and stones. They also have a crude notion of the soul, derived from dreams and visions experienced in sleep and swoons. Applying this soul- idea to inanimate things, which they take to be alive, they have come to associate mighty spirits with the great phenomena of nature and have given them worship. The defects of this theory are such as to discredit it in the eyes of most scholars. In the first place, it is not true that uncultured peoples confound the living with the non-living to the extent that they take the very stones to be alive. It would, indeed, be strange if uncultured man were not at least the equal of the beast in ability to distinguish betweem familiar objects that are lifeless and those that show life and movement. Again, while men of lower grades of culture have a crude notion of souls, they do not need that concept to arrive at the idea of personal agency in nature. All they need is the notion of personal cause, which they get from the consciousness of them- selves as sources of power and purposive action. There is every reason to think that this idea is prior to the soul concept. (See Animism.)

G. Ghost Theory. — This theory, whose prominent English champion was Herbert Spencer, identifies the primitive notion of religion with the service and propitiation of departed relatives, and attributes the worship of the great deities of nature to the mistaken applications of ancestor- worship. The first religious offerings are said to have been offerings of food, weapons, and utensils made to the souls of the dead, whose occupations, needs, and tastes in the next life were thought to be similar to those of earthly exist- ence. In return for this much-needed service, the dead gave the living aid anfl protection. A series of blunders led to the recognition and worship of the great nature-deities. Migrating peoples from beyond the sea or the mountain became known as children

of the sea or of the mountain. Later generations, mistaking the meaning of the term, were led to view the sea or the mountain as their living ancestor and to give it worship. Again, departed heroes named Sun, Thunder, Rain-Cloud, came after a lapse of time to be confounded with the real sun and other natural phenomena, thus giving rise to the conception of nature-deities and to nature-worship. The defects of this theory are manifest. Mistakes like these might be made by some stupid individual of the tribe, but not by all the members of the tribe, still less by tribes over all the earth. A series of trivial and fortuitous blunders cannot account for so world-wide a fact as the recognition of nature-deities. If the ghost-theory were true, we should find the rehgions of savages con- sisting exclusively of ancestor-worship. This is not the case. In all lower religions, where we find food- offerings to the dead, we also find recognized, and carefully distinguished from dead heroes, nature- deities. Among the pygmies of the Northern Congo, accounted one of the lowest of races, there is a rever- ent recognition of a supreme Deity, but no trace of ancestor-worship. There is thus no good ground for asserting ancestor-worship to have been the earliest form of religion, nor do we need it to account for reUgion, strictly speaking, in any of its forms. It is a parallel growth that has sprung up and become en- twined with religion proper. The latter is of inde- pendent origin.

H. Fetish Theory. — This derives religion from the use and veneration of fetishes. A fetish is an object (generally small enough to be easily carried) in which a spirit is thought to reside, acting as a protective genius for the owner who wears it, and who venerates it because of its indwelling spirit. Generally, it is the medicine-man or wizard who makes the fetish, and charges it with the spirit. It is used till its inefficiency becomes apparent, when it is cast aside as worthless, in the belief that the indwelling spirit has departed from it. Now the use of such objects cannot be the primary form of religion. In the first place, there is no existing form of religion known in which Fetish- ism is the sole constituent element. Among the negroes of West Africa, where it first attracted atten- tion, the fetish spirits are at best but inferior beings, generally distinct from the supreme heaven-god and from the powerful nature-deities associated with the sea and thunder. Ag.ain, the notion of persuading spirits to lodge themselves in stocks and stones and become the property of the wearers, is the very antithesis of religion, which implies the sense of de- pendence on the Deity. Far from the latter notion bring derived from the former, there is every reason to see in Fetishism a perverted notion of reUgion. (See Fetishism.)

I. Totem Theory. — This puts the origin of religion in Totemism, a semi-religious, semi-social institution prevailing chiefly among savage tribes. In certain tribes, every one of the component clans has a tutelary deity intimately associated with a particular species of animal or plant, which species is venerated by the clan as sacred and inviolable. It is called the ancestor of the clan. The individuals of the species are often viewed as particularly sacred because of the indwelling deity. Hence the totem animal or plant is ordinarily not used for food by the clan that bears its name. The union of clans into tribes under the leadership of one superior clan is said to have led to the absorption of the weaker totem deities into that of the ruling clan, with the result that powerful tribal deities arose. It was but a step further to the recognition of a supreme deity. Totemism labours under many of the difficulties of Fetishism. Nowhere do we find religion of pure Totemism. Among the North American In- dians, where Totemism has flourished with the great- est vigour, the totems are absolutely overshadowed by the great deities of the sky, air, and water. The