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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20137-8.txt b/20137-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8db4f31 --- /dev/null +++ b/20137-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1556 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Comparative View of Religions, by Johannes +Henricus Scholten, Translated by Francis T. Washburn + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Comparative View of Religions + + +Author: Johannes Henricus Scholten + + + +Release Date: December 19, 2006 [eBook #20137] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS*** + + +E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Graeme Mackreth, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net/) from page images generously made available by the +Making of America collection of the University of Michigan Libraries +(http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through the Making + of America collection of the University of Michigan Libraries. See + http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AJF2939.0001.001 + + + + + +A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS. + +Translated from the Dutch of + +J. H. SCHOLTEN, +Professor at Leyden, + +by Francis T. Washburn. + + + + + + + +Reprinted by permission from "The Religious Magazine and Monthly +Review." +Boston: Crosby & Damrell, 100 Washington St. 1870. + + + + +A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS. + + + + +INTRODUCTION.[1] + + +The conception of religion presupposes, _a_, God as object; _b_, man as +subject; _c_, the mutual relation existing between them. According to +the various stages of development which men have reached, religious +belief manifests itself either in the form of a passive feeling of +dependence, where the subject, not yet conscious of his independence, +feels himself wholly overmastered by the deity, or the object of +worship, as by a power outside of and opposed to himself; or, when the +feeling of independence has awakened, in a one-sided elevation of the +human, whereby man in worshiping a deity deifies himself. In the highest +stage of religious development, the most entire feeling of dependence is +united in religion with the strongest consciousness of personal +independence. The first of these forms is exhibited in the fetich and +nature-worship of the ancient nations; the second in Buddhism, and in +the deification of the human, which reaches its full height among the +Greeks. The true religion, prepared in Israel, is the Christian, in +which man, grown conscious of his oneness with God, is ruled by the +divine as an inner power of life, and acts spontaneously and freely +while in the fullest dependence upon God. Since Christ, no more perfect +religion has appeared. What is true and good in Islamism was borrowed +from Israel and Christianity. + +Although it is probable that every nation passed through different forms +of religious belief before its religion reached its highest development, +yet the earlier periods lie in great part beyond the reach of historical +investigation. The history of religion, therefore, has for its task the +review of the various forms of religion with which we are historically +acquainted, in the order of psychological development. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +FETICHISM. THE CHINESE. THE EGYPTIANS. + + +1. FETICHISM. + +The lowest stage of religious development is fetichism, as it is found +among the savage tribes of the polar regions, and in Africa, America, +and Australia. In this stage, man's needs are as yet very limited and +exclusively confined to the material world. Still too little developed +intellectually to worship the divine in nature and her powers, he thinks +he sees the divinity which he seeks in every unknown object which +strikes his senses, or which his imagination calls up. In this stage, +religion has no higher character than that of caprice and of love of +the mysterious and marvelous, mixed with fear and a slavish adoration of +the divine. The worship and the priest's office (Shaman, Shamanism) +consist here chiefly in the use of charms, to exorcise a dreaded power. +From this savage fetichism the nature-worship found among the Aztecs in +Mexico, and the worship of the sun in Peru, are distinguished by the +greater definiteness and order of their religious conceptions and +usages. In them the gods have names, and an ordained priesthood cares +for the religious interests of the people. The highest form to which +fetichism has attained is the worship of Manitou, the great spirit, +which is found among the ancient tribes of North America. + + +2. THE CHINESE. + +When man reaches a higher development, caprice and chance disappear from +religion. Having outgrown fetichism, man begins, as is the case among +the Chinese, to distinguish in the world around him an active and a +passive principle, force and matter (Yang and Yn), heaven and earth +(Kien and Kouen). We have here nature-worship in its beginnings. In this +stage, even less than in fetichism, is there a definite idea of God, +much less a conception of him as personal and spiritual lord. The +Chinese, from the practical, empirical point of view peculiar to him, +recognizes the spiritual only in man and chiefly in the state. His +religion, therefore, is confined exclusively to the faithful keeping of +the laws of the state (the Celestial Kingdom), in which he sees the +reflection of heaven, to the recognition of the Emperor as the son and +representative of heaven, and to the worship of the forefathers, +especially of the great men and departed emperors, to whose memory the +Chinese temples, or pagodas, are dedicated. The origin of this religion +dates, according to the tradition, from Fo-hi (2950 B.C.), the founder +of the Chinese state. In the fifth century before Christ, Kong-tse, or +Kong-fu-tse (Confucius), appeared as a reformer of the religion of his +countrymen, and gathered the ancient records and traditions of his +people into a sacred literature, which is known by the name of the +"King" (the books), "Yo-King" (the book of nature), "Chu-King" (the book +of history), "Chi-King" (the book of songs). The contents of the "King" +became later with the Chinese sages Meng-tse (360 B.C.) and Tschu-tsche +(1200 A.D.) an object of philosophical speculation. The doctrine of +Lao-tse, the younger contemporary of Kong-tse, which lays down as the +basis of the world, that is of the unreal or non-existent, a supreme +principle, _Tao_, or _Being_, corresponds with the Brahma doctrine of +the Indians, among whom he lived for a long time; but this doctrine +never became popular in China. + + +3. THE EGYPTIANS. + +The worship of nature, which is seen in its beginnings among the +Chinese, exhibits itself among the Egyptians in a more developed form as +theogony. Here also the reflecting mind rose to the recognition of two +fundamental principles, the producing and the passive power of nature, +Kneph and Neith, from which sprang successively the remaining powers of +nature, time, air, earth, light and darkness, personified by the fantasy +of the people into as many divinities. The Egyptian mythology also (none +has as yet been discovered among the Chinese) exhibits a like character. +Fruitfulness and drought, the results of the Nile's overflowing and +receding, are imaged in the myth of _Osiris_, _Isis_, and _Typhon_. The +visible form under which the divine was worshiped in Egypt was the +sacred animal, the bull _Apis_, dedicated to _Osiris_, the cow, +dedicated to _Isis_, as symbols of agriculture; the bird _Ibis_, the +crocodile, the dog _Anubis_, and other animals, whose physical +characteristics impressed the as yet childish man, who saw in them the +symbol, either of the beneficent power of nature which moved him to +thankfulness, or of a destructive power which he dreaded and whose anger +he sought to avert. The religion of Egypt was not of a purely spiritual +character. To the man whose eye is not yet open to the manifestation of +the spiritual around him and in him, the divine is not spirit, but as +yet only nature. The animal, although in the form of the sphinx +approaching the human, holds in Egyptian art a place above the human as +symbol of the divine. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ARIAN NATIONS. + + +1. THE EAST ARIANS. THE INDIANS. + +In the development of religion among the Indians, the following periods +may be distinguished:-- + + _a._ The original Veda-religion. + + _b._ The priestly religion of the Brahmins. + + _c._ The philosophical speculation. + + _d._ Buddhism. + + _e._ The modified Brahminism after Buddha, in connection with the + worship of Vishnu and Siva. + + +_a. The original Veda-religion._ + +The original religion of Arya originated in Bactria. From thence, before +the time of Zoroaster, it was brought over, with the great migration of +the people, to the land of the seven rivers, which they conquered, and +which stretched from the Indus to the Hesidrus. It consisted, according +to the oldest literature of the Veda, in a polytheistical worship of the +divine, either as the beneficent or the baneful power of nature. The +clear, blue sky, the light of the sun, the rosy dawn, the storm that +spends itself in fruitful rain, the winds and gales which drive away the +clouds, the rivers whose fruitful slime overspreads the fields,--these +moved the inhabitants of India to the worship of the divine as the +beneficent power of nature which blesses man. On the other hand, he +changed under the impression of the harmful phenomena of nature, the +dark and close-packed clouds which hold back the rain and intercept the +sunshine, the parching heat of summer, which dries up the rivers and +hinders growth and fruitfulness, and these also he erected into objects +of awe and religious adoration. From this view of nature sprang the +Indian mythology. The oldest divinity (Deva) of the Indians is Varuna, +the all-embracing heaven, who marks out their courses for the heavenly +luminaries, who rules the day and the night, who is lord of life and +death, whose protection is invoked, whose anger deprecated. After him, +the great ruler of nature, there appear, in the Veda hymns, Indra, the +blue sky, god of light and thunder, the warrior who in battle stands +beside the combatants; Vayu, the god of the wind, the chief of the +Maruts, or the winds; Rudra, the god of the hurricane; Vritra, the +hostile god of the clouds; Ahi, the parching heat of summer. In the +mythology of the people, Indra, god of light, aided by Vayu and Rudra, +wages war with Vritra,--who, as god of the clouds, holds back the rain +and the light,--and appears as opponent of the destructive Ahi. The +other divinities also which appear in the Vedas are personified powers +of nature,--the twin brothers Aswins (equites), or the first rays of the +sun, Ushas the maiden, or the rosy dawn, Surya, Savitri, the god of the +sun. Great significance is given in the Indian mythology to Agni, the +god of fire, who burns the sacrifice in honor of the gods, who conveys +the offerings and prayers of men to gods and their gifts to men, who +gladdens the domestic hearth, lights up the darkness of night, drives +away the evil spirits, the Ashuras and Rakshas, and purges of evil the +souls of men. Religion, still wholly patriarchal in form, and free from +hierarchical constraint and from the later dogmatic narrowness, bore in +this earlier stage of its development the character of the still free +and warlike life of a nomadic people living in the midst of a sublime +nature, where everything, the clear sky, sunshine, and boisterous storm, +mountains and rivers, disposed to worship. As yet the Indian knew no +close priestly caste. Worship consisted in prayers and offerings, +especially in the Soma-offering, which was offered as food to the gods. +No fear of future torment after death as yet embittered the enjoyment of +life and made dying fearful. Yama was the friendly guide of the souls of +heroes to the heaven of Indra or Varuna, and not yet the inexorable +prince of hell who tormented the souls of the ungodly in the kingdom of +the dead. Of later barbarous usages also, such as the widow's +sacrificing herself on the funeral pile of her departed husband, there +was as yet no trace; and in the heroic poetry, as yet not disfigured by +later Brahminical alterations and additions, the heroes Krishna and Rama +appear as types of courage and self-sacrifice, and not, as later, as +avatars, or human incarnations, of the deity. + + +_b. Brahminism._ + +When the nomadic and warlike life of the nations of India in the land of +the seven rivers, in connection with their removal to the conquered land +of the Ganges (1300 B.C.), gave place to a more ordered social +constitution, a priestly class formed itself, which began to represent +the people before the deity, and from its chief function, _Brahma_, or +prayer, took the name of _Brahmins_, i.e., the praying. This Brahma, +before whose power even the gods must yield, was gradually exalted by +the Brahmins to the highest deity, to whom, under the name of Brahma, +the old Veda divinities were subordinated. Brahma is no god of the +people, but a god of the priests; not the lord of nature, but the +abstract and impersonal _Being_, out of whom nature and her phenomena +emanate. From Brahma the priest derives his authority; and the system of +caste, by which the priesthood is raised to the first rank, its origin. +The worship of Brahma consists in doing penance and in abstinence. Yama, +once a celestial divinity, now becomes the god of the lower world, where +he who disobeys Brahma is tormented after death. Immortality consists in +returning to Brahma; but is the portion only of the perfectly godly +Brahmin, while the rest of mankind can rise to this perfect state only +after many painful new births. The Brahmin, in the exclusive possession +of religious knowledge, reads and expounds the Vedas (knowledge), +exalted to infallible scripture, and on them constructs his doctrine. + +Thus the once vigorous, natural life of the Indians gave place to a +conception of the world which repressed the soul, and annihilated man's +personality. The many-sidedness of the earlier theology resolved itself +into the abstract unity of an impersonal All, and thus the glory of +nature passed by unmarked, as nought or non-existent, and lost its +charm. At the same time, the old heroic sagas were displaced by legends +of saints, and the heroic spirit of the olden epic by an asceticism +which repressed the human, and before whose power even the gods stood in +awe. With Brahminism the religion lost its original and natural +character, and became characterized by a slavish submission to a +priesthood, which abrogated the truly human. + + +_c. The Speculative Systems._ + +The doctrine of the Brahmins occasioned the rise of various theological +and philosophical systems. To these belong, first, the "Vedanta," (end +of the Veda) or the dogmatic-apologetic exposition of the Veda. This +contains (1) the establishment of the authority of the Veda as holy +scripture revealed by Brahma, and also of the relation in which it +stands to tradition; (2) the proof that everything in the Veda has +reference to Brahma; (3) the ascetic system, or the discipline. To +explain contradictory statements in the older and later parts of the +Veda, Brahminical learning makes use of the subtleties of an +harmonistical method of interpretation. Second, the "Mimansa" (inquiry), +devoted to the solution of the problem, How can the material world +spring from Brahma, or the immaterial? According to this system, there +is only one Supreme Being, Paramatma, a name by which Brahma himself had +been already distinguished in Manu's book of law. Outside of this +highest _Being_, there is nothing real. The world of sense, or nature, +(Maya, the female side of Brahma), is mere seeming and illusion of the +senses. The human spirit is a part of Brahma, but perverted, misled by +this same illusion to the conceit that he is individual. This illusion +is done away with by a deeper insight, by means of which the dualism +vanishes from the wise man's view, and the conceit gives place to the +true knowledge that Brahma alone really exists, that nature, on the +contrary, is nought, and the human spirit nothing else than Brahma +himself. Third, the "Sankya" (criticism) originating with Kapila, in +which, in opposition to the "Mimansa," the individual being and the real +existence of nature, in opposition to spirit, is laid down as the +starting-point, and the result reached is the doctrine of two original +forces, spirit and nature, from whose reciprocal action and reaction +upon each other the union of soul and body is to be explained. Is this +union unnatural, then the effort of the wise man should be to free +himself, through the perception that the soul is not bound to the body, +from the dominion of matter. In this system, there is no room for an +infinite being, for, if a material world exist, then must God be limited +by its existence, and therefore cease to be infinite, that is God. The +Sankya philosophy here came in conflict with the orthodox doctrine of +the Brahmins, and prepared the way for Buddhism. + + +_d. Buddhism._ + +Against Brahminism Buddhism arose as a reaction. Siddharta, son of +Suddhodana, the King of Kapilavastu, of the family of the Sakya, (about +450 B.C.) moved by the misery of his fellow-countrymen, determined to +examine into the causes of it, and, if possible, to find means of +remedying it. Initiated into the wisdom of the Brahmins, but not +satisfied with that, after years of solitary retirement and quiet +meditation, penetrated with the principles of the Sankya, he traversed +the land as pilgrim (Sakya-muni, Sramana, Gautama) and opened to the +people of India a new religious epoch. The tendency of the new doctrine +was to break up the system of caste, and free the people from the +galling yoke of the Brahminical hierarchy and dogmas. While in +Brahminism man was deprived of his individuality, and regarded only as +an effluence from Brahma, and tormented by the fear of hell, and by the +thought of a ceaseless process of countless new births awaiting him +after death, whence the necessity of the most painful penances and +chastisements, Sakya-muni began with man as an individual, and in morals +put purity, abstinence, patience, brotherly love, and repentance for +sins committed above sacrifice and bodily mortification, and opened to +his followers the prospect, after this weary life, no more to be exposed +to the ever-recurring pains of new birth, but released from all +suffering to return to Nirvana, or nothingness. While Brahminism drew a +distinction between man and man, and with hierarchical pride took no +thought of the Sudra or lower class of the people, and limited wisdom to +the priestly caste, Sakya-muni preached the equality of all men, came +forward as a preacher to the people, used the people's language, and +chose his followers out of all classes, even from among women. Both of +these opposed systems are one-sided. In Brahminism, God is all, and man, +as personal being, nothing; in Buddhism, man is recognized as an +individual, but apart from God, while in both systems, the highest +endeavor is to be delivered from, according to Brahminism a seeming, +according to Sakya-muni a really existing individuality, the source of +all human woe, and to lose one's self either in Brahma or in the +Nirvana. + +Less on account of his doctrine, in which there is found neither a God +nor a personal immortality, than on account of the universal character +of his words and of his life, Sakya-muni continued in honor after his +death, as the benefactor of the people and as the Buddha, the wise, +pre-eminently; and afterwards was deified, and took his place in the +ranks of the recognized gods as their superior. Thus there arose in +Buddhism, by a departure from the doctrine of the master, a new +polytheism. This was afterwards, through the influence of the +Brahminical priestly caste, suppressed in India, but spread over other +parts of Asia, to the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and also to +China. + + +_e. Later modification of Brahminism in connection with the worship of +Siva and Vishnu._ + +While Brahminism saw itself menaced by the steadily increasing influence +of Buddhism, the former nature-religion, dispossessed by the Brahmins, +asserted its rights in the worship of Siva in the valleys of the +Himalaya Mountains, and in that of Vishnu on the banks of the Ganges. +Siva is the Rudra of the Veda, the boisterous god of storms, the giver +of rain and growth. Vishnu is the same divinity among other races, +conceived under the influence of a softer climate in a modified form as +the blue sky. Both divinities, originally belonging to different parts +of India, were afterwards taken, first Vishnu, and then also Siva, into +the theological system of the Brahmins, and formed with Brahma, but not +until the fourth century after Christ, the trimurti, according to which +the one supreme being Parabrama is worshiped in the threefold form of +Brahma the creating, Vishnu the sustaining, and Siva the destroying +power of nature. To this later period of Brahminism belongs also the +alteration of the old epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, by which the +heroes Rama and Krishna are represented as avatars, that is incarnations +or human impersonations, of Vishnu. In this also there is evidently an +effort to bring the deity, conceived as the abstract One, into closer +union with man, an effort which is likewise visible in the later Yoga +system of the Brahmins, in which, by the admission of Buddhistic +elements, the visible world is recognized as real, the old rigid +asceticism mitigated, Vishnu represented as the soul of the world, and +immortality taught as a return of the individual soul to Brahma. + + +2. THE WEST ARIANS, IRANIANS. + +[THE BACTRIANS, MEDES, PERSIANS.] + +The ancient religion of the Bactrians in the period before Zoroaster was +patriarchal, and consisted in the worship of fire, as the beneficent +power of nature, and of Mithras, the god of the sun, combined with that +of the good spirits (Ahuras), among which were Geus-Urva (the spirit of +the earth), Cpento-mainyus (the white spirit), Armaiti (the earth, or +also the spirit of piety), and of the hero-spirits Sraosha, Traetona, +which as light and darkness are distinguished from Angro (the black +spirit). + +Later, as it seems, the theology and worship of the neighboring nomadic +Arya penetrated to these nations, and caused a religious conflict which +ended with the migration of Arya to the south. At this period +Zarathustra[2] (Zoroaster) came forward under the Bactrian priest and +King Kava Vistaspa, as defender and reformer of the religion of the +fathers against the encroachments of a strange doctrine. The Devas +(Zend, Dews) or the gods of the Indian Veda appear with Zarathustra as +evil spirits. Not Indra, but the hero Traetona, wages war with Ahi +(Zend, Azhi), while the kavis, or priests, are attacked by him as +deceivers and liars. From the belief in good spirits (Ahuras, i.e., +the living, and Mazdas, i.e., the wise), the ancient genii of the +country, Zarathustra developed the belief of one highest God, +Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, Greek, [Greek: Osompzês]), a doctrine which he +received by divine inspiration through the mediation of the spirit +Srasha. Ahura-Mazda, surrounded by the Amesha-Spenta (Amshaspands), or +the holy immortals, not until later reduced to seven, is the creator of +light and life. The hurtful and evil, on the contrary, is non-existence +(akem), and in the oldest parts of the Avesta, the Gathas, which go back +to Zarathustra and his first followers, is not yet conceived as a +personal being. First in the Vendidad, written after Zarathustra, does +Angro-mainyus (Ahriman), or the evil one, with his Dews, although +subordinated to Ahura-Mazda, gain a place in the Iranian conception of +the universe, as the adversary of Ahura-Mazda, and as the cause of evil +in the natural and spiritual world. From these conceptions there was +developed in the later Parsism the system of the four periods of the +world, each of three thousand years, in the book "Bundehesh." In the +first period, Ahura-Mazda appears as creator of the world and as the +source of good. The creation, completed by Ahura-Mazda in six days by +means of the word (Honover), is in the second period destroyed by +Angro-mainyus, who, appearing upon the earth in the form of a serpent, +seduces the first human pair, created by Ahura-Mazda. In the third +period, which begins with the revelation given to Zarathustra, +Ahura-mazda and Angro-mainyus strive together for man. After this +follows, in the fourth period, the victory gained by Ahura-Mazda. +Sosiosh (Saoshyas), the deliverer already foretold in the Vendidad, +appears. The resurrection of the dead, not taught by Zarathustra or in +the Vendidad, takes place. The judgment of the world begins; the good +are received into paradise and the sinners banished to hell. At last, +all is purified, and Angro-mainyus himself and his Dews submit +themselves to Ahura-Mazda, whose