Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/360

 342 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING

relations with those non-human beings, of whose wills natural events are supposed to be the expression. All the occurrences of life except the acts of their own wills are accounted for by the activity of these beings; and often even the acts of the human will are so explained. Mag ical arts grow apace. Taboos and ceremonial perfor mances multiply around all the more notable experiences of men. In the course of advancing intelligence these fungus growths are removed ; but the sense of an all-encom passing superhuman presence remains so long as people live in such an environment. Of the two factors of the religious relation the human and the superhuman the first is felt to be comparatively insignificant. The superhuman spirit, good or bad, is believed often to take possession of the human spirit, speak through it and use it according to pleasure. Superhuman influences overflow submerge, so to speak the whole realm of human existence. The priesthood attains to great power and often dominates the civil order. The religious official, regarded as the repre sentative of the superhuman world, is the most important personage in the community and his utterances on any mat ter carry the utmost weight.

When in the course of events, the reason begins as it inevitably must, sooner or later to formulate theories of the world, theological problems are uppermost and mainly engage the rational activities. Theological opinions are felt to be matters of transcendent importance. There is no tol eration of divergence from the theological conceptions gen erally held by the group. As these divergences appear, de spite the intolerance, the groupings of men are determined by their various opinions on religious subjects. These dif ferences form the line of profound social cleavage; and often become the source of the most ardent and uncom promising animosities which array men against one another.

II. We may now turn to consider the modern situation. It is evident that with the increase of the population and the accumulation of human experience, the human factors of the

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