Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of LanguageMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of Language
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Comparative linguistics; Folklore; Literature -- History and criticism; Mythology; Religions
Other words might easily be added which, by the disclosure of their
original meaning, give us interesting hints as to the development of
legal conceptions and customs, such as marriage, inheritance, ordeals,
and the like. But it is time to cast a glance at theology, which, more
even than jurisprudence, has experienced the influence of the Science of
Language. What was said with regard to mythology, applies with equal
force to theology. Here, too, words harden, and remain unchanged longer
even than in other spheres of intellectual life; nay, their influence
often becomes greater the more they harden, and the more their original
meaning is forgotten. Here it is most important that an intelligent
theologian should be able to follow up the historical development of the
_termini technici_ and _sacrosancti_ of his science. Not only words like
_priest_, _bishop_, _sacrament_, or _testament_, have to be correctly
apprehended in that meaning which they had in the first century, but
expressions like λόγος, πνεῦμα ἅγιον, δικαιοσύνη have to be traced
historically to the beginnings of Christianity, and beyond, if we wish
to gain a conception of their full purport.
In addition to this, the Philosophy of Religion, which must always form
the true foundation of theological science, owes it to the Science of
Language that the deepest germs of the consciousness of God among the
different nations of the world have for the first time been laid open.
We know now with perfect certainty that the names, that is, the most
original conceptions, of the Deity among the Aryan nations, are as
widely removed from coarse fetichism as from abstract idealism. The
Aryans, as far as the annals of their language allow us to see,
recognized the presence of the Divine in the bright and sunny aspects of
nature, and they, therefore, called the blue sky, the fertile earth, the
genial fire, the bright day, the golden dawn their +Devas+, that is,
their bright ones. The same word, +Deva+ in Sanskrit, _Deus_ in Latin,
remained unchanged in all their prayers, their rites, their
superstitions, their philosophies, and even to-day it rises up to heaven
from thousands of churches and cathedrals,--a word which, before there
were Brahmans or Germans, had been framed in the dark workshop of the
Aryan mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account