victory is celebrated in heaven with +songs of praise. + +Thus among the Iranian races, out of the old patriarchal worship of fire +and light, on the occasion of the religious struggle with the Indian +Arya, and under the influence of Zarathustra, there was developed the +doctrine of one supreme God,[3] who, surrounded by the good spirits of +heaven, wages war against evil, whence arose later the moral opposition +between Ahura-Mazda and Angro-mainyus resulting in the victory of the +good principle over the bad. The old dualism of force and matter, +beneficent and destructive powers of nature, light and darkness, becomes +in Parsism moral. The deity, no longer identified with nature, becomes a +personal, spiritual being, the creator of mankind; and the end of the +world's development is conceived as the triumph of the good. Hence the +high rank which the doctrine of Zarathustra and its further development +holds in the history of religion. + + +3. THE GREEKS. + +As man rises in spiritual development, nature becomes to him a +revelation ever more and more manifold of the divine. To the Greek +(Pelasgi, Hellenes) the whole of nature was living, and his imagination +peopled her everywhere with divine beings, who in wood and field, in +rivers and on mountains (Oreads, Dryads, Naiads, Sileni, &c.), hovered +friendly round him. The Greek was indeed distinguished from other +nations by this richer and more elevated view of nature; but he excelled +them most of all in this, that the divine object which he worshiped was +conceived both in form and character after the human. Zeus, Phoebus +Apollo, Pallas Athene, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Hestia, Hermes, +Artemis, were originally powers of nature personified, as some epithets +in Homer[4] still indicate; but they became, sometimes under the same +names, types of power and lordship, science and art, courage and +sensuous beauty. While Dionysus, Demeter, Hades, and Persephone remained +earthly, and Helios, Eos, Iris, and Hecate, heavenly divinities, and +Oceanus, Poseidon, Amphitrite, Proteus, and Nereus ruled the waters, +Zeus was conceived as the god of the sky and of thunder, who hurled the +bolts, the great king and lawgiver, the father of men, and Hera, +originally the air, became the protecting goddess of married life; +Apollo, the god of light, who shot forth his arrows, not at first +identified with Helios, became the god of divination and poetry, who led +the choir of the muses; the goddess of light, Athene, became the +contentious goddess of wisdom; Aphrodite, born of the foam of the sea, +once the symbol of the fruitful power of nature, later, encircled by the +Graces, became the type of womanly beauty and charm, to which the +strength of man, personified in Ares, corresponds. In like manner in the +later mythology, Hephaestus, the god of fire, appeared as the god of the +forge, Hestia, the goddess of fire, as the protector of the household +hearth, and Hermes, the god of the storm and of rain, as the messenger +of the gods, the type of cunning and craftiness, while Artemis, the +goddess of the moon, the fruitful mother of nature, took the character +of the chaste maiden, the goddess of hunting, who with her nymphs and +hounds nightly roamed the fields and woods. The monsters, the Sphinx, +the Minotaur, the Cyclops, the Centaurs, symbols of a yet unhuman or +half human power of nature, were overcome by the Greek heroes, Perseus, +Hercules, Jason, Theseus, OEdipus, the types of human strength and +valor. The religious festivals were enlivened by trials of men's +strength and skill in games, and the historian and poet offered to the +gods the products of human genius. In the religion of the Greeks, +however, the moral element, although not passed over and in the Greek +epic and tragedy not seldom expressed in grand characters, stood +nevertheless too little in the foreground, so that the worship of the +divine, as in the older nature-worship, especially in the feasts in +honor of Dionysus and Aphrodite, was marked by immoral practices. The +conception of a future life, which taken in connection with a future +retribution has a moral tendency, had but little attraction for the +Greek, who rejoiced in the glory of the earth, and saw in nature and in +man the kingdom of the divine. The passage from the earlier poetical +nature-worship to the worship of the divine in human form seems to be +indicated in the war which Olympian Zeus waged with Cronos and the +Titans. The origin and development of the various elements and powers of +nature, Chaos, Eros, Uranus, Gæa, the Giants, Styx, Erebus, Hemera, +Æther, &c, became, with the poets and philosophers after Homer, matters +of speculation, of which the theogonies of Hesiod, Orpheus, Pherecydes, +and others furnish proof. + + +4. THE ROMANS. + +In the religion of the Greeks, the æsthetic and moral character of the +Grecian people was deified, and in the Romans also we see how that which +men value most exerts an influence upon their worship of the divine. The +primitive religion of the Romans, borrowed from the Sabines and +Etruscans, bears everywhere, in distinction to that of the Greeks, the +marks of the practical and political character of the Roman people. The +oldest national divinities are, first, Jupiter or Jovis, the god of the +heavens, Mars or Mavors, the god of the field and of war, Quirinus +(Janus?) the protector of the Quirites, afterwards, together with Juno +(Dione) and Minerva, worshiped in the Capitol, (Dii Capitolini); +second, Vesta, and the gods of the house and family, the Lares and +Penates; third, the rural divinities, Saturnus, Ops, Liber, Faunus, +Silvanus, Terminus, Flora, Vertumnus, and Pomona; fourth and last, +personifications, in part of the powers of nature, Sol, Luna, Tellus, +Neptunus, Orcus, Proserpina, in part of moral and social qualities and +states, such as Febris, Salus, Mens, Spes, Pudicitia, Pietas, Fides, +Concordia, Virtus, Bellona, Victoria, Pax, Libertas, and others. +Peculiarly Roman also is the conception of the _manes_, or shades of the +departed, who hover as protecting genii about the living. Afterwards, +along with the culture of the Greeks, their gods also were taken, +although rather outwardly than inwardly, into the spirit of the people, +and the original character of the gods of Latium was modified after the +new mythology. Notwithstanding this, however, the worship of the Romans +retained its political and practical character. The priests (sacerdotes) +Flamines, Salii, Feciales, the Pontifices with the Pontifex Maximus at +their head, the Augurs, were likewise officers of the state, and did not +form a hierarchy apart from the state and alongside of it. + + +5. THE CELTS. + +Among the Celtic tribes in Brittany, Ireland, and Gaul, and on both +banks of the Rhine, out of an aboriginal life of nature characterized by +wildness and license, religion developed itself in the form of the +worship of two chief divinities, a male divinity, Hu, the begetting, and +a female, Ceridwen, the bearing, power of nature. The priesthood busied +itself with speculations about the divine, the origin of the world, and +the continued existence of man after death, conceived in the form of the +transmigration of souls. Nor did the people's faith lack the conception +of good and evil spirits, fairies, dwarfs, elves, which to the still +childish fancy are objects of fear or superstitious veneration. To the +service of these divinities the priesthood, the Druids, were +consecrated, and beside them the bards, or poets, held a more +independent place. + + +6. THE GERMANS AND SCANDINAVIANS. + +More developed intellectually is the nature-religion of the ancient +Germans (Teutons) and Scandinavians, which betrays thereby the character +of the Aryan race to which these nations, like the Celts, originally +belonged. The highest god of the Germans is Wodan, called Odhin among +the Norsemen, the god of the heavens, and of the sun, who protects the +earth, and is the source of light and fruitfulness, the spirit of the +world, and the All-father (Alfadhir). From the union of heaven and +earth, there springs the god Thunar or Donar among the Germans, Thor +among the Norsemen, the bold god of thunder who wages war against the +enemies of gods and men. Besides these there are the sons of Wodan, Fro +(German), Freyx (Norse), the god of peace, Zio (German), Tyx (Norse), +the god of war, Aki (German), Oegir (Norse), god of the sea, Vol +(German), Ullr (Norse), god of hunting, and others, to whom are joined +female divinities, such as Nerthus (German), Jördh (Norse), the fruitful +goddess of the earth, Holda (German), Freiya (Norse), the goddess of +love, Nehalennia, goddess of plenty, Frikka (German), Frigg (Norse), the +wife of Wodan, mother of all the living, Hellia (German), Hel (Norse), +the inexorable goddess of the lower world. Opposed to these divinities +(Asen and Asinnen) stands Loko (German), Loki (Norse), enemy of the +divine. In addition to these there appear in the Norse and German Sagas, +besides the heroes, a multitude of spirits, good and hostile, giants, +elves, Elfen (German), Alfen (Norse), white spirits of light, and black +dwarfs, house, forest, and water spirits. The worship was most simple, +and, as was the case with the ancient Semites, the Indians of the Veda, +and the Greeks, as yet independent of temple service and priestly +constraint. The holy places of the Germans were woods, and hills, and +fountains, and in the mysterious rustling of the leaves and in the +murmuring of the waters the pious spirit caught the breathing of the +deity.[5] The father of the house is priest, and the recognition by +these races more than elsewhere of worth in woman is apparent also in +their religion. In the description of the kingdom of the dead in the +German-Norse mythology, Walhalla is the abode of the heroes, hell the +gathering place of the other dead. Notwithstanding these still childish +conceptions, there was revealed in the moral character and heroic spirit +of the German forefathers the germ of a higher development, which makes +the nations of Germany and Northern Europe capable beyond others of a +constantly higher conception and estimation of the Christian +religion.[6] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE RELIGION OF THE SEMITES. + + +I. THE PHOENICIANS, SYRIANS, BABYLONIANS, CARTHAGINIANS, AND ARABIANS. + +In the Semitic races the religious spirit rose above nature-worship in +the effort to separate God from nature, and to elevate him above nature +as Lord, Baal (plural Baalim, either from the different places where he +was worshiped, or the various names under which he was worshiped), Bel, +El, Adon (Adonis). Thus Bel among the Babylonians, Baal among the +Ammonites and Moabites, was the god of light, the lord of heaven, the +creator of mankind, who had his throne above the clouds and was invoked +on mountains.[7] Also the title Molech and Baal Molech to designate the +Supreme Being among the ancient Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and the +nations nearest related to Israel, the Moabites and Ammonites, as well +as the derived names Milcom (Kamos) [Chemosh, Eng. ver.], among the +Ammonites, and Melkartht at Tyre and Carthage, indicate, like Baal, an +original effort to conceive God as the ruler of nature. Agreeing with +this conception of the Deity, there is manifest, as well in the worship +of Baal as of Molech and the female Astarte (Melecheth)[8] [Ashtaroth, +Eng. ver.], worshiped with him, partly in the abstinence from marriage, +partly in the human sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of the +first-born, the aim, through abnegation of the life of sense, and +through the sacrifice, even though unnatural, of what is dearest to man, +to appease a divinity who as lord and governor rules and subjects to +himself the power of nature and every propensity of sense.[9] + +In spite of the effort to elevate the Deity as Lord and King above +nature, most of the Semitic nations gradually sank back into the old +nature-worship, and, uniting with the worship of the highest God, Baal +and Bel, that of a female divinity under the names of Baaltis, Beltis, +Aschera, Mylitta, they made religion to consist in the sacrifice of +chastity to the will of the Deity, as the fruitful, productive power of +nature, and thus fell into gross immorality.[10] + +Religion appears in another form among the Semites in the worship of the +stars among the Babylonians and ancient Arabians. This astrolatry, +originally a kind of fetichism, became nature-worship, and gradually +rose to the worship of the intelligence manifested to our contemplation +in the movement of the heavenly luminaries. Astrology arose, and +religion no longer expressed itself in passive acquiescence, but was +united with the effort to guide the life by the knowledge to be drawn, +as men imagined, from the motion of the stars. + + +ISRAELITISH RELIGION. + + +_a. Its origin. The patriarchal religion. Mosaism. Prophetism._ + +While most of the Semitic nations, in opposition to the effort to +elevate God above nature as lord and governor, returned to the old +nature-religion with its grossly sensual worship of the divine, and +others got no farther than to the conception of a deity, who, like a +consuming fire, stood opposed to nature, and was to be appeased and +propitiated by human sacrifices, there was developed among the +Israelitish people, gradually and in constantly higher measure, in +connection with a higher moral and religious disposition, the worship of +God as a being who, though distinct from nature, is yet not opposed to +it, and thus no longer demands human sacrifices, but obedience and moral +consecration. + +The common origin of the religion of the Israelites and that of their +Semitic relations, though hardly evident even in the oldest monuments of +the Hebrew literature, appears from the following facts and particulars: +firstly, the composition of Israelitish names not only with El, but also +with Baal, such as Jerubbaal (adversary of Baal), (Gideon),[11] +Esbaal,[12] Meribbaal,[13] names which afterwards, on account of the +aversion which the ever-increasing distance in religion between the +Israelitish nation and the nations related to it must, from the nature +of the case, have inspired against the name of Baal, are changed into +Jerubboseth,[14] Isboseth,[15] and Mephiboseth[16], as also the +interchanging of El and Baal,[17] of Baal-jada[18] and Eljada,[19] seem +to point to an ancient period when the name Baal (Lord) was used, like +El, Elohim, El Eljon, El Schaddai, Adonai, even among the Israelites, +to designate the Supreme Being. Secondly, the God of Abraham (Elohim), +although he desires no human sacrifices, nevertheless praises the +willingness of the father to offer up his first-born, and sees in that +the highest proof of devotedness and obedience.[20] Thirdly, +circumcision, already before Moses[21] the bloody symbol of consecration +to God,[22] and also the right of Jahveh to the first-born, and the +necessity of ransoming them from him,[23] imply an earlier conception of +the deity as a being, who, although on a higher development of the +religion he is not indeed any longer thought to desire human sacrifice, +nevertheless has a right to such a sacrifice, and thus demands indemnity +for remitting it. Fourthly, the later conception, of Jahveh as a +destroying fire, and the way in which the God of Israel is conceived in +connection with fire, and as manifesting himself in fire,[24] betray, +even in the midst of a more advanced religious development, an original +relationship with the like conceptions of the other Semites. Fifthly, +even in the orthodox Jahveh-worship, some symbols, as the twelve oxen in +the porch of the temple,[25] the horns of the altar for +burnt-offerings,[26] perhaps also the in part oxlike form of the +cherubim,[27] point to an earlier worship of the deity under the form of +an ox, the symbol of the highest might, especially among the Semitic +races.[28] + +In confirmation of the supposition thus suggested of a community of +origin in the religion of the Israelites and in that of the nations +related to them, there is also to be remarked, firstly, the sympathy +always felt among the people of Israel for the worship of Baal and +Molech, in face of the strongest opposition on the part of the +prophets;[29] secondly, the statement of Amos,[30] that even in the +wilderness the Israelites worshiped Molech; thirdly, the fact that in +the time of the Judges, Jephthah offered his daughter to Jahveh,[31] and +still later the feeling, not driven out even by Mosaism, that the wrath +of Jahveh must be appeased by human blood,[32] a necessity which David +recognizes;[33] fourthly, the ancient custom in Israel, as in the +nations related to them, of worshiping the deity on mountains and +heights,[34] against which the priestly legislation strove in the +interest of the pure worship of Jahveh;[35] fifthly, the heterodox +worship of Jahveh in the kingdom of the ten tribes under the form of a +calf.[36] + +From all this it seems fair to conclude that the religion of the oldest +forefathers of Israel had its root originally in one and the same soil +with the religion of the other Semites. Out of an earlier +nature-religion there developed among the Semites the conception of +Baal, the lord of nature, and of Molech with his inhuman worship. While, +however, the other Semites remained in this lower stage, or rather sank +back more and more into the immorality of the nature-religion,--an +hypothesis suggested by a comparison of the religious state of the +nations of Canaan in Abraham's time with their state at the time of the +conquest of the land by Joshua and afterwards,--in the family of +Abraham, religious consciousness rose to the recognition of a deity, +who, although he had a right to human sacrifices, yet did not claim such +sacrifices, but was satisfied with men's willingness to bring them to +him. With this higher development of religion, the names of the Supreme +Being, Baal and Molech, originally common to the whole race, came more +and more into contempt, and were regarded as the expression of +abominable idolatry,[37] while even the worship of Jahveh under the form +of a calf, originally permitted, was later branded by the prophets as +heresy. + +Though it was in the family of Abraham that even in Mesopotamia[38] the +beginning of this higher development of the Semitic religion showed +itself, which, after his migration to Canaan became the heritage of his +family, yet the patriarch of Israel did not stand alone in this respect +among the Semites. The old Canaanitish chieftains also of the +patriarchal period, Melchizedek and Abimelech, worship the same God as +he,[39] while on the other hand in his own family not all traces of +polytheistic superstition have disappeared,[40] and these traces are +also visible still later in Israel.[41] + +The patriarchal religion, which afterwards with the great majority fell +into oblivion, was recalled afresh to men's minds by Moses, and the God +of the fathers was preached by him under the name before unknown of +Jahveh,[42] to whom, with the exclusion of all other gods, religious +worship is due.[43] The Jahveh of Moses, like the El Eljon of the +patriarchs, is the one only object of worship (Deus Unus), yet without +excluding the possibility of other gods existing.[44] Not until later +did the more developed conception of Jahveh arise as the one only God +(Deus unicus),[45] who is throned in heaven, and like the Elohim of the +patriarchs, encircled by celestial beings (Bene Elohim, Malakim, +Angels), who execute his commands, yet are not objects of religious +adoration. + +The religious standpoint of Moses is the legal. Jehovah stands related +to his people as the Holy, as lawgiver and judge; and the true moral +consecration to God is symbolically expressed in the ritual, especially +in the sacrifice, while the relation of the people to God is based upon +the mediation of the priests. Along with this, and out of Mosaism, after +the time of Samuel, prophetism was developed, in which independent +religious conviction, outside the limits of the priesthood, and without +distinction of rank or birth,[46] awoke among the people. Prophetism, in +the domain of religion, is the development of the religious spirit to +individual independence and freedom. The prophet, rising above the legal +standpoint and outward ceremonial, puts the essence of true worship in +morality,[47] but recognizes also along with the deepest feeling of +dependence upon God, in the independence[48] and spontaneity of the +religious and moral life, the irresistible power of the divine spirit, +by which the Most High, though apart from the world and throned in +heaven, puts himself into the closest and most intimate communion with +the true worshiper. Thus the gulf which divided Jahveh, as a God afar +off, from the world and his worshipers, closed up more and more. With +the conviction of the pureness and truth[49] of her religion, Israel +felt the calling to raise it to the religion of the world, and in the +realization of this she saw the ideal of the future.[50] + + +_b. The Israelitish religion after the Captivity._ + +The free character which distinguished prophetism in the religion of +Israel changed, after the return of the people from captivity, +especially with the party of the Pharisees, to literalness and +formalism. The prophets gave place to the synagogue, the living +proclamation of the truth to scriptural erudition, the spirit of +freedom to slavish subjection to Scripture and tradition. As the ancient +productions of the Indian literature, originally the expression of the +popular thought of India, were elevated by the Brahmins into Veda, holy, +inspired scripture, so also the religious literature of Israel took on +the character of a closed Canon, so that what was once the expression of +religious life became now rule of faith. The standpoint of the law which +prophetism had already overcome was again strongly maintained, the law +enriched with a number of new ordinances, and the essence of religion +made to consist partly in dogmatic speculation, partly in a merely +outward service, devoid of inner life. The Messianic prediction, or the +expectation that the kingdom, divided in Rehoboam's reign, once more +united under a prince of the house of David, should be exalted to new +bloom and lustre,--which in the older prophets was the natural and +historically explicable form in which the ideal of Israel's future +presented itself to the seer, but which, under the influence of the +changed political conditions, had already been replaced in the later +prophecy by the more general conception of a future triumph of the true +religion of which Israel was the bringer,--[51]returned, yet not as the +ideal of the prophetic spirit, but as a dogma, the product of scriptural +interpretation. The pure monotheism, by which formerly a place in the +Providence of God had been allotted to everything, even to moral +evil,[52] became corrupted, under the influence of Parsism, by the +conception of two kingdoms, of God and of the Devil. The angels, +originally the messengers of Providence, became under mythological +names, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, &c., so many middle beings who filled +the space between the Deity, existing apart from the world, and the +world. The lower world (sheol, [Greek: aidês]), formerly the general +abode of the dead, of bad and good without distinction, was split into +two parts, paradise and gehenna, and became a place of recompense, and, +along with this, religion, once an end, became the means of warding off +a dreaded punishment, or of gaining a future of bliss. The doctrine of +immortality, as the continuation of man's moral development, which was +formerly unknown in Israel, appeared, as in the later Parsism, in the +form of a bodily resurrection of the dead, at first of the righteous +only, but afterwards in the form of a general resurrection, by mediation +of the Messiah, at whose appearing, which was expected just before the +end of the present state of things, the great judgment of the world, of +living and dead, was to be held, heaven and earth renewed, and the +kingdom of God founded. Beside the learned party of the Pharisees stood +the Sadducees, who subordinated religion to politics, rejected the +Messianic idea and the authority of tradition, and, in denying +immortality in the form of a bodily resurrection, failed to perceive the +truth of immortality, for whose recognition the premises and germs +existed in the religion of Israel, though not as yet developed. The +third party, that of the Essenes, was marked by quiet piety, and in many +respects also by excessive asceticism. In the midst of the Pharisaic +formalism, the unbelief of the Sadducees, and the pietism of the +Essenes, there was yet in Israel a seed of true worshipers, who, though +not above the dogmatic prejudices of their time, had heart and mind open +for the true religion, and who set the true blessing to be looked for +from the Messiah in the satisfying of their religious and moral needs. + + +3. