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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.
The conception of religion presupposes, a, God as object;b, man as subject; c, the mutual relation existing betweenthem. According to the various stages of development whichmen have reached, religious belief manifests itself either inthe form of a passive feeling of dependence, where the subject,not yet conscious of his independence, feels himselfwholly overmastered by the deity, or the object of worship,as by a power outside of and opposed to himself; or, whenthe feeling of independence has awakened, in a one-sided elevationof the human, whereby man in worshiping a deity deifieshimself. In the highest stage of religious development,the most entire feeling of dependence is united in religionwith the strongest consciousness of personal independence.The first of these forms is exhibited in the fetich and nature-worshipof the ancient nations; the second in Buddhism,and in the deification of the human, which reaches its fullheight among the Greeks. The true religion, prepared inIsrael, is the Christian, in which man, grown conscious of hisoneness with God, is ruled by the divine as an inner powerof life, and acts spontaneously and freely while in the fullestdependence upon God. Since Christ, no more perfect religionhas appeared. What is true and good in Islamism wasborrowed from Israel and Christianity.
Although it is probable that every nation passed throughdifferent forms of religious belief before its religion reachedits highest development, yet the earlier periods lie in greatpart beyond the reach of historical investigation. The historyof religion, therefore, has for its task the review of thevarious forms of religion with which we are historicallyacquainted, in the order of psychological development.
FETICHISM. THE CHINESE. THE EGYPTIANS.
1. FETICHISM.
The lowest stage of religious development is fetichism, asit is found among the savage tribes of the polar regions, andin Africa, America, and Australia. In this stage, man'sneeds are as yet very limited and exclusively con