The Psychological Origin and the Nature of ReligionLeuba, James H. (James Henry)
Religion
The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion
Leuba, James H. (James Henry)
Magic; Psychology, Religious
But the idea of a creator must take precedence of ghosts
and nature-beings in the making of Religion, for a world-creator possesses
from the first the greatness necessary to the object of a cult, and the
creature who recognises a creator can hardly fail to feel his relationship
to him. A Maker cannot, moreover, be an enemy to those who issue from
him, but must, it seems, appear as the Great Ancestor, benevolently
inclined towards his offspring. Incomparable greatness, creative power,
benevolence, are as many attributes favourable to the appearance of a
Religion in the high sense which, as we shall see, W. Robertson Smith
gives to the word.
The order in which appeared the three kinds of unseen agents is of
considerable importance, for if, for instance, the ghost-belief was first,
it seems unavoidable that ghosts should have been projected into natural
objects and used to explain natural phenomena. It is a task for the
historian of Religion to trace the rise of the idea of God in its several
possible sources, and to indicate in each particular case the contribution
of each source to the making of the earliest gods.
* * * * *
_Belief in the existence of unseen, anthropopathic beings is not
Religion._ It is only when man enters into relation with them that
Religion comes into existence. The passage from the animistic
interpretation of nature, or from the mere belief in ghosts, or in a
creator, to Active Religion is not to be taken as a matter of course, for
it may require on the one hand, as we have said, a transformation of the
man-like or animal-like unseen beings, such as will make entering into
relation with them possible and worth while, and, on the other, the
invention of ways and means to that end, or, at least, the adaptation of
old habits of behaviour to the requirements of the new relation. The
slowness with which our modern ritual has been envolved should be
sufficient to undeceive any one inclined to think that the establishment
of the initial religious rites presented no difficulty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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