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. + +The Israelitish religion, which reached its highest stage of development +in prophetism, but which among the later Jews after Ezra degenerated, +with the Pharisees into formalism and worship of the letter, with the +Essenes into mysticism and asceticism, and which with the Sadducees, +along with the sacrifice of the prophetic ideal of the future, was +subordinated to politics, developed in Christianity, but freed from once +cherished national expectations and outward forms, into a purely +spiritual knowledge and worship of God. Jesus fathomed the deep meaning +of the religion of his people, and its original fitness to become, +through higher development, the religion of the world. Jesus devoted +himself to the end of forming the human race into one great society (the +kingdom of heaven), of which religion should be the soul and life, and, +convinced of his calling, proclaimed himself as the Son of man, who, as +such, belonged not to Israel alone, but to mankind. Jesus combated both +the formalism and exclusiveness of the Pharisees, and the unbelief of +the Sadducees, and with word and deed preached a religion which, +independent of all outward form, took hold of the human heart, and +which, developing into an independent principle in man, was to find its +commission, not in the authority of Scripture or tradition, not even in +that of his name, but in its own power and truth. In him religion +appeared as the power of self-sacrificing love, which fears not even +death, and to which dying is not the losing of life, but the development +of life. In distinction from other religions, in which either God and +man are strangers to each other, and opposed to each other, or man's +personality is, as it were, sunk in God, Christianity is the religion by +which man, in the full enjoyment of individual development, and with the +sense of his own strength, lives in the consciousness of the most entire +dependence upon God. Religion in its highest form, conceived as the +oneness of man with God, is realized in Christianity.[53] + + +4. ISLAMISM. + +The religion of the ancient nomadic tribes of the Arabian peninsula +originally exhibited a polytheistical character, in the form of the +worship, in part of sacred stones, in part of the powers of nature, +especially of the stars, whose position and motion were thought to exert +an influence, beneficent or baneful, upon the destinies of men. With +these conceptions was combined a certain leaning toward monotheism, +which manifested itself especially in the common worship of Allah taala +(equivalent to El Eljon), which was afterwards quickened and +strengthened by association with the Jewish tribes, with whom they held +themselves to be related by descent from Abraham. The Parsee doctrine of +demons, also, was not unknown in Arabia, after the conquest of the +Persians in the fifth century. After the third, fourth, and fifth +centuries, Christianity also, though in a corrupt form, or, definitely, +in the form of Monophysitism and Nestorianism, which had been condemned +by the church, became established in Arabia. + +Amid such diverse elements, there was need of unity in the domain of +religion, a need for which Mohammed, after the example of others of his +family, sought to provide. + +He was born at Mecca (571) of an honorable family, belonging to the +Koreish tribe. Finding no satisfaction for his restless spirit in the +trade to which after his parents' death he had at first devoted himself, +he gave himself up, in solitary retirement, to quiet meditation, and +became more and more convinced of his calling to put an end, by means of +a better religion, to the confusion existing among his countrymen with +regard to religion. The religious idea which overmastered him presented +itself to his powerful Oriental imagination in the form of a vision as a +revelation of Allah taala, made to him in the fortieth year of his life +by mediation of the angel Gabriel. His conviction, thus acquired, was +confirmed by revelations afterwards received; and, shared at first with +a small circle of trusted friends, gradually spread wider, until at last +Mohammed came forward in the ancient sanctuary, the Kaaba, at Mecca, as +prophet of Allah. For this he was pursued by his countrymen, and fled +from thence to Medina, in the year 622, the beginning of the Moslem era. +The number of his followers increasing, he had recourse to arms. He +conquered Mecca in 630, and made the Kaaba, after destroying the idols +in it, the sanctuary of the new religion. + +The doctrine of Mohammed (Islam, submission to God, whence his followers +take the name of Moslems), is contained in the Koran. The various +Suras, or divisions, originally the revelations received by the prophet +at different periods of his life reduced to writing, were, soon after +his death, united by Abu Bekr into one holy book, under the name of the +Koran (al Kitab, the book), which, like the Bible among the later Jews +and Christians, was clothed with divine authority. The central doctrine +of Mohammed is the belief in one God, Allah, who, as the Creator and +Lord of all things, in strictest isolation from the world, is throned in +heaven. All that takes place upon the earth befalls according to the +eternal decree of God, a conception in which, at least among the +Orthodox Moslems, the Sunnites, who are distinguished in this respect, +as in others, from the dissenting Shiites, there is no place left for +human freedom. This God has from the earliest times revealed himself to +some privileged men, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (Isa). To the +last is due the honor of having been the reformer of degenerate Judaism. +He is not, as the Christians of Mohammed's time taught, the Son of God +in a metaphysical sense, much less God himself,--Allah is one, he +neither begets nor is begotten,--but a prophet of human descent. The +greatest and last prophet is Mohammed himself, in whom prophetism +reached its fulfillment. Along with the doctrine regarding God and his +relation to the world, prayer, hospitality, and benevolence occupy a +prominent place in the teaching of Mohammed, looked at from its +practical side, and also the belief in a future life, in the +Jewish-Parsee form of the resurrection of the dead, the judgment of the +world, future reward and punishment, paradise and hell. The truth of +this divine revelation rests upon the very fact of its having been +revealed, and, according to Mohammed, it no more needs scientific proof +than confirmation by miracles, to which Islamism did not appeal until +later. + +The opinion which formerly prevailed among Christians that Mohammed was +an impostor, a false prophet, was bound up with the conception that God, +to the exclusion of other nations, had revealed himself immediately and +supernaturally first to Israel, and afterwards through Christ to all +mankind. Hence it followed that Christianity was not prized as the +highest religion, existing along with less developed forms of religion, +but was opposed as the only true religion to all others, which were +regarded as the fruit of imposture and error, an opinion to which the +religious and political struggles in which Islam and Christendom have +been involved also richly contributed. Mohammed was seer and prophet, +filled with fiery zeal for religion, and, while he stands indeed in this +respect, both personally and with regard to the contents of his +preaching and the means by which he sought to gain admission for his +doctrine, below the seers of Israel, and far below the founder of +Christianity, yet, on the other hand, his monotheism, abstract as it is, +must be regarded as a wholesome reaction against the ever-increasing +polytheistical superstition to which in his time the Christian church of +the East especially had sunk. Islamism stands, however, below original +Christianity, the religion of Jesus and the Apostles, in that, by +separating God, as the abstract one Supreme Being, from the world, it +leaves no place for the doctrine of God's immanence, or the indwelling +of the Spirit of God in man. Hence in Islamism the divine revelation +remains purely mechanical, with no natural point of connection in man, +and therefore there is no possibility of an enduring prophetism, which +is the fundamental principle of Christianity. From this separation of +God and man, the Mohammedan doctrine of predestination, in distinction +from the Christian, acquires its abstract and fatalistic character, +whereby man, instead of being regarded as a being in whose free activity +God's power and life are glorified, is conceived as a passive instrument +of a higher power. To true moral independence, therefore, the Moslem +does not attain. His religion is legal and external, and therefore +intolerant and exclusive; and when Islamism, led by excited passion and +a heated imagination, disregarded the sanctity of marriage, and held up +as a reward before the faithful Moslem a paradise characterized by +sensual enjoyment, it missed at once the deep moral and spiritual +character of Christianity. To these defects must be ascribed the fact +that Islamism, adapted to the need of the East, and therefore spread +over a large part of Asia and Africa, has not, with the exception of the +empire of Turkey, and for a time also of Spain, penetrated Europe; and, +overshadowed by a higher development of humanity, has reached its +highest bloom, while Christianity, brought back to its original purity, +remains the religion of the civilized world. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Translated from the Dutch of Prof. J.H. Scholten, by F.T. +Washburn. This constitutes the first part of Prof. Scholten's History of +Religion and Philosophy. (_Geschiedenis der Godsdienst en +Wijsbegeerte._) Third edition. Leyden, 1863. Of this work there is a +translation in French by M. Albert Réville (Paris, 1861); but this +translation, which was made from an earlier edition, is very defective +in the first part, Prof. Scholten having added a great deal in his last +edition. There is also a translation of it in German, by D.E.R. +Redepenning (Elberfeld, 1868). This German translation has been revised +and enlarged by Prof. Scholten, and is therefore superior in some +respects to the original Dutch. The present translation has been revised +upon it.] + +[Footnote 2: According to Buusen 3000 or 2500 B.C., Haug 2000 B.C., Max +Müller 1200 B.C., Max Duncker 1300 or 1250 B.C., and according to +Roeth. I. p. 348, who still puts Vistaspa before Darius Hystaspes, +between 589 and 512 B.C.] + +[Footnote 3: The doctrine of the _Zervana akarana_ (infinite time) as +the original One, from which the opposition between Ormuzd and Ahriman +was held to spring, dates from a later period.] + +[Footnote 4: [Greek: Zeus kelainephês, ahidheri nahiôn, nephelêgerheta +Zeus, Herê bohôpis, glaukhôpis Hathhênê].] + +[Footnote 5: Of the Germans Tacitus writes, _Germ._, c. 9, "Eos nec +cohibere parietibus Deos neque in ullam humanioris speciem assimilare, +ex magnitudine coelestium arbitrantur. Lucos ac nemora consecrant +deorumque nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia +vident."] + +[Footnote 6: Among the Roman writers who furnish us with information +upon the religion of the Germans, Tacitus deserves mention, in his +"Germania," as well as in his "Annales" _passim_. The chief source with +regard to the Norse religion is the older Edda, under the title "Edda +Sæmundar hin Froda."] + +[Footnote 7: Numb. xxii. 41; xxiii. 28; 2 Kings, xxiii. 5.] + +[Footnote 8: Judges, ii. 13; 1 Sam. vii. 4; xii. 10; 1 Kings, xi. 5, 7, +33; 2 Kings, xxiii. 13; Jer. vii. 18; xliv. 17, 19.] + +[Footnote 9: Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 2; 2 Kings, iii. 26, 27; xvi. 3; +xxiii. 10; Ps. cvi. 38; Jer. vii. 31; xix. 5; xxxii. 35; Micah, vi. 7; +Ezek. xv. 4, 6; [?] xvi. 20, Comp. I Kings, xviii: 28.] + +[Footnote 10: Numb. xxv. I, _et seq_; Josh. xxii. 17; Baruch, vi. 41, +43.] + +[Footnote 11: Judges, vi. 32. and elsewhere.] + +[Footnote 12: 1 Chron. viii. 33; ix. 39.] + +[Footnote 13: 1 Chron. viii. 34; ix. 40.] + +[Footnote 14: 2 Sam. xi. 21.] + +[Footnote 15: 2 Sam. ii. 8, and elsewhere.] + +[Footnote 16: 2 Sam. iv. 4, and elsewhere.] + +[Footnote 17: Judges, viii. 33; ix. 4. Comp. with ix. 46.] + +[Footnote 18: 1 Chron. xiv. 7.] + +[Footnote 19: 1 Chron. iii. 8; 2 Sam. v. 16.] + +[Footnote 20: Gen. xxii.] + +[Footnote 21: Gen. xvii. 23-27.] + +[Footnote 22: Ex. iv. 24-26.] + +[Footnote 23: Ex. xiii. 2, 12-16; xxii. 28, 29; xxx. 11-16; xxxiv. 19, +20.] + +[Footnote 24: Gen. xv. 17; Ex. iii. 2; xix. 16-18; xxiv. 17; xl. 38; +Levit. x. 2; Numb. xvi. 35; Deut. iv. 15, 24; v. 24, 25.] + +[Footnote 25: 1 Kings, vii. 25, 29.] + +[Footnote 26: Ex. xxvii. 2.] + +[Footnote 27: Comp. Ezek. i. 10; x. 14.] + +[Footnote 28: 1 Kings, xviii. 23.] + +[Footnote 29: 1 Kings, xi. 5; 2 Kings, xvi. 3; xxi. 3; xxiii. 4, _et +seq_; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3; Ezek. xvi. 20, 21; Jer. xix. 5.] + +[Footnote 30: Amos. v. 25, 26.] + +[Footnote 31: Judges, xi. 30-40.] + +[Footnote 32: Ex. xxxii. 27-29; Numb. xxv. 4.] + +[Footnote 33: 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14.] + +[Footnote 34: 1 Kings, iii. 2; xi. 7; 2 Kings, xii. 3; xiv. 4; xvii. 11; +xviii. 4; xxiii. 5, 19; 2 Chron. xxi. 11.] + +[Footnote 35: 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3; Ezek. vi. 3; xx. 28.] + +[Footnote 36: 1 Kings, xii. 28, 33. Comp. Ex. xxxii. 4, 19.] + +[Footnote 37: Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 2; Deut. xii. 31.] + +[Footnote 38: Gen. xxiv, xxviii.] + +[Footnote 39: Gen. xiv. 18-20; xx. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 40: Gen. xxxi. 19, 30, _et seq_; xxxv. 2-4; Joshua, xxiv. 2, +14.] + +[Footnote 41: Judges, xviii. 14, _et seq_; 1 Sam. xix. 13; 2 Kings, +xviii. 4; Ezek. xx. 7.] + +[Footnote 42: Ex. iii. 13, _et seq_; vi. 2.] + +[Footnote 43: Ex. xx. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote 44: Ex. viii. 10; xv. 11; xviii. 11; xx. 3.] + +[Footnote 45: Deut vi. 4; iv. 28, 35; xxxii. 39; Isaiah, xliv. 6, 8; +xlv. 5, 6.] + +[Footnote 46: Amos, vii. 14.] + +[Footnote 47: Isa. i. 11-18; Jer. vii. 21-23.] + +[Footnote 48: Dutch, _zelfstandigheid_, literally, self-existence; +without an equivalent, as far as I know, in vernacular English.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 49: _Zelfstandigheid_, again, expressing objective existence, +reality, independent of subjective thought or feeling.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 50: Jer. xxxi. 31, _et seq_; Isa. ii. 2-4; Amos, ix. 12; Isa. +xxv. 6; lii. 15; lvi. 6, 7; lxvi. 23; Zech. viii. 23; xiv. 9, 16.] + +[Footnote 51: Isa. liii.] + +[Footnote 52: Job i, ii.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 53: The most original sources of the Christian religion are +the Synoptic Gospels, in which, however, criticism must distinguish +between the older and later portions. The fourth Gospel is marked by a +more profound speculation upon the person and the work of Christ, by +which the Christian mind freed itself entirely from the Jewish forms in +which Jesus, as a popular teacher in Israel, had set forth his +doctrine.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS*** + + +******* This file should be named 20137-8.txt or 20137-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/1/3/20137 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Washburn</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: A Comparative View of Religions</p> +<p>Author: Johannes Henricus Scholten</p> +<p>Release Date: December 19, 2006 [eBook #20137]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Graeme Mackreth,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/">http://www.pgdp.net/</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by the<br /> + Making of America collection of the University of Michigan Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/">http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through the Making + of America collection of the University of Michigan Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AJF2939.0001.001"> + http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AJF2939.0001.001</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>A <br /> + +COMPARATIVE<br /> + +VIEW OF RELIGIONS.</h1> + +<p class='center'><span class="smcap">Translated from the Dutch of J. H. Scholten,</span><br /> +PROFESSOR AT LEYDEN,</p> + +<p class='center' style="margin-top: 5em;">BY FRANCIS T. WASHBURN.</p> + +<p class='center' style="margin-top: 5em;"><small>Reprinted by permission from "The Religious Magazine and Monthly Review."</small></p> + +<p class='center' style="margin-top: 5em;"><small>BOSTON:<br /> +CROSBY & DAMRELL, 100 WASHINGTON ST.<br /> +1870.</small></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A<br /> +COMPARATIVE<br /> +VIEW OF RELIGIONS.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>INTRODUCTION.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + + +<p>The conception of religion presupposes, <i>a</i>, God as object; +<i>b</i>, man as subject; <i>c</i>, the mutual relation existing between +them. According to the various stages of development which +men have reached, religious belief manifests itself either in +the form of a passive feeling of dependence, where the subject, +not yet conscious of his independence, feels himself +wholly overmastered by the deity, or the object of worship, +as by a power outside of and opposed to himself; or, when +the feeling of independence has awakened, in a one-sided elevation +of the human, whereby man in worshiping a deity deifies +himself. In the highest stage of religious development, +the most entire feeling of dependence is united in religion +with the strongest consciousness of personal independence. +The first of these forms is exhibited in the fetich and nature-worship +of the ancient nations; the second in Buddhism, +and in the deification of the human, which reaches its full +height among the Greeks. The true religion, prepared in +Israel, is the Christian, in which man, grown conscious of his +oneness with God, is ruled by the divine as an inner power +of life, and acts spontaneously and freely while in the fullest +dependence upon God. Since Christ, no more perfect religion +has appeared. What is true and good in Islamism was +borrowed from Israel and Christianity.</p> + +<p>Although it is probable that every nation passed through +different forms of religious belief before its religion reached +its highest development, yet the earlier periods lie in great +part beyond the reach of historical investigation. The history +of religion, therefore, has for its task the review of the +various forms of religion with which we are historically +acquainted, in the order of psychological development.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class='center'>FETICHISM. THE CHINESE. THE EGYPTIANS.</p> + + +<p class='center'>1. FETICHISM.</p> + +<p>The lowest stage of religious development is fetichism, as +it is found among the savage tribes of the polar regions, and +in Africa, America, and Australia. In this stage, man's +needs are as yet very limited and exclusively confined to the +material world. Still too little developed intellectually to +worship the divine in nature and her powers, he thinks he +sees the divinity which he seeks in every unknown object +which strikes his senses, or which his imagination calls up. +In this stage, religion has no higher character than that of +caprice and of love of the mysterious and marvelous, mixed +with fear and a slavish adoration of the divine. The worship +and the priest's office (Shaman, Shamanism) consist here +chiefly in the use of charms, to exorcise a dreaded power. +From this savage fetichism the nature-worship found among +the Aztecs in Mexico, and the worship of the sun in Peru, +are distinguished by the greater definiteness and order of +their religious conceptions and usages. In them the gods +have names, and an ordained priesthood cares for the religious +interests of the people. The highest form to which +fetichism has attained is the worship of Manitou, the great +spirit, which is found among the ancient tribes of North +America.</p> + + +<p class='center'>2. THE CHINESE.</p> + +<p>When man reaches a higher development, caprice and +chance disappear from religion. Having outgrown fetichism, +man begins, as is the case among the Chinese, to distinguish +in the world around him an active and a passive principle, +force and matter (Yang and Yn), heaven and earth (Kien and +Kouen). We have here nature-worship in its beginnings. +In this stage, even less than in fetichism, is there a definite +idea of God, much less a conception of him as personal and +spiritual lord. The Chinese, from the practical, empirical +point of view peculiar to him, recognizes the spiritual only in +man and chiefly in the state. His religion, therefore, is confined +exclusively to the faithful keeping of the laws of the +state (the Celestial Kingdom), in which he sees the reflection +of heaven, to the recognition of the Emperor as the son and +representative of heaven, and to the worship of the forefathers, +especially of the great men and departed emperors, +to whose memory the Chinese temples, or pagodas, are dedicated. +The origin of this religion dates, according to the +tradition, from Fo-hi (2950 B.C.), the founder of the Chinese +state. In the fifth century before Christ, Kong-tse, or Kong-fu-tse +(Confucius), appeared as a reformer of the religion of +his countrymen, and gathered the ancient records and traditions +of his people into a sacred literature, which is known +by the name of the "King" (the books), "Yo-King" (the +book of nature), "Chu-King" (the book of history), "Chi-King" +(the book of songs). The contents of the "King" +became later with the Chinese sages Meng-tse (360 B.C.) +and Tschu-tsche (1200 A.D.) an object of philosophical +speculation. The doctrine of Lao-tse, the younger contemporary +of Kong-tse, which lays down as the basis of the +world, that is of the unreal or non-existent, a supreme principle, +<i>Tao</i>, or <i>Being</i>, corresponds with the Brahma doctrine of +the Indians, among whom he lived for a long time; but this +doctrine never became popular in China.</p> + + +<p class='center'>3. THE EGYPTIANS.</p> + +<p>The worship of nature, which is seen in its beginnings +among the Chinese, exhibits itself among the Egyptians in a +more developed form as theogony. Here also the reflecting +mind rose to the recognition of two fundamental principles, +the producing and the passive power of nature, Kneph and +Neith, from which sprang successively the remaining powers +of nature, time, air, earth, light and darkness, personified by +the fantasy of the people into as many divinities. The Egyptian +mythology also (none has as yet been discovered among +the Chinese) exhibits a like character. Fruitfulness and +drought, the results of the Nile's overflowing and receding, +are imaged in the myth of <i>Osiris</i>, <i>Isis</i>, and <i>Typhon</i>. The +visible form under which the divine was worshiped in Egypt +was the sacred animal, the bull <i>Apis</i>, dedicated to <i>Osiris</i>, the +cow, dedicated to <i>Isis</i>, as symbols of agriculture; the bird +<i>Ibis</i>, the crocodile, the dog <i>Anubis</i>, and other animals, whose +physical characteristics impressed the as yet childish man, +who saw in them the symbol, either of the beneficent power +of nature which moved him to thankfulness, or of a destructive +power which he dreaded and whose anger he sought to +avert. The religion of Egypt was not of a purely spiritual +character. To the man whose eye is not yet open to the +manifestation of the spiritual around him and in him, the +divine is not spirit, but as yet only nature. The animal, +although in the form of the sphinx approaching the human, +holds in Egyptian art a place above the human as symbol of +the divine.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE ARIAN NATIONS.</p> + + +<p class='center'>1. THE EAST ARIANS. THE INDIANS.</p> + +<p>In the development of religion among the Indians, the following +periods may be distinguished:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>a.</i> The original Veda-religion.</p> + +<p><i>b.</i> The priestly religion of the Brahmins.</p> + +<p><i>c.</i> The philosophical speculation.</p> + +<p><i>d.</i> Buddhism.</p> + +<p><i>e.</i> The modified Brahminism after Buddha, in connection +with the worship of Vishnu and Siva.</p></div> + + +<p class='center'><i>a. The original Veda-religion.