Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/385

Rh RELIGIONS 367 practising that doctrine. So they are founded by indi- viduals founded, not instituted or organized, for that as a rule is done by the generation which follows that of the founder and not always by one single person, but in some cases by a body of priests or teachers. This funda- mental doctrine and the system based on it are considered by the adherents to be a divine revelation, and he who first revealed it, or is thought to have revealed it, is con- sidered as an inspired prophet or a son of God. Nay, even if the primitive teaching had an atheistic tendency, as in the case of Buddhism, it is this real or mythical teacher whom they not only revere, but worship as their supreme deity. We now come to the subdivisions of each of the two principal categories. And here we cannot silently pass by the classification of the least advanced religions proposed by Prof. Pfleiderer (Reliyionsphilosophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage, 2d ed. 1884, vol. ii.), which supersedes the complete classification of religions given by him in an earlier work (Die, Religion, ihr Wesen und Hire Geschtchte). The latter was based on his conception of religion as the fusion of dependence and liberty, but has now been aban- doned by the author. According to Pfleiderer the original religion must have been a kind of indistinct, chaotic naturism, being an adoration of the natural phenomena as living powers; and, as primitive man cannot have had consciousness of his superiority over the animals, nor of his personality and his spiritual nature, he could not conceive these divine powers as personal, or spiritual, or anthropomorphic, but only as living beings. Then from this primitive naturism sprang : (1) anthro- pomorphic polytheism, which is decidedly an advance on mythopoeic naturism, as it brings the personal gods into relation with the moral life of man, but at the same time has its drawback since it attributes all human passions, faults, and sins to the gods; (2) spiritism (animism], combined with a primitive idolatry, fetichism, each of them not an advance but rather a depravation of religion, caused by the decadence of civilization, which inevitably followed the dispersion and isolation of tribes previously united; (3) henotheism, not the henotheism of Max Miiller, or of Hartmann, or of Asmus, but a practical henotheism, i.e., the adoration of one God above others as the specific tribal god or as the lord over a particular people, a national or relative monotheism, like that of the ancient Israelites, the worship of an absolute sovereign who exacts passive obedience. This practical monotheism is totally different from the theoretical monotheism, to which the Aryans, with their monistic speculative idea of the godhead, are much nearer. Passing by the primitive naturism, which is only a matter of speculation, we are bound to admit the real exist- ence of the other three classes specified by Pfleiderer. Only the order in which they are arranged must be changed. For, if spiritism or animism sprang from a primitive not yet animistic naturism, at the same time with, though under different circumstances from, anthropomorphic poly- theism and henotheism, how then shall we explain so many traces and remains of a previous animistic belief in each of the latter religious developments 1 They too must have gone through an animistic stage. And, on the other hand, some traces even of anthropomorphic mythology are not totally wanting in the animistic religions of uncivilized tribes and barbarous nations, though, of course, in this mythology manlike beings still stand on the same level as, if not much lower than, those having the shape of animals. The different stages of religious development have been characterized by C. P. Tiele (Outlines of the History of Religion, 3) as follows : (a) a period in which animism generally prevailed, still represented by the so-called nature religions (in the narrower sense), or rather by the polydse- monistic magical tribal religions ; (b) polytheistic national religions resting on a traditional doctrine ; (c) nomistic (or, as Prof. Carlo Puini proposes to call them, nomothetic) religions, or religious communities founded on a law or sacred writing and subduing polytheism more or less com- pletely by pantheism or monotheism ; (d) universal or world-religions, which 'start from principles and maxims. Though in general maintaining this division, at least for practical use, if we wish to draw up a morphological classi- fication of religions, we shall have to modify and to com- plete it, and to arrange the different stages under the two principal categories of nature religions and ethical religions. Nature Religions. 1. To the philosophy of religion we Nature leave the solution of the difficult problem, What may religions, have been the state of religion before the oldest religion known to us sprang into being, and even before that animistic stage of development which we know only by its survivals in the higher and its ruins in the still existing lower religions ? Certain it is that the oldest religions must have contained the germs of all the later growth, and, though perhaps more thoroughly naturistic than the most naturistic now known, must have shown some faint traces at least of awakening moral feelings. Man, we think, in that primitive stage, must have regarded the natural phenomena on which his life and welfare depend as living beings, endowed with superhuman magical power ; and his imagination, as yet uncontrolled by observation and reasoning, must frequently have given them the shape of frightful animals, monsters, portentous mythical beings, some of which still survive in the later mythologies. Perhaps the best name for this first stage of religious development might be the "polyzoic" stage. 2. The following naturistic stages are to be classified under three distinct heads : (a) polydsemonistic magical religions under the influence of animism; (b) purified magical religions, in which animistic ideas still play a prominent part, but which have grown up to a therian- thropic polytheism ; (c) religions in which the powers of nature are worshipped as manlike though superhuman and semi-ethical beings, or anthropomorphic polytheism. 3. Animism, which exercises a prominent influence on Animism the religions of the first stage (a) mentioned above, is a system by which man, having become conscious of the superiority of the spirit over the body and of its relative independence, tries to account for the phenomena of nature, which he, not having the slightest scientific knowledge either of nature or of mind, is unable to explain otherwise. It is not itself a religion, but a sort of primitive philosophy, which not only controls religion, but rules the whole life of man in the childhood of the world. All things living and moving, or startling him by something strange and extraordinary, and of which he does not know the natural causes, he ascribes to the working of mighty spirits, moving freely through earth and air, and, now of their own accord now under com- pulsion, taking up their abode either temporarily or permanently in some living or some lifeless object. Only the powerful among these spirits, "those on which man feels himself dependent, and before which he stands in awe, acquire the rank of divine beings," and either as invisible or as embodied spirits become objects of worship (spiritism and fetichism). As the principal characteristics of those religions we have to consider (1) a confused and indeterminate polydaemonistic mythology, though some spirits, especially those directing heavenly pheno- mena, are held to be more powerful than the others, and the supreme spirit of heaven is generally the mightiest of