</i></p> + +<p>The original religion of Arya originated in Bactria. From +thence, before the time of Zoroaster, it was brought over, +with the great migration of the people, to the land of the +seven rivers, which they conquered, and which stretched from +the Indus to the Hesidrus. It consisted, according to the +oldest literature of the Veda, in a polytheistical worship of +the divine, either as the beneficent or the baneful power of +nature. The clear, blue sky, the light of the sun, the rosy +dawn, the storm that spends itself in fruitful rain, the winds +and gales which drive away the clouds, the rivers whose fruitful +slime overspreads the fields,—these moved the inhabitants +of India to the worship of the divine as the beneficent +power of nature which blesses man. On the other hand, he +changed under the impression of the harmful phenomena of +nature, the dark and close-packed clouds which hold back the +rain and intercept the sunshine, the parching heat of summer, +which dries up the rivers and hinders growth and fruitfulness, +and these also he erected into objects of awe and religious +adoration. From this view of nature sprang the Indian mythology. +The oldest divinity (Deva) of the Indians is Varuna, +the all-embracing heaven, who marks out their courses for the +heavenly luminaries, who rules the day and the night, who is +lord of life and death, whose protection is invoked, whose +anger deprecated. After him, the great ruler of nature, there +appear, in the Veda hymns, Indra, the blue sky, god of light +and thunder, the warrior who in battle stands beside the combatants; +Vayu, the god of the wind, the chief of the Maruts, +or the winds; Rudra, the god of the hurricane; Vritra, the +hostile god of the clouds; Ahi, the parching heat of summer. +In the mythology of the people, Indra, god of light, aided by +Vayu and Rudra, wages war with Vritra,—who, as god of +the clouds, holds back the rain and the light,—and appears +as opponent of the destructive Ahi. The other divinities also +which appear in the Vedas are personified powers of nature,—the +twin brothers Aswins (equites), or the first rays of the sun, +Ushas the maiden, or the rosy dawn, Surya, Savitri, the god of +the sun. Great significance is given in the Indian mythology +to Agni, the god of fire, who burns the sacrifice in honor of +the gods, who conveys the offerings and prayers of men to +gods and their gifts to men, who gladdens the domestic +hearth, lights up the darkness of night, drives away the evil +spirits, the Ashuras and Rakshas, and purges of evil the souls +of men. Religion, still wholly patriarchal in form, and free +from hierarchical constraint and from the later dogmatic narrowness, +bore in this earlier stage of its development the +character of the still free and warlike life of a nomadic people +living in the midst of a sublime nature, where everything, the +clear sky, sunshine, and boisterous storm, mountains and rivers, +disposed to worship. As yet the Indian knew no close +priestly caste. Worship consisted in prayers and offerings, +especially in the Soma-offering, which was offered as food to +the gods. No fear of future torment after death as yet embittered +the enjoyment of life and made dying fearful. Yama +was the friendly guide of the souls of heroes to the heaven of +Indra or Varuna, and not yet the inexorable prince of hell +who tormented the souls of the ungodly in the kingdom of the +dead. Of later barbarous usages also, such as the widow's +sacrificing herself on the funeral pile of her departed husband, +there was as yet no trace; and in the heroic poetry, as yet +not disfigured by later Brahminical alterations and additions, +the heroes Krishna and Rama appear as types of courage and +self-sacrifice, and not, as later, as avatars, or human incarnations, +of the deity.</p> + + +<p class='center'><i>b. Brahminism.</i></p> + +<p>When the nomadic and warlike life of the nations of India in +the land of the seven rivers, in connection with their removal +to the conquered land of the Ganges (1300 B.C.), gave place +to a more ordered social constitution, a priestly class formed +itself, which began to represent the people before the deity, +and from its chief function, <i>Brahma</i>, or prayer, took the name +of <i>Brahmins</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, the praying. This Brahma, before whose +power even the gods must yield, was gradually exalted by the +Brahmins to the highest deity, to whom, under the name of +Brahma, the old Veda divinities were subordinated. Brahma +is no god of the people, but a god of the priests; not the +lord of nature, but the abstract and impersonal <i>Being</i>, out of +whom nature and her phenomena emanate. From Brahma +the priest derives his authority; and the system of caste, by +which the priesthood is raised to the first rank, its origin. +The worship of Brahma consists in doing penance and in +abstinence. Yama, once a celestial divinity, now becomes +the god of the lower world, where he who disobeys Brahma +is tormented after death. Immortality consists in returning +to Brahma; but is the portion only of the perfectly godly +Brahmin, while the rest of mankind can rise to this perfect +state only after many painful new births. The Brahmin, in +the exclusive possession of religious knowledge, reads and +expounds the Vedas (knowledge), exalted to infallible scripture, +and on them constructs his doctrine.</p> + +<p>Thus the once vigorous, natural life of the Indians gave +place to a conception of the world which repressed the soul, +and annihilated man's personality. The many-sidedness of +the earlier theology resolved itself into the abstract unity of +an impersonal All, and thus the glory of nature passed by +unmarked, as nought or non-existent, and lost its charm. +At the same time, the old heroic sagas were displaced by +legends of saints, and the heroic spirit of the olden epic by +an asceticism which repressed the human, and before whose +power even the gods stood in awe. With Brahminism the +religion lost its original and natural character, and became +characterized by a slavish submission to a priesthood, which +abrogated the truly human.</p> + + +<p class='center'><i>c. The Speculative Systems.</i></p> + +<p>The doctrine of the Brahmins occasioned the rise of various +theological and philosophical systems. To these belong, +first, the "Vedanta," (end of the Veda) or the dogmatic-apologetic +exposition of the Veda. This contains (1) the establishment +of the authority of the Veda as holy scripture revealed +by Brahma, and also of the relation in which it stands +to tradition; (2) the proof that everything in the Veda has +reference to Brahma; (3) the ascetic system, or the discipline. +To explain contradictory statements in the older and +later parts of the Veda, Brahminical learning makes use of +the subtleties of an harmonistical method of interpretation. +Second, the "Mimansa" (inquiry), devoted to the solution +of the problem, How can the material world spring from Brahma, +or the immaterial? According to this system, there is +only one Supreme Being, Paramatma, a name by which +Brahma himself had been already distinguished in Manu's +book of law. Outside of this highest <i>Being</i>, there is nothing +real. The world of sense, or nature, (Maya, the female side +of Brahma), is mere seeming and illusion of the senses. The +human spirit is a part of Brahma, but perverted, misled by +this same illusion to the conceit that he is individual. This +illusion is done away with by a deeper insight, by means of +which the dualism vanishes from the wise man's view, and +the conceit gives place to the true knowledge that Brahma +alone really exists, that nature, on the contrary, is nought, +and the human spirit nothing else than Brahma himself. +Third, the "Sankya" (criticism) originating with Kapila, in +which, in opposition to the "Mimansa," the individual being +and the real existence of nature, in opposition to spirit, is +laid down as the starting-point, and the result reached is the +doctrine of two original forces, spirit and nature, from whose +reciprocal action and reaction upon each other the union of +soul and body is to be explained. Is this union unnatural, +then the effort of the wise man should be to free himself, +through the perception that the soul is not bound to the body, +from the dominion of matter. In this system, there is no +room for an infinite being, for, if a material world exist, then +must God be limited by its existence, and therefore cease to +be infinite, that is God. The Sankya philosophy here came +in conflict with the orthodox doctrine of the Brahmins, and +prepared the way for Buddhism.</p> + + +<p class='center'><i>d. Buddhism.</i></p> + +<p>Against Brahminism Buddhism arose as a reaction. Siddharta, +son of Suddhodana, the King of Kapilavastu, of the +family of the Sakya, (about 450 B.C.) moved by the misery +of his fellow-countrymen, determined to examine into +the causes of it, and, if possible, to find means of remedying +it. Initiated into the wisdom of the Brahmins, but +not satisfied with that, after years of solitary retirement +and quiet meditation, penetrated with the principles of the +Sankya, he traversed the land as pilgrim (Sakya-muni, Sramana, +Gautama) and opened to the people of India a new +religious epoch. The tendency of the new doctrine was +to break up the system of caste, and free the people from +the galling yoke of the Brahminical hierarchy and dogmas. +While in Brahminism man was deprived of his individuality, +and regarded only as an effluence from Brahma, and tormented +by the fear of hell, and by the thought of a ceaseless +process of countless new births awaiting him after death, +whence the necessity of the most painful penances and chastisements, +Sakya-muni began with man as an individual, and +in morals put purity, abstinence, patience, brotherly love, and +repentance for sins committed above sacrifice and bodily mortification, +and opened to his followers the prospect, after this +weary life, no more to be exposed to the ever-recurring pains +of new birth, but released from all suffering to return to Nirvana, +or nothingness. While Brahminism drew a distinction +between man and man, and with hierarchical pride took no +thought of the Sudra or lower class of the people, and limited +wisdom to the priestly caste, Sakya-muni preached the equality +of all men, came forward as a preacher to the people, used +the people's language, and chose his followers out of all +classes, even from among women. Both of these opposed +systems are one-sided. In Brahminism, God is all, and man, +as personal being, nothing; in Buddhism, man is recognized +as an individual, but apart from God, while in both systems, +the highest endeavor is to be delivered from, according to +Brahminism a seeming, according to Sakya-muni a really +existing individuality, the source of all human woe, and to +lose one's self either in Brahma or in the Nirvana.</p> + +<p>Less on account of his doctrine, in which there is found +neither a God nor a personal immortality, than on account of +the universal character of his words and of his life, Sakya-muni +continued in honor after his death, as the benefactor of +the people and as the Buddha, the wise, pre-eminently; and +afterwards was deified, and took his place in the ranks of the +recognized gods as their superior. Thus there arose in Buddhism, +by a departure from the doctrine of the master, a new +polytheism. This was afterwards, through the influence of +the Brahminical priestly caste, suppressed in India, but spread +over other parts of Asia, to the islands of the Indian Archipelago, +and also to China.</p> + + +<p class='center'><i>e. Later modification of Brahminism in connection with the +worship of Siva and Vishnu.</i></p> + +<p>While Brahminism saw itself menaced by the steadily increasing +influence of Buddhism, the former nature-religion, +dispossessed by the Brahmins, asserted its rights in the worship +of Siva in the valleys of the Himalaya Mountains, and +in that of Vishnu on the banks of the Ganges. Siva is the +Rudra of the Veda, the boisterous god of storms, the giver +of rain and growth. Vishnu is the same divinity among +other races, conceived under the influence of a softer climate +in a modified form as the blue sky. Both divinities, originally +belonging to different parts of India, were afterwards taken, +first Vishnu, and then also Siva, into the theological system +of the Brahmins, and formed with Brahma, but not until the +fourth century after Christ, the trimurti, according to which +the one supreme being Parabrama is worshiped in the threefold +form of Brahma the creating, Vishnu the sustaining, and +Siva the destroying power of nature. To this later period of +Brahminism belongs also the alteration of the old epics, the +Ramayana and Mahabharata, by which the heroes Rama and +Krishna are represented as avatars, that is incarnations +or human impersonations, of Vishnu. In this also there +is evidently an effort to bring the deity, conceived as the +abstract One, into closer union with man, an effort which +is likewise visible in the later Yoga system of the Brahmins, +in which, by the admission of Buddhistic elements, the visible +world is recognized as real, the old rigid asceticism +mitigated, Vishnu represented as the soul of the world, and +immortality taught as a return of the individual soul to +Brahma.</p> + + +<p class='center'>2. THE WEST ARIANS, IRANIANS.</p> + +<p class='center'>[THE BACTRIANS, MEDES, PERSIANS.]</p> + +<p>The ancient religion of the Bactrians in the period before +Zoroaster was patriarchal, and consisted in the worship of +fire, as the beneficent power of nature, and of Mithras, the +god of the sun, combined with that of the good spirits (Ahuras), +among which were Geus-Urva (the spirit of the earth), +Cpento-mainyus (the white spirit), Armaiti (the earth, or +also the spirit of piety), and of the hero-spirits Sraosha, Traetona, +which as light and darkness are distinguished from Angro +(the black spirit).</p> + +<p>Later, as it seems, the theology and worship of the neighboring +nomadic Arya penetrated to these nations, and caused +a religious conflict which ended with the migration of Arya +to the south. At this period Zarathustra<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> (Zoroaster) came +forward under the Bactrian priest and King Kava Vistaspa, as +defender and reformer of the religion of the fathers against +the encroachments of a strange doctrine. The Devas (Zend, +Dews) or the gods of the Indian Veda appear with Zarathustra +as evil spirits. Not Indra, but the hero Traetona, wages war +with Ahi (Zend, Azhi), while the kavis, or priests, are attacked +by him as deceivers and liars. From the belief in good spirits +(Ahuras, <i>i.e.</i>, the living, and Mazdas, <i>i.e.</i>, the wise), the +ancient genii of the country, Zarathustra developed the belief +of one highest God, Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, Greek, +[Greek: Osompzês]), a doctrine which he received by divine inspiration +through the mediation of the spirit Srasha. Ahura-Mazda, +surrounded by the Amesha-Spenta (Amshaspands), or the +holy immortals, not until later reduced to seven, is the creator +of light and life. The hurtful and evil, on the contrary, is +non-existence (akem), and in the oldest parts of the Avesta, +the Gathas, which go back to Zarathustra and his first followers, +is not yet conceived as a personal being. First in the +Vendidad, written after Zarathustra, does Angro-mainyus +(Ahriman), or the evil one, with his Dews, although subordinated +to Ahura-Mazda, gain a place in the Iranian conception +of the universe, as the adversary of Ahura-Mazda, and as the +cause of evil in the natural and spiritual world. From these +conceptions there was developed in the later Parsism the system +of the four periods of the world, each of three thousand +years, in the book "Bundehesh." In the first period, Ahura-Mazda +appears as creator of the world and as the source of +good. The creation, completed by Ahura-Mazda in six days +by means of the word (Honover), is in the second period destroyed +by Angro-mainyus, who, appearing upon the earth +in the form of a serpent, seduces the first human pair, created +by Ahura-Mazda. In the third period, which begins with +the revelation given to Zarathustra, Ahura-mazda and Angro-mainyus +strive together for man. After this follows, in +the fourth period, the victory gained by Ahura-Mazda. Sosiosh +(Saoshyas), the deliverer already foretold in the Vendidad, +appears. The resurrection of the dead, not taught by +Zarathustra or in the Vendidad, takes place. The judgment +of the world begins; the good are received into paradise and +the sinners banished to hell. At last, all is purified, and +Angro-mainyus himself and his Dews submit themselves to +Ahura-Mazda, whose victory is celebrated in heaven with +songs of praise.</p> + +<p>Thus among the Iranian races, out of the old patriarchal +worship of fire and light, on the occasion of the religious +struggle with the Indian Arya, and under the influence of +Zarathustra, there was developed the doctrine of one supreme +God,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> who, surrounded by the good spirits of heaven, wages +war against evil, whence arose later the moral opposition +between Ahura-Mazda and Angro-mainyus resulting in the +victory of the good principle over the bad. The old dualism +of force and matter, beneficent and destructive powers of +nature, light and darkness, becomes in Parsism moral. The +deity, no longer identified with nature, becomes a personal, +spiritual being, the creator of mankind; and the end of the +world's development is conceived as the triumph of the good. +Hence the high rank which the doctrine of Zarathustra and +its further development holds in the history of religion.</p> + + +<p class='center'>3. THE GREEKS.</p> + +<p>As man rises in spiritual development, nature becomes to +him a revelation ever more and more manifold of the divine. +To the Greek (Pelasgi, Hellenes) the whole of nature was +living, and his imagination peopled her everywhere with divine +beings, who in wood and field, in rivers and on mountains +(Oreads, Dryads, Naiads, Sileni, &c.), hovered friendly +round him. The Greek was indeed distinguished from other +nations by this richer and more elevated view of nature; but +he excelled them most of all in this, that the divine object +which he worshiped was conceived both in form and character +after the human. Zeus, Phoebus Apollo, Pallas Athene, +Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Hestia, Hermes, Artemis, were +originally powers of nature personified, as some epithets in +Homer<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> still indicate; but they became, sometimes under +the same names, types of power and lordship, science and +art, courage and sensuous beauty. While Dionysus, Demeter, +Hades, and Persephone remained earthly, and Helios, +Eos, Iris, and Hecate, heavenly divinities, and Oceanus, Poseidon, +Amphitrite, Proteus, and Nereus ruled the waters, Zeus +was conceived as the god of the sky and of thunder, who +hurled the bolts, the great king and lawgiver, the father of +men, and Hera, originally the air, became the protecting goddess +of married life; Apollo, the god of light, who shot forth +his arrows, not at first identified with Helios, became the god +of divination and poetry, who led the choir of the muses; the +goddess of light, Athene, became the contentious goddess of wisdom; +Aphrodite, born of the foam of the sea, once the symbol +of the fruitful power of nature, later, encircled by the Graces, +became the type of womanly beauty and charm, to which the +strength of man, personified in Ares, corresponds. In like +manner in the later mythology, Hephaestus, the god of fire, +appeared as the god of the forge, Hestia, the goddess of fire, +as the protector of the household hearth, and Hermes, the +god of the storm and of rain, as the messenger of the gods, +the type of cunning and craftiness, while Artemis, the goddess +of the moon, the fruitful mother of nature, took the +character of the chaste maiden, the goddess of hunting, who +with her nymphs and hounds nightly roamed the fields and +woods. The monsters, the Sphinx, the Minotaur, the Cyclops, +the Centaurs, symbols of a yet unhuman or half human +power of nature, were overcome by the Greek heroes, Perseus, +Hercules, Jason, Theseus, Œdipus, the types of human +strength and valor. The religious festivals were enlivened +by trials of men's strength and skill in games, and the historian +and poet offered to the gods the products of human +genius. In the religion of the Greeks, however, the moral +element, although not passed over and in the Greek epic and +tragedy not seldom expressed in grand characters, stood nevertheless +too little in the foreground, so that the worship of +the divine, as in the older nature-worship, especially in the +feasts in honor of Dionysus and Aphrodite, was marked by +immoral practices. The conception of a future life, which +taken in connection with a future retribution has a moral tendency, +had but little attraction for the Greek, who rejoiced in +the glory of the earth, and saw in nature and in man the +kingdom of the divine. The passage from the earlier poetical +nature-worship to the worship of the divine in human +form seems to be indicated in the war which Olympian Zeus +waged with Cronos and the Titans. The origin and development +of the various elements and powers of nature, Chaos, +Eros, Uranus, Gæa, the Giants, Styx, Erebus, Hemera, Æther, +&c., became, with the poets and philosophers after Homer, +matters of speculation, of which the theogonies of Hesiod, +Orpheus, Pherecydes, and others furnish proof.</p> + + +<p class='center'>4. THE ROMANS.</p> + +<p>In the religion of the Greeks, the æsthetic and moral character +of the Grecian people was deified, and in the Romans +also we see how that which men value most exerts an influence +upon their worship of the divine. The primitive religion +of the Romans, borrowed from the Sabines and Etruscans, +bears everywhere, in distinction to that of the Greeks, the +marks of the practical and political character of the Roman +people. The oldest national divinities are, first, Jupiter or +Jovis, the god of the heavens, Mars or Mavors, the god of the +field and of war, Quirinus (Janus?) the protector of the Quirites, +afterwards, together with Juno (Dione) and Minerva, +worshiped in the Capitol, (Dii Capitolini); second, Vesta, +and the gods of the house and family, the Lares and Penates; +third, the rural divinities, Saturnus, Ops, Liber, Faunus, +Silvanus, Terminus, Flora, Vertumnus, and Pomona; fourth +and last, personifications, in part of the powers of nature, +Sol, Luna, Tellus, Neptunus, Orcus, Proserpina, in part of +moral and social qualities and states, such as Febris, Salus, +Mens, Spes, Pudicitia, Pietas, Fides, Concordia, Virtus, Bellona, +Victoria, Pax, Libertas, and others. Peculiarly Roman +also is the conception of the <i>manes</i>, or shades of the departed, +who hover as protecting genii about the living. Afterwards, +along with the culture of the Greeks, their gods +also were taken, although rather outwardly than inwardly, +into the spirit of the people, and the original character of the +gods of Latium was modified after the new mythology. Notwithstanding +this, however, the worship of the Romans retained +its political and practical character. The priests (sacerdotes) +Flamines, Salii, Feciales, the Pontifices with the +Pontifex Maximus at their head, the Augurs, were likewise +officers of the state, and did not form a hierarchy apart from +the state and alongside of it.</p> + + +<p class='center'>5. THE CELTS.</p> + +<p>Among the Celtic tribes in Brittany, Ireland, and Gaul, +and on both banks of the Rhine, out of an aboriginal life of +nature characterized by wildness and license, religion developed +itself in the form of the worship of two chief divinities, +a male divinity, Hu, the begetting, and a female, Ceridwen, +the bearing, power of nature. The priesthood busied itself +with speculations about the divine, the origin of the world, +and the continued existence of man after death, conceived in +the form of the transmigration of souls. Nor did the people's +faith lack the conception of good and evil spirits, fairies, +dwarfs, elves, which to the still childish fancy are objects of +fear or superstitious veneration. To the service of these divinities +the priesthood, the Druids, were consecrated, and beside +them the bards, or poets, held a more independent place.</p> + + +<p class='center'>6. THE GERMANS AND SCANDINAVIANS.</p> + +<p>More developed intellectually is the nature-religion of the +ancient Germans (Teutons) and Scandinavians, which betrays +thereby the character of the Aryan race to which these nations, +like the Celts, originally belonged. The highest god +of the Germans is Wodan, called Odhin among the Norsemen, +the god of the heavens, and of the sun, who protects +the earth, and is the source of light and fruitfulness, the spirit +of the world, and the All-father (Alfadhir). From the union +of heaven and earth, there springs the god Thunar or Donar +among the Germans, Thor among the Norsemen, the bold +god of thunder who wages war against the enemies of gods +and men. Besides these there are the sons of Wodan, Fro +(German), Freyx (Norse), the god of peace, Zio (German), Tyx +(Norse), the god of war, Aki (German), Oegir (Norse), god of the +sea, Vol (German), Ullr (Norse), god of hunting, and others, to +whom are joined female divinities, such as Nerthus (German), +Jördh (Norse), the fruitful goddess of the earth, Holda (German), +Freiya (Norse), the goddess of love, Nehalennia, goddess +of plenty, Frikka (German), Frigg (Norse), the wife +of Wodan, mother of all the living, Hellia (German), Hel +(Norse), the inexorable goddess of the lower world. Opposed +to these divinities (Asen and Asinnen) stands Loko (German), +Loki (Norse), enemy of the divine. In addition to +these there appear in the Norse and German Sagas, besides +the heroes, a multitude of spirits, good and hostile, giants, +elves, Elfen (German), Alfen (Norse), white spirits of light, and +black dwarfs, house, forest, and water spirits. The worship +was most simple, and, as was the case with the ancient Semites, +the Indians of the Veda, and the Greeks, as yet independent +of temple service and priestly constraint. The holy +places of the Germans were woods, and hills, and fountains, +and in the mysterious rustling of the leaves and in the murmuring +of the waters the pious spirit caught the breathing of +the deity.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The father of the house is priest, and the recognition +by these races more than elsewhere of worth in woman +is apparent also in their religion. In the description of +the kingdom of the dead in the German-Norse mythology, +Walhalla is the abode of the heroes, hell the gathering place +of the other dead. Notwithstanding these still childish conceptions, +there was revealed in the moral character and heroic +spirit of the German forefathers the germ of a higher development, +which makes the nations of Germany and Northern +class='center'Europe capable beyond others of a constantly higher conception +and estimation of the Christian religion.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE RELIGION OF THE SEMITES.</p> + + +<p class='center'>I. THE PHŒNICIANS, SYRIANS, BABYLONIANS, CARTHAGINIANS, +AND ARABIANS.</p> + +<p>In the Semitic races the religious spirit rose above nature-worship +in the effort to separate God from nature, and to +elevate him above nature as Lord, Baal (plural Baalim, +either from the different places where he was worshiped, or +the various names under which he was worshiped), Bel, El, +Adon (Adonis). Thus Bel among the Babylonians, Baal +among the Ammonites and Moabites, was the god of light, +the lord of heaven, the creator of mankind, who had his +throne above the clouds and was invoked on mountains.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +Also the title Molech and Baal Molech to designate the +Supreme Being among the ancient Phoenicians and Carthaginians, +and the nations nearest related to Israel, the +Moabites and Ammonites, as well as the derived names Milcom +(Kamos) [Chemosh, Eng. ver.], among the Ammonites, +and Melkartht at Tyre and Carthage, indicate, like Baal, an +original effort to conceive God as the ruler of nature. Agreeing +with this conception of the Deity, there is manifest, as +well in the worship of Baal as of Molech and the female Astarte +(Melecheth)<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> [Ashtaroth, Eng. ver.], worshiped with +him, partly in the abstinence from marriage, partly in the +human sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of the first-born, the +aim, through abnegation of the life of sense, and through the +sacrifice, even though unnatural, of what is dearest to man, +to appease a divinity who as lord and governor rules and subjects +to himself the power of nature and every propensity of +sense.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>In spite of the effort to elevate the Deity as Lord and +King above nature, most of the Semitic nations gradually +sank back into the old nature-worship, and, uniting with the +worship of the highest God, Baal and Bel, that of a female +divinity under the names of Baaltis, Beltis, Aschera, Mylitta, +they made religion to consist in the sacrifice of chastity to +the will of the Deity, as the fruitful, productive power of nature, +and thus fell into gross immorality.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Religion appears in another form among the Semites in the +worship of the stars among the Babylonians and ancient Arabians. +This astrolatry, originally a kind of fetichism, became +nature-worship, and gradually rose to the worship of the intelligence +manifested to our contemplation in the movement +of the heavenly luminaries. Astrology arose, and religion +no longer expressed itself in passive acquiescence, but was +united with the effort to guide the life by the knowledge to be +drawn, as men imagined, from the motion of the stars.</p> + + +<p class='center'>ISRAELITISH RELIGION.</p> + + +<p class='center'><i>a. Its origin. The patriarchal religion. Mosaism. +Prophetism.</i></p> + + +<p>While most of the Semitic nations, in opposition to the +effort to elevate God above nature as lord and governor, returned +to the old nature-religion with its grossly sensual worship +of the divine, and others got no farther than to the conception +of a deity, who, like a consuming fire, stood opposed +to nature, and was to be appeased and propitiated by human +sacrifices, there was developed among the Israelitish people, +gradually and in constantly higher measure, in connection +with a higher moral and religious disposition, the worship of +God as a being who, though distinct from nature, is yet not +opposed to it, and thus no longer demands human sacrifices, +but obedience and moral consecration.</p> + +<p>The common origin of the religion of the Israelites and +that of their Semitic relations, though hardly evident even in +the oldest monuments of the Hebrew literature, appears from +the following facts and particulars: firstly, the composition of +Israelitish names not only with El, but also with Baal, such +as Jerubbaal (adversary of Baal), (Gideon),<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Esbaal,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Meribbaal,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> +names which afterwards, on account of the aversion +which the ever-increasing distance in religion between the +Israelitish nation and the nations related to it must, from the +nature of the case, have inspired against the name of Baal, +are changed into Jerubboseth,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Isboseth,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> and Mephiboseth<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>, +as also the interchanging of El and Baal,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> of Baal-jada<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> +and Eljada,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> seem to point to an ancient period +when the name Baal (Lord) was used, like El, Elohim, El +Eljon, El Schaddai, Adonai, even among the Israelites, to +designate the Supreme Being. Secondly, the God of Abraham +(Elohim), although he desires no human sacrifices, nevertheless +praises the willingness of the father to offer up his +first-born, and sees in that the highest proof of devotedness +and obedience.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Thirdly, circumcision, already before Moses<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> +the bloody symbol of consecration to God,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> and also +the right of Jahveh to the first-born, and the necessity of +ransoming them from him,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> imply an earlier conception +of the deity as a being, who, although on a higher development +of the religion he is not indeed any longer thought +to desire human sacrifice, nevertheless has a right to such +a sacrifice, and thus demands indemnity for remitting it. +Fourthly, the later conception, of Jahveh as a destroying +fire, and the way in which the God of Israel is conceived +in connection with fire, and as manifesting himself in fire,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +betray, even in the midst of a more advanced religious development, +an original relationship with the like conceptions of +the other Semites. Fifthly, even in the orthodox Jahveh-worship, +some symbols, as the twelve oxen in the porch of +the temple,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> the horns of the altar for burnt-offerings,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> perhaps +also the in part oxlike form of the cherubim,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> point to +an earlier worship of the deity under the form of an ox, the +symbol of the highest might, especially among the Semitic +races.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>In confirmation of the supposition thus suggested of a +community of origin in the religion of the Israelites and in +that of the nations related to them, there is also to be remarked, +firstly, the sympathy always felt among the people +of Israel for the worship of Baal and Molech, in face of the +strongest opposition on the part of the prophets;<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> secondly, +the statement of Amos,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> that even in the wilderness the Israelites +worshiped Molech; thirdly, the fact that in the time +of the Judges, Jephthah offered his daughter to Jahveh,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> and +still later the feeling, not driven out even by Mosaism, that +the wrath of Jahveh must be appeased by human blood,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> a +necessity which David recognizes;<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> fourthly, the ancient +custom in Israel, as in the nations related to them, of worshiping +the deity on mountains and heights,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> against which +the priestly legislation strove in the interest of the pure worship +of Jahveh;<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> fifthly, the heterodox worship of Jahveh in +the kingdom of the ten tribes under the form of a calf.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>From all this it seems fair to conclude that the religion of +the oldest forefathers of Israel had its root originally in one and +the same soil with the religion of the other Semites. Out of +an earlier nature-religion there developed among the Semites +the conception of Baal, the lord of nature, and of Molech with +his inhuman worship. While, however, the other Semites +remained in this lower stage, or rather sank back more and +more into the immorality of the nature-religion,—an hypothesis +suggested by a comparison of the religious state of the +nations of Canaan in Abraham's time with their state at the +time of the conquest of the land by Joshua and afterwards,—in +the family of Abraham, religious consciousness rose to the +recognition of a deity, who, although he had a right to human +sacrifices, yet did not claim such sacrifices, but was satisfied +with men's willingness to bring them to him. With this +higher development of religion, the names of the Supreme +Being, Baal and Molech, originally common to the whole race, +came more and more into contempt, and were regarded as the +expression of abominable idolatry,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> while even the worship +of Jahveh under the form of a calf, originally permitted, was +later branded by the prophets as heresy.</p> + +<p>Though it was in the family of Abraham that even in Mesopotamia<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> +the beginning of this higher development of the +Semitic religion showed itself, which, after his migration to +Canaan became the heritage of his family, yet the patriarch +of Israel did not stand alone in this respect among the Semites. +The old Canaanitish chieftains also of the patriarchal +period, Melchizedek and Abimelech, worship the same God +as he,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> while on the other hand in his own family not all +traces of polytheistic superstition have disappeared,<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> and +these traces are also visible still later in Israel.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>The patriarchal religion, which afterwards with the great +majority fell into oblivion, was recalled afresh to men's minds +by Moses, and the God of the fathers was preached by him +under the name before unknown of Jahveh,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> to whom, with +the exclusion of all other gods, religious worship is due.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> +The Jahveh of Moses, like the El Eljon of the patriarchs, is +the one only object of worship (Deus Unus), yet without excluding +the possibility of other gods existing.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> Not until +later did the more developed conception of Jahveh arise as +the one only God (Deus unicus),<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> who is throned in heaven, +and like the Elohim of the patriarchs, encircled by celestial +beings (Bene Elohim, Malakim, Angels), who execute his +commands, yet are not objects of religious adoration.</p> + +<p>The religious standpoint of Moses is the legal. Jehovah +stands related to his people as the Holy, as lawgiver and +judge; and the true moral consecration to God is symbolically +expressed in the ritual, especially in the sacrifice, while +the relation of the people to God is based upon the mediation +of the priests. Along with this, and out of Mosaism, after +the time of Samuel, prophetism was developed, in which independent +religious conviction, outside the limits of the +priesthood, and without distinction of rank or birth,<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> awoke +among the people. Prophetism, in the domain of religion, is +the development of the religious spirit to individual independence +and freedom. The prophet, rising above the legal +standpoint and outward ceremonial, puts the essence of true +worship in morality,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> but recognizes also along with the +deepest feeling of dependence upon God, in the independence<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +and spontaneity of the religious and moral life, the +irresistible power of the divine spirit, by which the Most +High, though apart from the world and throned in heaven, +puts himself into the closest and most intimate communion +with the true worshiper. Thus the gulf which divided Jahveh, +as a God afar off, from the world and his worshipers, +closed up more and more. With the conviction of the pureness +and truth<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> of her religion, Israel felt the calling to raise +it to the religion of the world, and in the realization of this +she saw the ideal of the future.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + + +<p class='center'><i>b. The Israelitish religion after the Captivity.</i></p> + +<p>The free character which distinguished prophetism in the +religion of Israel changed, after the return of the people +from captivity, especially with the party of the Pharisees, to +literalness and formalism. The prophets gave place to the +synagogue, the living proclamation of the truth to scriptural +erudition, the spirit of freedom to slavish subjection to Scripture +and tradition. As the ancient productions of the Indian +literature, originally the expression of the popular thought of +India, were elevated by the Brahmins into Veda, holy, inspired +scripture, so also the religious literature of Israel took +on the character of a closed Canon, so that what was once +the expression of religious life became now rule of faith. +The standpoint of the law which prophetism had already overcome +was again strongly maintained, the law enriched with a +number of new ordinances, and the essence of religion made +to consist partly in dogmatic speculation, partly in a merely +outward service, devoid of inner life. The Messianic prediction, +or the expectation that the kingdom, divided in Rehoboam's +reign, once more united under a prince of the house +of David, should be exalted to new bloom and lustre,—which +in the older prophets was the natural and historically +explicable form in which the ideal of Israel's future presented +itself to the seer, but which, under the influence of +the changed political conditions, had already been replaced in +the later prophecy by the more general conception of a future +triumph of the true religion of which Israel was the bringer,—<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a>returned, +yet not as the ideal of the prophetic spirit, but as a +dogma, the product of scriptural interpretation. The pure +monotheism, by which formerly a place in the Providence of +God had been allotted to everything, even to moral evil,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> became +corrupted, under the influence of Parsism, by the conception +of two kingdoms, of God and of the Devil. The +angels, originally the messengers of Providence, became under +mythological names, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, &c., so many +middle beings who filled the space between the Deity, existing +apart from the world, and the world. The lower world +(sheol, [Greek: aidês]), formerly the general abode of the dead, of bad +and good without distinction, was split into two parts, paradise +and gehenna, and became a place of recompense, and, along +with this, religion, once an end, became the means of warding +off a dreaded punishment, or of gaining a future of bliss. +The doctrine of immortality, as the continuation of man's +moral development, which was formerly unknown in Israel, +appeared, as in the later Parsism, in the form of a bodily resurrection +of the dead, at first of the righteous only, but afterwards +in the form of a general resurrection, by mediation +of the Messiah, at whose appearing, which was expected just +before the end of the present state of things, the great judgment +of the world, of living and dead, was to be held, heaven +and earth renewed, and the kingdom of God founded. Beside +the learned party of the Pharisees stood the Sadducees, who +subordinated religion to politics, rejected the Messianic idea +and the authority of tradition, and, in denying immortality in +the form of a bodily resurrection, failed to perceive the truth +of immortality, for whose recognition the premises and germs +existed in the religion of Israel, though not as yet developed. +The third party, that of the Essenes, was marked by quiet +piety, and in many respects also by excessive asceticism. In +the midst of the Pharisaic formalism, the unbelief of the +Sadducees, and the pietism of the Essenes, there was yet in +Israel a seed of true worshipers, who, though not above the +dogmatic prejudices of their time, had heart and mind open +for the true religion, and who set the true blessing to be +looked for from the Messiah in the satisfying of their religious +and moral needs.</p> + + +<p class='center'>3. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.</p> + +<p>The Israelitish religion, which reached its highest stage of +development in prophetism, but which among the later Jews +after Ezra degenerated, with the Pharisees into formalism and +worship of the letter, with the Essenes into mysticism and +asceticism, and which with the Sadducees, along with the +sacrifice of the prophetic ideal of the future, was subordinated +to politics, developed in Christianity, but freed from +once cherished national expectations and outward forms, into +a purely spiritual knowledge and worship of God. Jesus +fathomed the deep meaning of the religion of his people, and +its original fitness to become, through higher development, +the religion of the world. Jesus devoted himself to the end +of forming the human race into one great society (the kingdom +of heaven), of which religion should be the soul and life, +and, convinced of his calling, proclaimed himself as the Son +of man, who, as such, belonged not to Israel alone, but to +mankind. Jesus combated both the formalism and exclusiveness +of the Pharisees, and the unbelief of the Sadducees, and +with word and deed preached a religion which, independent +of all outward form, took hold of the human heart, and which, +developing into an independent principle in man, was to find +its commission, not in the authority of Scripture or tradition, +not even in that of his name, but in its own power +and truth. In him religion appeared as the power of self-sacrificing +love, which fears not even death, and to which dying +is not the losing of life, but the development of life. In +distinction from other religions, in which either God and man +are strangers to each other, and opposed to each other, or +man's personality is, as it were, sunk in God, Christianity is +the religion by which man, in the full enjoyment of individual +development, and with the sense of his own strength, lives in +the consciousness of the most entire dependence upon God. +Religion in its highest form, conceived as the oneness of man +with God, is realized in Christianity.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + + +<p class='center'>4. ISLAMISM.</p> + +<p>The religion of the ancient nomadic tribes of the Arabian +peninsula originally exhibited a polytheistical character, in the +form of the worship, in part of sacred stones, in part of the +powers of nature, especially of the stars, whose position and +motion were thought to exert an influence, beneficent or +baneful, upon the destinies of men. With these conceptions +was combined a certain leaning toward monotheism, which +manifested itself especially in the common worship of Allah +taala (equivalent to El Eljon), which was afterwards quickened +and strengthened by association with the Jewish tribes, +with whom they held themselves to be related by descent +from Abraham. The Parsee doctrine of demons, also, was +not unknown in Arabia, after the conquest of the Persians in +the fifth century. After the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, +Christianity also, though in a corrupt form, or, definitely, in +the form of Monophysitism and Nestorianism, which had +been condemned by the church, became established in Arabia.</p> + +<p>Amid such diverse elements, there was need of unity in +the domain of religion, a need for which Mohammed, after +the example of others of his family, sought to provide.</p> + +<p>He was born at Mecca (571) of an honorable family, belonging +to the Koreish tribe. Finding no satisfaction for his +restless spirit in the trade to which after his parents' death +he had at first devoted himself, he gave himself up, in solitary +retirement, to quiet meditation, and became more and more +convinced of his calling to put an end, by means of a better +religion, to the confusion existing among his countrymen with +regard to religion. The religious idea which overmastered +him presented itself to his powerful Oriental imagination in +the form of a vision as a revelation of Allah taala, made to +him in the fortieth year of his life by mediation of the angel +Gabriel. His conviction, thus acquired, was confirmed by +revelations afterwards received; and, shared at first with a +small circle of trusted friends, gradually spread wider, until +at last Mohammed came forward in the ancient sanctuary, +the Kaaba, at Mecca, as prophet of Allah. For this he was +pursued by his countrymen, and fled from thence to Medina, +in the year 622, the beginning of the Moslem era. The +number of his followers increasing, he had recourse to arms. +He conquered Mecca in 630, and made the Kaaba, after destroying +the idols in it, the sanctuary of the new religion.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of Mohammed (Islam, submission to God, +whence his followers take the name of Moslems), is contained +in the Koran. The various Suras, or divisions, originally the +revelations received by the prophet at different periods of his +life reduced to writing, were, soon after his death, united by +Abu Bekr into one holy book, under the name of the Koran +(al Kitab, the book), which, like the Bible among the later +Jews and Christians, was clothed with divine authority. The +central doctrine of Mohammed is the belief in one God, Allah, +who, as the Creator and Lord of all things, in strictest +isolation from the world, is throned in heaven. All that takes +place upon the earth befalls according to the eternal decree +of God, a conception in which, at least among the Orthodox +Moslems, the Sunnites, who are distinguished in this respect, +as in others, from the dissenting Shiites, there is no place +left for human freedom. This God has from the earliest +times revealed himself to some privileged men, Adam, Noah, +Abraham, Moses, Jesus (Isa). To the last is due the honor +of having been the reformer of degenerate Judaism. He is +not, as the Christians of Mohammed's time taught, the Son +of God in a metaphysical sense, much less God himself,—Allah +is one, he neither begets nor is begotten,—but a +prophet of human descent. The greatest and last prophet is +Mohammed himself, in whom prophetism reached its fulfillment. +Along with the doctrine regarding God and his relation +to the world, prayer, hospitality, and benevolence occupy +a prominent place in the teaching of Mohammed, +looked at from its practical side, and also the belief in a +future life, in the Jewish-Parsee form of the resurrection of +the dead, the judgment of the world, future reward and punishment, +paradise and hell. The truth of this divine revelation +rests upon the very fact of its having been revealed, and, +according to Mohammed, it no more needs scientific proof +than confirmation by miracles, to which Islamism did not appeal +until later.</p> + +<p>The opinion which formerly prevailed among Christians +that Mohammed was an impostor, a false prophet, was bound +up with the conception that God, to the exclusion of other +nations, had revealed himself immediately and supernaturally +first to Israel, and afterwards through Christ to all mankind. +Hence it followed that Christianity was not prized as the +highest religion, existing along with less developed forms of +religion, but was opposed as the only true religion to all others, +which were regarded as the fruit of imposture and error, +an opinion to which the religious and political struggles in +which Islam and Christendom have been involved also richly +contributed. Mohammed was seer and prophet, filled with +fiery zeal for religion, and, while he stands indeed in this +respect, both personally and with regard to the contents of +his preaching and the means by which he sought to gain admission +for his doctrine, below the seers of Israel, and far +below the founder of Christianity, yet, on the other hand, his +monotheism, abstract as it is, must be regarded as a wholesome +reaction against the ever-increasing polytheistical superstition +to which in his time the Christian church of the +East especially had sunk. Islamism stands, however, below +original Christianity, the religion of Jesus and the Apostles, +in that, by separating God, as the abstract one Supreme Being, +from the world, it leaves no place for the doctrine of God's +immanence, or the indwelling of the Spirit of God in man. +Hence in Islamism the divine revelation remains purely mechanical, +with no natural point of connection in man, and +therefore there is no possibility of an enduring prophetism, +which is the fundamental principle of Christianity. From +this separation of God and man, the Mohammedan doctrine of +predestination, in distinction from the Christian, acquires its +abstract and fatalistic character, whereby man, instead of being +regarded as a being in whose free activity God's power +and life are glorified, is conceived as a passive instrument of +a higher power. To true moral independence, therefore, the +Moslem does not attain. His religion is legal and external, +and therefore intolerant and exclusive; and when Islamism, +led by excited passion and a heated imagination, disregarded +the sanctity of marriage, and held up as a reward before the +faithful Moslem a paradise characterized by sensual enjoyment, +it missed at once the deep moral and spiritual character +of Christianity. To these defects must be ascribed the fact +that Islamism, adapted to the need of the East, and therefore +spread over a large part of Asia and Africa, has not, with the +exception of the empire of Turkey, and for a time also of +Spain, penetrated Europe; and, overshadowed by a higher +development of humanity, has reached its highest bloom, +while Christianity, brought back to its original purity, remains +the religion of the civilized world.</p> +<p> </p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Translated from the Dutch of Prof. J. H. Scholten, by F.T. Washburn. +This constitutes the first part of Prof. Scholten's History of Religion +and Philosophy. (<i>Geschiedenis der Godsdienst en Wijsbegeerte.</i>) +Third edition. Leyden, 1863. Of this work there is a translation in +French by M. Albert Réville (Paris, 1861); but this translation, which +was made from an earlier edition, is very defective in the first part, +Prof. Scholten having added a great deal in his last edition. There is +also a translation of it in German, by D.E.R. Redepenning (Elberfeld, +1868). This German translation has been revised and enlarged by Prof. +Scholten, and is therefore superior in some respects to the original +Dutch. The present translation has been revised upon it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> According to Buusen 3000 or 2500 B.C., Haug 2000 B.C., Max +Müller 1200 B.C., Max Duncker 1300 or 1250 B.C., and according to +Rœth. I. p. 348, who still puts Vistaspa before Darius Hystaspes, between +589 and 512 B.C.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The doctrine of the <i>Zervana akarana</i> (infinite time) as the original +One, from which the opposition between Ormuzd and Ahriman was held +to spring, dates from a later period.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Ζευς κελαινεφης, αιδερι ναιων, νεφληγερετα Ζευς, Ηρη βυωπις, γλαυκωπις Αδηυη. +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Of the Germans Tacitus writes, <i>Germ.</i>, c. 9, "Eos nec cohibere +parietibus Deos neque in ullam humanioris speciem assimilare, ex magnitudine +cœlestium arbitrantur. Lucos ac nemora consecrant deorumque +nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia vident."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Among the Roman writers who furnish us with information upon the +religion of the Germans, Tacitus deserves mention, in his "Germania," +as well as in his "Annales" <i>passim</i>. The chief source with regard to +the Norse religion is the older Edda, under the title "Edda Sæmundar +hin Froda."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Numb. xxii. 41; xxiii. 28; 2 Kings, xxiii. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Judges, ii. 13; 1 Sam. vii. 4; xii. 10; 1 Kings, xi. 5, 7, 33; 2 +Kings, xxiii. 13; Jer. vii. 18; xliv. 17, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 2; 2 Kings, iii. 26, 27; xvi. 3; xxiii. 10; Ps. +cvi. 38; Jer. vii. 31; xix. 5; xxxii. 35; Micah, vi. 7; Ezek. xv. 4, 6; [?] +xvi. 20, Comp. I Kings, xviii: 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Numb. xxv. 1, <i>et seq</i>; Josh. xxii. 17; Baruch, vi. 41, 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Judges, vi. 32. and elsewhere.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> 1 Chron. viii. 33; ix. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> 1 Chron. viii. 34; ix. 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> 2 Sam. xi. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> 2 Sam. ii. 8, and elsewhere.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> 2 Sam. iv. 4, and elsewhere.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Judges, viii. 33; ix. 4. Comp. with ix. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> 1 Chron. xiv. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> 1 Chron. iii. 8; 2 Sam. v. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Gen. xxii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Gen. xvii. 23-27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Ex. iv. 24-26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Ex. xiii. 2, 12-16; xxii. 28, 29; xxx. 11-16; xxxiv. 19, 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Gen. xv. 17; Ex. iii. 2; xix. 16-18; xxiv. 17; xl. 38; Levit. x. +2; Numb. xvi. 35; Deut. iv. 15, 24; v. 24, 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> 1 Kings, vii. 25, 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Ex. xxvii. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Comp. Ezek. i. 10; x. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> 1 Kings, xviii. 23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> 1 Kings, xi. 5; 2 Kings, xvi. 3; xxi. 3; xxiii. 4, <i>et seq</i>; 2 Chron. xxxiii. +3; Ezek. xvi. 20, 21; Jer. xix. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Amos. v. 25, 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Judges, xi. 30-40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Ex. xxxii. 27-29; Numb. xxv. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> 1 Kings, iii. 2; xi. 7; 2 Kings, xii. 3; xiv. 4; xvii. 11; xviii. 4; xxiii. +5, 19; 2 Chron. xxi. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3; Ezek. vi. 3; xx. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> 1 Kings, xii. 28, 33. Comp. Ex. xxxii. 4, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 2; Deut. xii. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Gen. xxiv, xxviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Gen. xiv. 18-20; xx. 3, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Gen. xxxi. 19, 30, <i>et seq</i>; xxxv. 2-4; Joshua, xxiv. 2, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Judges, xviii. 14, <i>et seq</i>; 1 Sam. xix. 13; 2 Kings, xviii. 4; Ezek. xx. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Ex. iii. 13, <i>et seq</i>; vi. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Ex. xx. 2, 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Ex. viii. 10; xv. 11; xviii. 11; xx. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Deut vi. 4; iv. 28, 35; xxxii. 39; Isaiah, xliv. 6, 8; xlv. 5, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Amos, vii. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Isa. i. 11-18; Jer. vii. 21-23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Dutch, <i>zelfstandigheid</i>, literally, self-existence; without an equivalent, +as far as I know, in vernacular English.—Tr.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Zelfstandigheid</i>, again, expressing objective existence, reality, independent +of subjective thought or feeling.—Tr.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Jer. xxxi. 31, <i>et seq</i>; Isa. ii. 2-4; Amos, ix. 12; Isa. xxv. 6; lii. 15; +lvi. 6, 7; lxvi. 23; Zech. viii. 23; xiv. 9, 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Isa. liii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Job i, ii.—Tr.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> The most original sources of the Christian religion are the Synoptic +Gospels, in which, however, criticism must distinguish between the older +and later portions. The fourth Gospel is marked by a more profound +speculation upon the person and the work of Christ, by which the Christian +mind freed itself entirely from the Jewish forms in which Jesus, as a +popular teacher in Israel, had set forth his doctrine.</p></div> + +</div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 20137-h.txt or 20137-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/1/3/20137">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/1/3/20137</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Comparative View of Religions + + +Author: Johannes Henricus Scholten + + + +Release Date: December 19, 2006 [eBook #20137] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS*** + + +E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Graeme Mackreth, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net/) from page images generously made available by the +Making of America collection of the University of Michigan Libraries +(http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through the Making + of America collection of the University of Michigan Libraries. See + http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AJF2939.0001.001 + + + + + +A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS. + +Translated from the Dutch of + +J. H. SCHOLTEN, +Professor at Leyden, + +by Francis T. Washburn. + + + + + + + +Reprinted by permission from "The Religious Magazine and Monthly +Review." +Boston: Crosby & Damrell, 100 Washington St. 1870. + + + + +A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS. + + + + +INTRODUCTION.[1] + + +The conception of religion presupposes, _a_, God as object; _b_, man as +subject; _c_, the mutual relation existing between them. According to +the various stages of development which men have reached, religious +belief manifests itself either in the form of a passive feeling of +dependence, where the subject, not yet conscious of his independence, +feels himself wholly overmastered by the deity, or the object of +worship, as by a power outside of and opposed to himself; or, when the +feeling of independence has awakened, in a one-sided elevation of the +human, whereby man in worshiping a deity deifies himself. In the highest +stage of religious development, the most entire feeling of dependence is +united in religion with the strongest consciousness of personal +independence. The first of these forms is exhibited in the fetich and +nature-worship of the ancient nations; the second in Buddhism, and in +the deification of the human, which reaches its full height among the +Greeks. The true religion, prepared in Israel, is the Christian, in +which man, grown conscious of his oneness with God, is ruled by the +divine as an inner power of life, and acts spontaneously and freely +while in the fullest dependence upon God. Since Christ, no more perfect +religion has appeared. What is true and good in Islamism was borrowed +from Israel and Christianity. + +Although it is probable that every nation passed through different forms +of religious belief before its religion reached its highest development, +yet the earlier periods lie in great part beyond the reach of historical +investigation. The history of religion, therefore, has for its task the +review of the various forms of religion with which we are historically +acquainted, in the order of psychological development. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +FETICHISM. THE CHINESE. THE EGYPTIANS. + + +1. FETICHISM. + +The lowest stage of religious development is fetichism, as it is found +among the savage tribes of the polar regions, and in Africa, America, +and Australia. In this stage, man's needs are as yet very limited and +exclusively confined to the material world. Still too little developed +intellectually to worship the divine in nature and her powers, he thinks +he sees the divinity which he seeks in every unknown object which +strikes his senses, or which his imagination calls up. In this stage, +religion has no higher character than that of caprice and of love of +the mysterious and marvelous, mixed with fear and a slavish adoration of +the divine. The worship and the priest's office (Shaman, Shamanism) +consist here chiefly in the use of charms, to exorcise a dreaded power. +From this savage fetichism the nature-worship found among the Aztecs in +Mexico, and the worship of the sun in Peru, are distinguished by the +greater definiteness and order of their religious conceptions and +usages. In them the gods have names, and an ordained priesthood cares +for the religious interests of the people. The highest form to which +fetichism has attained is the worship of Manitou, the great spirit, +which is found among the ancient tribes of North America. + + +2. THE CHINESE. + +When man reaches a higher development, caprice and chance disappear from +religion. Having outgrown fetichism, man begins, as is the case among +the Chinese, to distinguish in the world around him an active and a +passive principle, force and matter (Yang and Yn), heaven and earth +(Kien and Kouen). We have here nature-worship in its beginnings. In this +stage, even less than in fetichism, is there a definite idea of God, +much less a conception of him as personal and spiritual lord. The +Chinese, from the practical, empirical point of view peculiar to him, +recognizes the spiritual only in man and chiefly in the state. His +religion, therefore, is confined exclusively to the faithful keeping of +the laws of the state (the Celestial Kingdom), in which he sees the +reflection of heaven, to the recognition of the Emperor as the son and +representative of heaven, and to the worship of the forefathers, +especially of the great men and departed emperors, to whose memory the +Chinese temples, or pagodas, are dedicated. The origin of this religion +dates, according to the tradition, from Fo-hi (2950 B.C.), the founder +of the Chinese state. In the fifth century before Christ, Kong-tse, or +Kong-fu-tse (Confucius), appeared as a reformer of the religion of his +countrymen, and gathered the ancient records and traditions of his +people into a sacred literature, which is known by the name of the +"King" (the books), "Yo-King" (the book of nature), "Chu-King" (the book +of history), "Chi-King" (the book of songs). The contents of the "King" +became later with the Chinese sages Meng-tse (360 B.C.) and Tschu-tsche +(1200 A.D.) an object of philosophical speculation. The doctrine of +Lao-tse, the younger contemporary of Kong-tse, which lays down as the +basis of the world, that is of the unreal or non-existent, a supreme +principle, _Tao_, or _Being_, corresponds with the Brahma doctrine of +the Indians, among whom he lived for a long time; but this doctrine +never became popular in China. + + +3. THE EGYPTIANS. + +The worship of nature, which is seen in its beginnings among the +Chinese, exhibits itself among the Egyptians in a more developed form as +theogony. Here also the reflecting mind rose to the recognition of two +fundamental principles, the producing and the passive power of nature, +Kneph and Neith, from which sprang successively the remaining powers of +nature, time, air, earth, light and darkness, personified by the fantasy +of the people into as many divinities. The Egyptian mythology also (none +has as yet been discovered among the Chinese) exhibits a like character. +Fruitfulness and drought, the results of the Nile's overflowing and +receding, are imaged in the myth of _Osiris_, _Isis_, and _Typhon_. The +visible form under which the divine was worshiped in Egypt was the +sacred animal, the bull _Apis_, dedicated to _Osiris_, the cow, +dedicated to _Isis_, as symbols of agriculture; the bird _Ibis_, the +crocodile, the dog _Anubis_, and other animals, whose physical +characteristics impressed the as yet childish man, who saw in them the +symbol, either of the beneficent power of nature which moved him to +thankfulness, or of a destructive power which he dreaded and whose anger +he sought to avert. The religion of Egypt was not of a purely spiritual +character. To the man whose eye is not yet open to the manifestation of +the spiritual around him and in him, the divine is not spirit, but as +yet only nature. The animal, although in the form of the sphinx +approaching the human, holds in Egyptian art a place above the human as +symbol of the divine. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ARIAN NATIONS. + + +1. THE EAST ARIANS. THE INDIANS. + +In the development of religion among the Indians, the following periods +may be distinguished:-- + + _a._ The original Veda-religion. + + _b._ The priestly religion of the Brahmins. + + _c._ The philosophical speculation. + + _d._ Buddhism. + + _e._ The modified Brahminism after Buddha, in connection with the + worship of Vishnu and Siva. + + +_a. The original Veda-religion._ + +The original religion of Arya originated in Bactria. From thence, before +the time of Zoroaster, it was brought over, with the great migration of +the people, to the land of the seven rivers, which they conquered, and +which stretched from the Indus to the Hesidrus. It consisted, according +to the oldest literature of the Veda, in a polytheistical worship of the +divine, either as the beneficent or the baneful power of nature. The +clear, blue sky, the light of the sun, the rosy dawn, the storm that +spends itself in fruitful rain, the winds and gales which drive away the +clouds, the rivers whose fruitful slime overspreads the fields,--these +moved the inhabitants of India to the worship of the divine as the +beneficent power of nature which blesses man. On the other hand, he +changed under the impression of the harmful phenomena of nature, the +dark and close-packed clouds which hold back the rain and intercept the +sunshine, the parching heat of summer, which dries up the rivers and +hinders growth and fruitfulness, and these also he erected into objects +of awe and religious adoration. From this view of nature sprang the +Indian mythology. The oldest divinity (Deva) of the Indians is Varuna, +the all-embracing heaven, who marks out their courses for the heavenly +luminaries, who rules the day and the night, who is lord of life and +death, whose protection is invoked, whose anger deprecated. After him, +the great ruler of nature, there appear, in the Veda hymns, Indra, the +blue sky, god of light and thunder, the warrior who in battle stands +beside the combatants; Vayu, the god of the wind, the chief of the +Maruts, or the winds; Rudra, the god of the hurricane; Vritra, the +hostile god of the clouds; Ahi, the parching heat of summer. In the +mythology of the people, Indra, god of light, aided by Vayu and Rudra, +wages war with Vritra,--who, as god of the clouds, holds back the rain +and the light,--and appears as opponent of the destructive Ahi. The +other divinities also which appear in the Vedas are personified powers +of nature,--the twin brothers Aswins (equites), or the first rays of the +sun, Ushas the maiden, or the rosy dawn, Surya, Savitri, the god of the +sun. Great significance is given in the Indian mythology to Agni, the +god of fire, who burns the sacrifice in honor of the gods, who conveys +the offerings and prayers of men to gods and their gifts to men, who +gladdens the domestic hearth, lights up the darkness of night, drives +away the evil spirits, the Ashuras and Rakshas, and purges of evil the +souls of men. Religion, still wholly patriarchal in form, and free from +hierarchical constraint and from the later dogmatic narrowness, bore in +this earlier stage of its development the character of the still free +and warlike life of a nomadic people living in the midst of a sublime +nature, where everything, the clear sky, sunshine, and boisterous storm, +mountains and rivers, disposed to worship. As yet the Indian knew no +close priestly caste. Worship consisted in prayers and offerings, +especially in the Soma-offering, which was offered as food to the gods. +No fear of future torment after death as yet embittered the enjoyment of +life and made dying fearful. Yama was the friendly guide of the souls of +heroes to the heaven of Indra or Varuna, and not yet the inexorable +prince of hell who tormented the souls of the ungodly in the kingdom of +the dead. Of later barbarous usages also, such as the widow's +sacrificing herself on the funeral pile of her departed husband, there +was as yet no trace; and in the heroic poetry, as yet not disfigured by +later Brahminical alterations and additions, the heroes Krishna and Rama +appear as types of courage and self-sacrifice, and not, as later, as +avatars, or human incarnations, of the deity. + + +_b. Brahminism._ + +When the nomadic and warlike life of the nations of India in the land of +the seven rivers, in connection with their removal to the conquered land +of the Ganges (1300 B.C.), gave place to a more ordered social +constitution, a priestly class formed itself, which began to represent +the people before the deity, and from its chief function, _Brahma_, or +prayer, took the name of _Brahmins_, i.e., the praying. This Brahma, +before whose power even the gods must yield, was gradually exalted by +the Brahmins to the highest deity, to whom, under the name of Brahma, +the old Veda divinities were subordinated. Brahma is no god of the +people, but a god of the priests; not the lord of nature, but the +abstract and impersonal _Being_, out of whom nature and her phenomena +emanate. From Brahma the priest derives his authority; and the system of +caste, by which the priesthood is raised to the first rank, its origin. +The worship of Brahma consists in doing penance and in abstinence. Yama, +once a celestial divinity, now becomes the god of the lower world, where +he who disobeys Brahma is tormented after death. Immortality consists in +returning to Brahma; but is the portion only of the perfectly godly +Brahmin, while the rest of mankind can rise to this perfect state only +after many painful new births. The Brahmin, in the exclusive possession +of religious knowledge, reads and expounds the Vedas (knowledge), +exalted to infallible scripture, and on them constructs his doctrine. + +Thus the once vigorous, natural life of the Indians gave place to a +conception of the world which repressed the soul, and annihilated man's +personality. The many-sidedness of the earlier theology resolved itself +into the abstract unity of an impersonal All, and thus the glory of +nature passed by unmarked, as nought or non-existent, and lost its +charm. At the same time, the old heroic sagas were displaced by legends +of saints, and the heroic spirit of the olden epic by an asceticism +which repressed the human, and before whose power even the gods stood in +awe. With Brahminism the religion lost its original and natural +character, and became characterized by a slavish submission to a +priesthood, which abrogated the truly human. + + +_c. The Speculative Systems._ + +The doctrine of the Brahmins occasioned the rise of various theological +and philosophical systems. To these belong, first, the "Vedanta," (end +of the Veda) or the dogmatic-apologetic exposition of the Veda. This +contains (1) the establishment of the authority of the Veda as holy +scripture revealed by Brahma, and also of the relation in which it +stands to tradition; (2) the proof that everything in the Veda has +reference to Brahma; (3) the ascetic system, or the discipline. To +explain contradictory statements in the older and later parts of the +Veda, Brahminical learning makes use of the subtleties of an +harmonistical method of interpretation. Second, the "Mimansa" (inquiry), +devoted to the solution of the problem, How can the material world +spring from Brahma, or the immaterial? According to this system, there +is only one Supreme Being, Paramatma, a name by which Brahma himself had +been already distinguished in Manu's book of law. Outside of this +highest _Being_, there is nothing real. The world of sense, or nature, +(Maya, the female side of Brahma), is mere seeming and illusion of the +senses. The human spirit is a part of Brahma, but perverted, misled by +this same illusion to the conceit that he is individual. This illusion +is done away with by a deeper insight, by means of which the dualism +vanishes from the wise man's view, and the conceit gives place to the +true knowledge that Brahma alone really exists, that nature, on the +contrary, is nought, and the human spirit nothing else than Brahma +himself. Third, the "Sankya" (criticism) originating with Kapila, in +which, in opposition to the "Mimansa," the individual being and the real +existence of nature, in opposition to spirit, is laid down as the +starting-point, and the result reached is the doctrine of two original +forces, spirit and nature, from whose reciprocal action and reaction +upon each other the union of soul and body is to be explained. Is this +union unnatural, then the effort of the wise man should be to free +himself, through the perception that the soul is not bound to the body, +from the dominion of matter. In this system, there is no room for an +infinite being, for, if a material world exist, then must God be limited +by its existence, and therefore cease to be infinite, that is God. The +Sankya philosophy here came in conflict with the orthodox doctrine of +the Brahmins, and prepared the way for Buddhism. + + +_d. Buddhism._ + +Against Brahminism Buddhism arose as a reaction. Siddharta, son of +Suddhodana, the King of Kapilavastu, of the family of the Sakya, (about +450 B.C.) moved by the misery of his fellow-countrymen, determined to +examine into the causes of it, and, if possible, to find means of +remedying it. Initiated into the wisdom of the Brahmins, but not +satisfied with that, after years of solitary retirement and quiet +meditation, penetrated with the principles of the Sankya, he traversed +the land as pilgrim (Sakya-muni, Sramana, Gautama) and opened to the +people of India a new religious epoch. The tendency of the new doctrine +was to break up the system of caste, and free the people from the +galling yoke of the Brahminical hierarchy and dogmas. While in +Brahminism man was deprived of his individuality, and regarded only as +an effluence from Brahma, and tormented by the fear of hell, and by the +thought of a ceaseless process of countless new births awaiting him +after death, whence the necessity of the most painful penances and +chastisements, Sakya-muni began with man as an individual, and in morals +put purity, abstinence, patience, brotherly love, and repentance for +sins committed above sacrifice and bodily mortification, and opened to +his followers the prospect, after this weary life, no more to be exposed +to the ever-recurring pains of new birth, but released from all +suffering to return to Nirvana, or nothingness. While Brahminism drew a +distinction between man and man, and with hierarchical pride took no +thought of the Sudra or lower class of the people, and limited wisdom to +the priestly caste, Sakya-muni preached the equality of all men, came +forward as a preacher to the people, used the people's language, and +chose his followers out of all classes, even from among women. Both of +these opposed systems are one-sided. In Brahminism, God is all, and man, +as personal being, nothing; in Buddhism, man is recognized as an +individual, but apart from God, while in both systems, the highest +endeavor is to be delivered from, according to Brahminism a seeming, +according to Sakya-muni a really existing individuality, the source of +all human woe, and to lose one's self either in Brahma or in the +Nirvana. + +Less on account of his doctrine, in which there is found neither a God +nor a personal immortality, than on account of the universal character +of his words and of his life, Sakya-muni continued in honor after his +death, as the benefactor of the people and as the Buddha, the wise, +pre-eminently; and afterwards was deified, and took his place in the +ranks of the recognized gods as their superior. Thus there arose in +Buddhism, by a departure from the doctrine of the master, a new +polytheism. This was afterwards, through the influence of the +Brahminical priestly caste, suppressed in India, but spread over other +parts of Asia, to the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and also to +China. + + +_e. Later modification of Brahminism in connection with the worship of +Siva and Vishnu._ + +While Brahminism saw itself menaced by the steadily increasing influence +of Buddhism, the former nature-religion, dispossessed by the Brahmins, +asserted its rights in the worship of Siva in the valleys of the +Himalaya Mountains, and in that of Vishnu on the banks of the Ganges. +Siva is the Rudra of the Veda, the boisterous god of storms, the giver +of rain and growth. Vishnu is the same divinity among other races, +conceived under the influence of a softer climate in a modified form as +the blue sky. Both divinities, originally belonging to different parts +of India, were afterwards taken, first Vishnu, and then also Siva, into +the theological system of the Brahmins, and formed with Brahma, but not +until the fourth century after Christ, the trimurti, according to which +the one supreme being Parabrama is worshiped in the threefold form of +Brahma the creating, Vishnu the sustaining, and Siva the destroying +power of nature. To this later period of Brahminism belongs also the +alteration of the old epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, by which the +heroes Rama and Krishna are represented as avatars, that is incarnations +or human impersonations, of Vishnu. In this also there is evidently an +effort to bring the deity, conceived as the abstract One, into closer +union with man, an effort which is likewise visible in the later Yoga +system of the Brahmins, in which, by the admission of Buddhistic +elements, the visible world is recognized as real, the old rigid +asceticism mitigated, Vishnu represented as the soul of the world, and +immortality taught as a return of the individual soul to Brahma. + + +2. THE WEST ARIANS, IRANIANS. + +[THE BACTRIANS, MEDES, PERSIANS.] + +The ancient religion of the Bactrians in the period before Zoroaster was +patriarchal, and consisted in the worship of fire, as the beneficent +power of nature, and of Mithras, the god of the sun, combined with that +of the good spirits (Ahuras), among which were Geus-Urva (the spirit of +the earth), Cpento-mainyus (the white spirit), Armaiti (the earth, or +also the spirit of piety), and of the hero-spirits Sraosha, Traetona, +which as light and darkness are distinguished from Angro (the black +spirit). + +Later, as it seems, the theology and worship of the neighboring nomadic +Arya penetrated to these nations, and caused a religious conflict which +ended with the migration of Arya to the south. At this period +Zarathustra[2] (Zoroaster) came forward under the Bactrian priest and +King Kava Vistaspa, as defender and reformer of the religion of the +fathers against the encroachments of a strange doctrine. The Devas +(Zend, Dews) or the gods of the Indian Veda appear with Zarathustra as +evil spirits. Not Indra, but the hero Traetona, wages war with Ahi +(Zend, Azhi), while the kavis, or priests, are attacked by him as +deceivers and liars. From the belief in good spirits (Ahuras, i.e., +the living, and Mazdas, i.e., the wise), the ancient genii of the +country, Zarathustra developed the belief of one highest God, +Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, Greek, [Greek: Osompzes]), a doctrine which he +received by divine inspiration through the mediation of the spirit +Srasha. Ahura-Mazda, surrounded by the Amesha-Spenta (Amshaspands), or +the holy immortals, not until later reduced to seven, is the creator of +light and life. The hurtful and evil, on the contrary, is non-existence +(akem), and in the oldest parts of the Avesta, the Gathas, which go back +to Zarathustra and his first followers, is not yet conceived as a +personal being. First in the Vendidad, written after Zarathustra, does +Angro-mainyus (Ahriman), or the evil one, with his Dews, although +subordinated to Ahura-Mazda, gain a place in the Iranian conception of +the universe, as the adversary of Ahura-Mazda, and as the cause of evil +in the natural and spiritual world. From these conceptions there was +developed in the later Parsism the system of the four periods of the +world, each of three thousand years, in the book "Bundehesh." In the +first period, Ahura-Mazda appears as creator of the world and as the +source of good. The creation, completed by Ahura-Mazda in six days by +means of the word (Honover), is in the second period destroyed by +Angro-mainyus, who, appearing upon the earth in the form of a serpent, +seduces the first human pair, created by Ahura-Mazda. In the third +period, which begins with the revelation given to Zarathustra, +Ahura-mazda and Angro-mainyus strive together for man. After this +follows, in the fourth period, the victory gained by Ahura-Mazda. +Sosiosh (Saoshyas), the deliverer already foretold in the Vendidad, +appears. The resurrection of the dead, not taught by Zarathustra or in +the Vendidad, takes place. The judgment of the world begins; the good +are received into paradise and the sinners banished to hell. At last, +all is purified, and Angro-mainyus himself and his Dews submit +themselves to Ahura-Mazda, whose victory is celebrated in heaven with +songs of praise. + +Thus among the Iranian races, out of the old patriarchal worship of fire +and light, on the occasion of the religious struggle with the Indian +Arya, and under the influence of Zarathustra, there was developed the +doctrine of one supreme God,[3] who, surrounded by the good spirits of +heaven, wages war against evil, whence arose later the moral opposition +between Ahura-Mazda and Angro-mainyus resulting in the victory of the +good principle over the bad. The old dualism of force and matter, +beneficent and destructive powers of nature, light and darkness, becomes +in Parsism moral. The deity, no longer identified with nature, becomes a +personal, spiritual being, the creator of mankind; and the end of the +world's development is conceived as the triumph of the good. Hence the +high rank which the doctrine of Zarathustra and its further development +holds in the history of religion. + + +3. THE GREEKS. + +As man rises in spiritual development, nature becomes to him a +revelation ever more and more manifold of the divine. To the Greek +(Pelasgi, Hellenes) the whole of nature was living, and his imagination +peopled her everywhere with divine beings, who in wood and field, in +rivers and on mountains (Oreads, Dryads, Naiads, Sileni, &c.), hovered +friendly round him. The Greek was indeed distinguished from other +nations by this richer and more elevated view of nature; but he excelled +them most of all in this, that the divine object which he worshiped was +conceived both in form and character after the human. Zeus, Phoebus +Apollo, Pallas Athene, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Hestia, Hermes, +Artemis, were originally powers of nature personified, as some epithets +in Homer[4] still indicate; but they became, sometimes under the same +names, types of power and lordship, science and art, courage and +sensuous beauty. While Dionysus, Demeter, Hades, and Persephone remained +earthly, and Helios, Eos, Iris, and Hecate, heavenly divinities, and +Oceanus, Poseidon, Amphitrite, Proteus, and Nereus ruled the waters, +Zeus was conceived as the god of the sky and of thunder, who hurled the +bolts, the great king and lawgiver, the father of men, and Hera, +originally the air, became the protecting goddess of married life; +Apollo, the god of light, who shot forth his arrows, not at first +identified with Helios, became the god of divination and poetry, who led +the choir of the muses; the goddess of light, Athene, became the +contentious goddess of wisdom; Aphrodite, born of the foam of the sea, +once the symbol of the fruitful power of nature, later, encircled by the +Graces, became the type of womanly beauty and charm, to which the +strength of man, personified in Ares, corresponds. In like manner in the +later mythology, Hephaestus, the god of fire, appeared as the god of the +forge, Hestia, the goddess of fire, as the protector of the household +hearth, and Hermes, the god of the storm and of rain, as the messenger +of the gods, the type of cunning and craftiness, while Artemis, the +goddess of the moon, the fruitful mother of nature, took the character +of the chaste maiden, the goddess of hunting, who with her nymphs and +hounds nightly roamed the fields and woods. The monsters, the Sphinx, +the Minotaur, the Cyclops, the Centaurs, symbols of a yet unhuman or +half human power of nature, were overcome by the Greek heroes, Perseus, +Hercules, Jason, Theseus, OEdipus, the types of human strength and +valor. The religious festivals were enlivened by trials of men's +strength and skill in games, and the historian and poet offered to the +gods the products of human genius. In the religion of the Greeks, +however, the moral element, although not passed over and in the Greek +epic and tragedy not seldom expressed in grand characters, stood +nevertheless too little in the foreground, so that the worship of the +divine, as in the older nature-worship, especially in the feasts in +honor of Dionysus and Aphrodite, was marked by immoral practices. The +conception of a future life, which taken in connection with a future +retribution has a moral tendency, had but little attraction for the +Greek, who rejoiced in the glory of the earth, and saw in nature and in +man the kingdom of the divine. The passage from the earlier poetical +nature-worship to the worship of the divine in human form seems to be +indicated in the war which Olympian Zeus waged with Cronos and the +Titans. The origin and development of the various elements and powers of +nature, Chaos, Eros, Uranus, Gaea, the Giants, Styx, Erebus, Hemera, +AEther, &c, became, with the poets and philosophers after Homer, matters +of speculation, of which the theogonies of Hesiod, Orpheus, Pherecydes, +and others furnish proof. + + +4. THE ROMANS. + +In the religion of the Greeks, the aesthetic and moral character of the +Grecian people was deified, and in the Romans also we see how that which +men value most exerts an influence upon their worship of the divine. The +primitive religion of the Romans, borrowed from the Sabines and +Etruscans, bears everywhere, in distinction to that of the Greeks, the +marks of the practical and political character of the Roman people. The +oldest national divinities are, first, Jupiter or Jovis, the god of the +heavens, Mars or Mavors, the god of the field and of war, Quirinus +(Janus?) the protector of the Quirites, afterwards, together with Juno +(Dione) and Minerva, worshiped in the Capitol, (Dii Capitolini); +second, Vesta, and the gods of the house and family, the Lares and +Penates; third, the rural divinities, Saturnus, Ops, Liber, Faunus, +Silvanus, Terminus, Flora, Vertumnus, and Pomona; fourth and last, +personifications, in part of the powers of nature, Sol, Luna, Tellus, +Neptunus, Orcus, Proserpina, in part of moral and social qualities and +states, such as Febris, Salus, Mens, Spes, Pudicitia, Pietas, Fides, +Concordia, Virtus, Bellona, Victoria, Pax, Libertas, and others. +Peculiarly Roman also is the conception of the _manes_, or shades of the +departed, who hover as protecting genii about the living. Afterwards, +along with the culture of the Greeks, their gods also were taken, +although rather outwardly than inwardly, into the spirit of the people, +and the original character of the gods of Latium was modified after the +new mythology. Notwithstanding this, however, the worship of the Romans +retained its political and practical character. The priests (sacerdotes) +Flamines, Salii, Feciales, the Pontifices with the Pontifex Maximus at +their head, the Augurs, were likewise officers of the state, and did not +form a hierarchy apart from the state and alongside of it. + + +5. THE CELTS. + +Among the Celtic tribes in Brittany, Ireland, and Gaul, and on both +banks of the Rhine, out of an aboriginal life of nature characterized by +wildness and license, religion developed itself in the form of the +worship of two chief divinities, a male divinity, Hu, the begetting, and +a female, Ceridwen, the bearing, power of nature. The priesthood busied +itself with speculations about the divine, the origin of the world, and +the continued existence of man after death, conceived in the form of the +transmigration of souls. Nor did the people's faith lack the conception +of good and evil spirits, fairies, dwarfs, elves, which to the still +childish fancy are objects of fear or superstitious veneration. To the +service of these divinities the priesthood, the Druids, were +consecrated, and beside them the bards, or poets, held a more +independent place. + + +6. THE GERMANS AND SCANDINAVIANS. + +More developed intellectually is the nature-religion of the ancient +Germans (Teutons) and Scandinavians, which betrays thereby the character +of the Aryan race to which these nations, like the Celts, originally +belonged. The highest god of the Germans is Wodan, called Odhin among +the Norsemen, the god of the heavens, and of the sun, who protects the +earth, and is the source of light and fruitfulness, the spirit of the +world, and the All-father (Alfadhir). From the union of heaven and +earth, there springs the god Thunar or Donar among the Germans, Thor +among the Norsemen, the bold god of thunder who wages war against the +enemies of gods and men. Besides these there are the sons of Wodan, Fro +(German), Freyx (Norse), the god of peace, Zio (German), Tyx (Norse), +the god of war, Aki (German), Oegir (Norse), god of the sea, Vol +(German), Ullr (Norse), god of hunting, and others, to whom are joined +female divinities, such as Nerthus (German), Joerdh (Norse), the fruitful +goddess of the earth, Holda (German), Freiya (Norse), the goddess of +love, Nehalennia, goddess of plenty, Frikka (German), Frigg (Norse), the +wife of Wodan, mother of all the living, Hellia (German), Hel (Norse), +the inexorable goddess of the lower world. Opposed to these divinities +(Asen and Asinnen) stands Loko (German), Loki (Norse), enemy of the +divine. In addition to these there appear in the Norse and German Sagas, +besides the heroes, a multitude of spirits, good and hostile, giants, +elves, Elfen (German), Alfen (Norse), white spirits of light, and black +dwarfs, house, forest, and water spirits. The worship was most simple, +and, as was the case with the ancient Semites, the Indians of the Veda, +and the Greeks, as yet independent of temple service and priestly +constraint. The holy places of the Germans were woods, and hills, and +fountains, and in the mysterious rustling of the leaves and in the +murmuring of the waters the pious spirit caught the breathing of the +deity.[5] The father of the house is priest, and the recognition by +these races more than elsewhere of worth in woman is apparent also in +their religion. In the description of the kingdom of the dead in the +German-Norse mythology, Walhalla is the abode of the heroes, hell the +gathering place of the other dead. Notwithstanding these still childish +conceptions, there was revealed in the moral character and heroic spirit +of the German forefathers the germ of a higher development, which makes +the nations of Germany and Northern Europe capable beyond others of a +constantly higher conception and estimation of the Christian +religion.[6] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE RELIGION OF THE SEMITES. + + +I. THE PHOENICIANS, SYRIANS, BABYLONIANS, CARTHAGINIANS, AND ARABIANS. + +In the Semitic races the religious spirit rose above nature-worship in +the effort to separate God from nature, and to elevate him above nature +as Lord, Baal (plural Baalim, either from the different places where he +was worshiped, or the various names under which he was worshiped), Bel, +El, Adon (Adonis). Thus Bel among the Babylonians, Baal among the +Ammonites and Moabites, was the god of light, the lord of heaven, the +creator of mankind, who had his throne above the clouds and was invoked +on mountains.[7] Also the title Molech and Baal Molech to designate the +Supreme Being among the ancient Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and the +nations nearest related to Israel, the Moabites and Ammonites, as well +as the derived names Milcom (Kamos) [Chemosh, Eng. ver.], among the +Ammonites, and Melkartht at Tyre and Carthage, indicate, like Baal, an +original effort to conceive God as the ruler of nature. Agreeing with +this conception of the Deity, there is manifest, as well in the worship +of Baal as of Molech and the female Astarte (Melecheth)[8] [Ashtaroth, +Eng. ver.], worshiped with him, partly in the abstinence from marriage, +partly in the human sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of the +first-born, the aim, through abnegation of the life of sense, and +through the sacrifice, even though unnatural, of what is dearest to man, +to appease a divinity who as lord and governor rules and subjects to +himself the power of nature and every propensity of sense.[9] + +In spite of the effort to elevate the Deity as Lord and King above +nature, most of the Semitic nations gradually sank back into the old +nature-worship, and, uniting with the worship of the highest God, Baal +and Bel, that of a female divinity under the names of Baaltis, Beltis, +Aschera, Mylitta, they made religion to consist in the sacrifice of +chastity to the will of the Deity, as the fruitful, productive power of +nature, and thus fell into gross immorality.[10] + +Religion appears in another form among the Semites in the worship of the +stars among the Babylonians and ancient Arabians. This astrolatry, +originally a kind of fetichism, became nature-worship, and gradually +rose to the worship of the intelligence manifested to our contemplation +in the movement of the heavenly luminaries. Astrology arose, and +religion no longer expressed itself in passive acquiescence, but was +united with the effort to guide the life by the knowledge to be drawn, +as men imagined, from the motion of the stars. + + +ISRAELITISH RELIGION. + + +_a. Its origin. The patriarchal religion. Mosaism. Prophetism._ + +While most of the Semitic nations, in opposition to the effort to +elevate God above nature as lord and governor, returned to the old +nature-religion with its grossly sensual worship of the divine, and +others got no farther than to the conception of a deity, who, like a +consuming fire, stood opposed to nature, and was to be appeased and +propitiated by human sacrifices, there was developed among the +Israelitish people, gradually and in constantly higher measure, in +connection with a higher moral and religious disposition, the worship of +God as a being who, though distinct from nature, is yet not opposed to +it, and thus no longer demands human sacrifices, but obedience and moral +consecration. + +The common origin of the religion of the Israelites and that of their +Semitic relations, though hardly evident even in the oldest monuments of +the Hebrew literature, appears from the following facts and particulars: +firstly, the composition of Israelitish names not only with El, but also +with Baal, such as Jerubbaal (adversary of Baal), (Gideon),[11] +Esbaal,[12] Meribbaal,[13] names which afterwards, on account of the +aversion which the ever-increasing distance in religion between the +Israelitish nation and the nations related to it must, from the nature +of the case, have inspired against the name of Baal, are changed into +Jerubboseth,[14] Isboseth,[15] and Mephiboseth[16], as also the +interchanging of El and Baal,[17] of Baal-jada[18] and Eljada,[19] seem +to point to an ancient period when the name Baal (Lord) was used, like +El, Elohim, El Eljon, El Schaddai, Adonai, even among the Israelites, +to designate the Supreme Being. Secondly, the God of Abraham (Elohim), +although he desires no human sacrifices, nevertheless praises the +willingness of the father to offer up his first-born, and sees in that +the highest proof of devotedness and obedience.[20] Thirdly, +circumcision, already before Moses[21] the bloody symbol of consecration +to God,[22] and also the right of Jahveh to the first-born, and the +necessity of ransoming them from him,[23] imply an earlier conception of +the deity as a being, who, although on a higher development of the +religion he is not indeed any longer thought to desire human sacrifice, +nevertheless has a right to such a sacrifice, and thus demands indemnity +for remitting it. Fourthly, the later conception, of Jahveh as a +destroying fire, and the way in which the God of Israel is conceived in +connection with fire, and as manifesting himself in fire,[24] betray, +even in the midst of a more advanced religious development, an original +relationship with the like conceptions of the other Semites. Fifthly, +even in the orthodox Jahveh-worship, some symbols, as the twelve oxen in +the porch of the temple,[25] the horns of the altar for +burnt-offerings,[26] perhaps also the in part oxlike form of the +cherubim,[27] point to an earlier worship of the deity under the form of +an ox, the symbol of the highest might, especially among the Semitic +races.[28] + +In confirmation of the supposition thus suggested of a community of +origin in the religion of the Israelites and in that of the nations +related to them, there is also to be remarked, firstly, the sympathy +always felt among the people of Israel for the worship of Baal and +Molech, in face of the strongest opposition on the part of the +prophets;[29] secondly, the statement of Amos,[30] that even in the +wilderness the Israelites worshiped Molech; thirdly, the fact that in +the time of the Judges, Jephthah offered his daughter to Jahveh,[31] and +still later the feeling, not driven out even by Mosaism, that the wrath +of Jahveh must be appeased by human blood,[32] a necessity which David +recognizes;[33] fourthly, the ancient custom in Israel, as in the +nations related to them, of worshiping the deity on mountains and +heights,[34] against which the priestly legislation strove in the +interest of the pure worship of Jahveh;[35] fifthly, the heterodox +worship of Jahveh in the kingdom of the ten tribes under the form of a +calf.[36] + +From all this it seems fair to conclude that the religion of the oldest +forefathers of Israel had its root originally in one and the same soil +with the religion of the other Semites. Out of an earlier +nature-religion there developed among the Semites the conception of +Baal, the lord of nature, and of Molech with his inhuman worship. While, +however, the other Semites remained in this lower stage, or rather sank +back more and more into the immorality of the nature-religion,--an +hypothesis suggested by a comparison of the religious state of the +nations of Canaan in Abraham's time with their state at the time of the +conquest of the land by Joshua and afterwards,--in the family of +Abraham, religious consciousness rose to the recognition of a deity, +who, although he had a right to human sacrifices, yet did not claim such +sacrifices, but was satisfied with men's willingness to bring them to +him. With this higher development of religion, the names of the Supreme +Being, Baal and Molech, originally common to the whole race, came more +and more into contempt, and were regarded as the expression of +abominable idolatry,[37] while even the worship of Jahveh under the form +of a calf, originally permitted, was later branded by the prophets as +heresy. + +Though it was in the family of Abraham that even in Mesopotamia[38] the +beginning of this higher development of the Semitic religion showed +itself, which, after his migration to Canaan became the heritage of his +family, yet the patriarch of Israel did not stand alone in this respect +among the Semites. The old Canaanitish chieftains also of the +patriarchal period, Melchizedek and Abimelech, worship the same God as +he,[39] while on the other hand in his own family not all traces of +polytheistic superstition have disappeared,[40] and these traces are +also visible still later in Israel.[41] + +The patriarchal religion, which afterwards with the great majority fell +into oblivion, was recalled afresh to men's minds by Moses, and the God +of the fathers was preached by him under the name before unknown of +Jahveh,[42] to whom, with the exclusion of all other gods, religious +worship is due.[43] The Jahveh of Moses, like the El Eljon of the +patriarchs, is the one only object of worship (Deus Unus), yet without +excluding the possibility of other gods existing.[44] Not until later +did the more developed conception of Jahveh arise as the one only God +(Deus unicus),[45] who is throned in heaven, and like the Elohim of the +patriarchs, encircled by celestial beings (Bene Elohim, Malakim, +Angels), who execute his commands, yet are not objects of religious +adoration. + +The religious standpoint of Moses is the legal. Jehovah stands related +to his people as the Holy, as lawgiver and judge; and the true moral +consecration to God is symbolically expressed in the ritual, especially +in the sacrifice, while the relation of the people to God is based upon +the mediation of the priests. Along with this, and out of Mosaism, after +the time of Samuel, prophetism was developed, in which independent +religious conviction, outside the limits of the priesthood, and without +distinction of rank or birth,[46] awoke among the people. Prophetism, in +the domain of religion, is the development of the religious spirit to +individual independence and freedom. The prophet, rising above the legal +standpoint and outward ceremonial, puts the essence of true worship in +morality,[47] but recognizes also along with the deepest feeling of +dependence upon God, in the independence[48] and spontaneity of the +religious and moral life, the irresistible power of the divine spirit, +by which the Most High, though apart from the world and throned in +heaven, puts himself into the closest and most intimate communion with +the true worshiper. Thus the gulf which divided Jahveh, as a God afar +off, from the world and his worshipers, closed up more and more. With +the conviction of the pureness and truth[49] of her religion, Israel +felt the calling to raise it to the religion of the world, and in the +realization of this she saw the ideal of the future.[50] + + +_b. The Israelitish religion after the Captivity._ + +The free character which distinguished prophetism in the religion of +Israel changed, after the return of the people from captivity, +especially with the party of the Pharisees, to literalness and +formalism. The prophets gave place to the synagogue, the living +proclamation of the truth to scriptural erudition, the spirit of +freedom to slavish subjection to Scripture and tradition. As the ancient +productions of the Indian literature, originally the expression of the +popular thought of India, were elevated by the Brahmins into Veda, holy, +inspired scripture, so also the religious literature of Israel took on +the character of a closed Canon, so that what was once the expression of +religious life became now rule of faith. The standpoint of the law which +prophetism had already overcome was again strongly maintained, the law +enriched with a number of new ordinances, and the essence of religion +made to consist partly in dogmatic speculation, partly in a merely +outward service, devoid of inner life. The Messianic prediction, or the +expectation that the kingdom, divided in Rehoboam's reign, once more +united under a prince of the house of David, should be exalted to new +bloom and lustre,--which in the older prophets was the natural and +historically explicable form in which the ideal of Israel's future +presented itself to the seer, but which, under the influence of the +changed political conditions, had already been replaced in the later +prophecy by the more general conception of a future triumph of the true +religion of which Israel was the bringer,--[51]returned, yet not as the +ideal of the prophetic spirit, but as a dogma, the product of scriptural +interpretation. The pure monotheism, by which formerly a place in the +Providence of God had been allotted to everything, even to moral +evil,[52] became corrupted, under the influence of Parsism, by the +conception of two kingdoms, of God and of the Devil. The angels, +originally the messengers of Providence, became under mythological +names, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, &c., so many middle beings who filled +the space between the Deity, existing apart from the world, and the +world. The lower world (sheol, [Greek: aides]), formerly the general +abode of the dead, of bad and good without distinction, was split into +two parts, paradise and gehenna, and became a place of recompense, and, +along with this, religion, once an end, became the means of warding off +a dreaded punishment, or of gaining a future of bliss. The doctrine of +immortality, as the continuation of man's moral development, which was +formerly unknown in Israel, appeared, as in the later Parsism, in the +form of a bodily resurrection of the dead, at first of the righteous +only, but afterwards in the form of a general resurrection, by mediation +of the Messiah, at whose appearing, which was expected just before the +end of the present state of things, the great judgment of the world, of +living and dead, was to be held, heaven and earth renewed, and the +kingdom of God founded. Beside the learned party of the Pharisees stood +the Sadducees, who subordinated religion to politics, rejected the +Messianic idea and the authority of tradition, and, in denying +immortality in the form of a bodily resurrection, failed to perceive the +truth of immortality, for whose recognition the premises and germs +existed in the religion of Israel, though not as yet developed. The +third party, that of the Essenes, was marked by quiet piety, and in many +respects also by excessive asceticism. In the midst of the Pharisaic +formalism, the unbelief of the Sadducees, and the pietism of the +Essenes, there was yet in Israel a seed of true worshipers, who, though +not above the dogmatic prejudices of their time, had heart and mind open +for the true religion, and who set the true blessing to be looked for +from the Messiah in the satisfying of their religious and moral needs. + + +3. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. + +The Israelitish religion, which reached its highest stage of development +in prophetism, but which among the later Jews after Ezra degenerated, +with the Pharisees into formalism and worship of the letter, with the +Essenes into mysticism and asceticism, and which with the Sadducees, +along with the sacrifice of the prophetic ideal of the future, was +subordinated to politics, developed in Christianity, but freed from once +cherished national expectations and outward forms, into a purely +spiritual knowledge and worship of God. Jesus fathomed the deep meaning +of the religion of his people, and its original fitness to become, +through higher development, the religion of the world. Jesus devoted +himself to the end of forming the human race into one great society (the +kingdom of heaven), of which religion should be the soul and life, and, +convinced of his calling, proclaimed himself as the Son of man, who, as +such, belonged not to Israel alone, but to mankind. Jesus combated both +the formalism and exclusiveness of the Pharisees, and the unbelief of +the Sadducees, and with word and deed preached a religion which, +independent of all outward form, took hold of the human heart, and +which, developing into an independent principle in man, was to find its +commission, not in the authority of Scripture or tradition, not even in +that of his name, but in its own power and truth. In him religion +appeared as the power of self-sacrificing love, which fears not even +death, and to which dying is not the losing of life, but the development +of life. In distinction from other religions, in which either God and +man are strangers to each other, and opposed to each other, or man's +personality is, as it were, sunk in God, Christianity is the religion by +which man, in the full enjoyment of individual development, and with the +sense of his own strength, lives in the consciousness of the most entire +dependence upon God. Religion in its highest form, conceived as the +oneness of man with God, is realized in Christianity.[53] + + +4. ISLAMISM. + +The religion of the ancient nomadic tribes of the Arabian peninsula +originally exhibited a polytheistical character, in the form of the +worship, in part of sacred stones, in part of the powers of nature, +especially of the stars, whose position and motion were thought to exert +an influence, beneficent or baneful, upon the destinies of men. With +these conceptions was combined a certain leaning toward monotheism, +which manifested itself especially in the common worship of Allah taala +(equivalent to El Eljon), which was afterwards quickened and +strengthened by association with the Jewish tribes, with whom they held +themselves to be related by descent from Abraham. The Parsee doctrine of +demons, also, was not unknown in Arabia, after the conquest of the +Persians in the fifth century. After the third, fourth, and fifth +centuries, Christianity also, though in a corrupt form, or, definitely, +in the form of Monophysitism and Nestorianism, which had been condemned +by the church, became established in Arabia. + +Amid such diverse elements, there was need of unity in the domain of +religion, a need for which Mohammed, after the example of others of his +family, sought to provide. + +He was born at Mecca (571) of an honorable family, belonging to the +Koreish tribe. Finding no satisfaction for his restless spirit in the +trade to which after his parents' death he had at first devoted himself, +he gave himself up, in solitary retirement, to quiet meditation, and +became more and more convinced of his calling to put an end, by means of +a better religion, to the confusion existing among his countrymen with +regard to religion. The religious idea which overmastered him presented +itself to his powerful Oriental imagination in the form of a vision as a +revelation of Allah taala, made to him in the fortieth year of his life +by mediation of the angel Gabriel. His conviction, thus acquired, was +confirmed by revelations afterwards received; and, shared at first with +a small circle of trusted friends, gradually spread wider, until at last +Mohammed came forward in the ancient sanctuary, the Kaaba, at Mecca, as +prophet of Allah. For this he was pursued by his countrymen, and fled +from thence to Medina, in the year 622, the beginning of the Moslem era. +The number of his followers increasing, he had recourse to arms. He +conquered Mecca in 630, and made the Kaaba, after destroying the idols +in it, the sanctuary of the new religion. + +The doctrine of Mohammed (Islam, submission to God, whence his followers +take the name of Moslems), is contained in the Koran. The various +Suras, or divisions, originally the revelations received by the prophet +at different periods of his life reduced to writing, were, soon after +his death, united by Abu Bekr into one holy book, under the name of the +Koran (al Kitab, the book), which, like the Bible among the later Jews +and Christians, was clothed with divine authority. The central doctrine +of Mohammed is the belief in one God, Allah, who, as the Creator and +Lord of all things, in strictest isolation from the world, is throned in +heaven. All that takes place upon the earth befalls according to the +eternal decree of God, a conception in which, at least among the +Orthodox Moslems, the Sunnites, who are distinguished in this respect, +as in others, from the dissenting Shiites, there is no place left for +human freedom. This God has from the earliest times revealed himself to +some privileged men, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (Isa). To the +last is due the honor of having been the reformer of degenerate Judaism. +He is not, as the Christians of Mohammed's time taught, the Son of God +in a metaphysical sense, much less God himself,--Allah is one, he +neither begets nor is begotten,--but a prophet of human descent. The +greatest and last prophet is Mohammed himself, in whom prophetism +reached its fulfillment. Along with the doctrine regarding God and his +relation to the world, prayer, hospitality, and benevolence occupy a +prominent place in the teaching of Mohammed, looked at from its +practical side, and also the belief in a future life, in the +Jewish-Parsee form of the resurrection of the dead, the judgment of the +world, future reward and punishment, paradise and hell. The truth of +this divine revelation rests upon the very fact of its having been +revealed, and, according to Mohammed, it no more needs scientific proof +than confirmation by miracles, to which Islamism did not appeal until +later. + +The opinion which formerly prevailed among Christians that Mohammed was +an impostor, a false prophet, was bound up with the conception that God, +to the exclusion of other nations, had revealed himself immediately and +supernaturally first to Israel, and afterwards through Christ to all +mankind. Hence it followed that Christianity was not prized as the +highest religion, existing along with less developed forms of religion, +but was opposed as the only true religion to all others, which were +regarded as the fruit of imposture and error, an opinion to which the +religious and political struggles in which Islam and Christendom have +been involved also richly contributed. Mohammed was seer and prophet, +filled with fiery zeal for religion, and, while he stands indeed in this +respect, both personally and with regard to the contents of his +preaching and the means by which he sought to gain admission for his +doctrine, below the seers of Israel, and far below the founder of +Christianity, yet, on the other hand, his monotheism, abstract as it is, +must be regarded as a wholesome reaction against the ever-increasing +polytheistical superstition to which in his time the Christian church of +the East especially had sunk. Islamism stands, however, below original +Christianity, the religion of Jesus and the Apostles, in that, by +separating God, as the abstract one Supreme Being, from the world, it +leaves no place for the doctrine of God's immanence, or the indwelling +of the Spirit of God in man. Hence in Islamism the divine revelation +remains purely mechanical, with no natural point of connection in man, +and therefore there is no possibility of an enduring prophetism, which +is the fundamental principle of Christianity. From this separation of +God and man, the Mohammedan doctrine of predestination, in distinction +from the Christian, acquires its abstract and fatalistic character, +whereby man, instead of being regarded as a being in whose free activity +God's power and life are glorified, is conceived as a passive instrument +of a higher power. To true moral independence, therefore, the Moslem +does not attain. His religion is legal and external, and therefore +intolerant and exclusive; and when Islamism, led by excited passion and +a heated imagination, disregarded the sanctity of marriage, and held up +as a reward before the faithful Moslem a paradise characterized by +sensual enjoyment, it missed at once the deep moral and spiritual +character of Christianity. To these defects must be ascribed the fact +that Islamism, adapted to the need of the East, and therefore spread +over a large part of Asia and Africa, has not, with the exception of the +empire of Turkey, and for a time also of Spain, penetrated Europe; and, +overshadowed by a higher development of humanity, has reached its +highest bloom, while Christianity, brought back to its original purity, +remains the religion of the civilized world. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Translated from the Dutch of Prof. J.H. Scholten, by F.T. +Washburn. This constitutes the first part of Prof. Scholten's History of +Religion and Philosophy. (_Geschiedenis der Godsdienst en +Wijsbegeerte._) Third edition. Leyden, 1863. Of this work there is a +translation in French by M. Albert Reville (Paris, 1861); but this +translation, which was made from an earlier edition, is very defective +in the first part, Prof. Scholten having added a great deal in his last +edition. There is also a translation of it in German, by D.E.R. +Redepenning (Elberfeld, 1868). This German translation has been revised +and enlarged by Prof. Scholten, and is therefore superior in some +respects to the original Dutch. The present translation has been revised +upon it.] + +[Footnote 2: According to Buusen 3000 or 2500 B.C., Haug 2000 B.C., Max +Mueller 1200 B.C., Max Duncker 1300 or 1250 B.C., and according to +Roeth. I. p. 348, who still puts Vistaspa before Darius Hystaspes, +between 589 and 512 B.C.] + +[Footnote 3: The doctrine of the _Zervana akarana_ (infinite time) as +the original One, from which the opposition between Ormuzd and Ahriman +was held to spring, dates from a later period.] + +[Footnote 4: [Greek: Zeus kelainephes, ahidheri nahion, nephelegerheta +Zeus, Here bohopis, glaukhopis Hathhene].] + +[Footnote 5: Of the Germans Tacitus writes, _Germ._, c. 9, "Eos nec +cohibere parietibus Deos neque in ullam humanioris speciem assimilare, +ex magnitudine coelestium arbitrantur. Lucos ac nemora consecrant +deorumque nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia +vident."] + +[Footnote 6: Among the Roman writers who furnish us with information +upon the religion of the Germans, Tacitus deserves mention, in his +"Germania," as well as in his "Annales" _passim_. The chief source with +regard to the Norse religion is the older Edda, under the title "Edda +Saemundar hin Froda."] + +[Footnote 7: Numb. xxii. 41; xxiii. 28; 2 Kings, xxiii. 5.] + +[Footnote 8: Judges, ii. 13; 1 Sam. vii. 4; xii. 10; 1 Kings, xi. 5, 7, +33; 2 Kings, xxiii. 13; Jer. vii. 18; xliv. 17, 19.] + +[Footnote 9: Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 2; 2 Kings, iii. 26, 27; xvi. 3; +xxiii. 10; Ps. cvi. 38; Jer. vii. 31; xix. 5; xxxii. 35; Micah, vi. 7; +Ezek. xv. 4, 6; [?] xvi. 20, Comp. I Kings, xviii: 28.] + +[Footnote 10: Numb. xxv. I, _et seq_; Josh. xxii. 17; Baruch, vi. 41, +43.] + +[Footnote 11: Judges, vi. 32. and elsewhere.] + +[Footnote 12: 1 Chron. viii. 33; ix. 39.] + +[Footnote 13: 1 Chron. viii. 34; ix. 40.] + +[Footnote 14: 2 Sam. xi. 21.] + +[Footnote 15: 2 Sam. ii. 8, and elsewhere.] + +[Footnote 16: 2 Sam. iv. 4, and elsewhere.] + +[Footnote 17: Judges, viii. 33; ix. 4. Comp. with ix. 46.] + +[Footnote 18: 1 Chron. xiv. 7.] + +[Footnote 19: 1 Chron. iii. 8; 2 Sam. v. 16.] + +[Footnote 20: Gen. xxii.] + +[Footnote 21: Gen. xvii. 23-27.] + +[Footnote 22: Ex. iv. 24-26.] + +[Footnote 23: Ex. xiii. 2, 12-16; xxii. 28, 29; xxx. 11-16; xxxiv. 19, +20.] + +[Footnote 24: Gen. xv. 17; Ex. iii. 2; xix. 16-18; xxiv. 17; xl. 38; +Levit. x. 2; Numb. xvi. 35; Deut. iv. 15, 24; v. 24, 25.] + +[Footnote 25: 1 Kings, vii. 25, 29.] + +[Footnote 26: Ex. xxvii. 2.] + +[Footnote 27: Comp. Ezek. i. 10; x. 14.] + +[Footnote 28: 1 Kings, xviii. 23.] + +[Footnote 29: 1 Kings, xi. 5; 2 Kings, xvi. 3; xxi. 3; xxiii. 4, _et +seq_; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3; Ezek. xvi. 20, 21; Jer. xix. 5.] + +[Footnote 30: Amos. v. 25, 26.] + +[Footnote 31: Judges, xi. 30-40.] + +[Footnote 32: Ex. xxxii. 27-29; Numb. xxv. 4.] + +[Footnote 33: 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14.] + +[Footnote 34: 1 Kings, iii. 2; xi. 7; 2 Kings, xii. 3; xiv. 4; xvii. 11; +xviii. 4; xxiii. 5, 19; 2 Chron. xxi. 11.] + +[Footnote 35: 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3; Ezek. vi. 3; xx. 28.] + +[Footnote 36: 1 Kings, xii. 28, 33. Comp. Ex. xxxii. 4, 19.] + +[Footnote 37: Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 2; Deut. xii. 31.] + +[Footnote 38: Gen. xxiv, xxviii.] + +[Footnote 39: Gen. xiv. 18-20; xx. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 40: Gen. xxxi. 19, 30, _et seq_; xxxv. 2-4; Joshua, xxiv. 2, +14.] + +[Footnote 41: Judges, xviii. 14, _et seq_; 1 Sam. xix. 13; 2 Kings, +xviii. 4; Ezek. xx. 7.] + +[Footnote 42: Ex. iii. 13, _et seq_; vi. 2.] + +[Footnote 43: Ex. xx. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote 44: Ex. viii. 10; xv. 11; xviii. 11; xx. 3.] + +[Footnote 45: Deut vi. 4; iv. 28, 35; xxxii. 39; Isaiah, xliv. 6, 8; +xlv. 5, 6.] + +[Footnote 46: Amos, vii. 14.] + +[Footnote 47: Isa. i. 11-18; Jer. vii. 21-23.] + +[Footnote 48: Dutch, _zelfstandigheid_, literally, self-existence; +without an equivalent, as far as I know, in vernacular English.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 49: _Zelfstandigheid_, again, expressing objective existence, +reality, independent of subjective thought or feeling.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 50: Jer. xxxi. 31, _et seq_; Isa. ii. 2-4; Amos, ix. 12; Isa. +xxv. 6; lii. 15; lvi. 6, 7; lxvi. 23; Zech. viii. 23; xiv. 9, 16.] + +[Footnote 51: Isa. liii.] + +[Footnote 52: Job i, ii.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 53: The most original sources of the Christian religion are +the Synoptic Gospels, in which, however, criticism must distinguish +between the older and later portions. The fourth Gospel is marked by a +more profound speculation upon the person and the work of Christ, by +which the Christian mind freed itself entirely from the Jewish forms in +which Jesus, as a popular teacher in Israel, had set forth his +doctrine.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS*** + + +******* This file should be named 20137.txt or 20137.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/1/3/20137 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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