The Origin and Development of Religion

4. The Religion of the Primitives

In the minds of many the term “primitives” is so inseparably connected with Fetishism and Animism, sorcery and Ancestor Worship, that these races are regarded as absolutely destitute of a belief in one Supreme Being. This theory is in fact a postulate of materialistic evolution, which regards the uncultured Negro as scarcely superior to his alleged ancestor, the anthropoid ape. How far removed this view is from the truth, careful investigations among many primitive races have latterly proved. It may now be set down as an incontestable fact that, generally speaking, the traces of Monotheism are more clearly discernible among the primitive races than among the cultured nations of pagan antiquity.

A. The Primitive Races of Africa.—Among the primitive races of Africa there is such a close connection of religious beliefs and views that the late Bishop Schneider entitled his classic work on the subject, “The Religion [not Religions] of the Primitive Races of Africa.”¹¹⁷117Die Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker, Münster i. W., 1891; see the Introduction. Hence it is not necessary for our purpose to examine all these races separately, but it will suffice to mention those that are commonly believed to be destitute of religious beliefs and those that are distinguished for the purity of their religious ideas.

Let us begin our survey on the west coast of Africa. The Negroes of the Gold Coast of Northern Guinea, that classic land of Animism, sorcery, and Fetishism, clearly distinguish between Yankompon, the creator and lord of the world, and the created spirits subject to him. They salute him as the father and greatest benefactor of mankind. Yankompon, it is true, also inflicts evil; but kindness and benevolence are his predominant traits.¹¹⁸118W. Schneider, Die Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker, pp. 28 sqq.

The Ewe races, according to earliest and recent reports, worship Mawu, the all-conquering, transcendent god, the creator and preserver of the world, who permeates the universe after the manner of the ether as a personal and primitive power.¹¹⁹119Op. cit., p. 35.

The Jabus in the delta of the Niger have a vague inkling of a higher, invisible being, whom they regard as the author of all that exists. Their neighbors, the Ibos, call this deity Tshuku, or Tshi (i. e., Heaven) and attribute to him the creation, preservation, and government of the world. Tshuku is kindly disposed towards men, determines their fate, rewards them for the good they do, and punishes them for their wicked deeds.¹²⁰120Op. cit., p. 38.

The inhabitants of Kamerun, both Bantus and Sudanese, seem to feel little need of religion, but some of the native tribes entertain a more or less distinct belief in a supreme creator.¹²¹121Op. cit., pp. 42 sq.; cfr. A. Le Roy, The Religion of the Primitives, pp. 27 sq., 114 sqq.; J. Deniker, The Races of Man, 1900.

The Negroes of the Gaboon and Ogowe countries believe in a supreme being who created the world and then withdrew from it forever. They call this being Aniambia and say that he created the spirits, sends death, and tolerates sorcery.¹²²122W. Schneider, op. cit., p. 44.

In South Africa the San, usually called Bushmen (from the Dutch Bosjeman), nomadic hunters, chiefly confined to the Kalahari Desert, are on about the same low level of culture as the natives of Australia and Tierra del Fuego. Yet they believe in an invisible being residing in Heaven, whom they invoke in prayer and venerate by means of dances. The name of this being is Kage. The Bushmen regard Kage as the creator of all things and say that he was good in the beginning, but changed his disposition in consequence of having had to fight too many battles.

One tribe of the Bushmen, the Makolong, have a purer idea of the deity than the others. They hold that Kaang (= Kage) is the lord of creation, invisible to the eye, but perceptible through the heart. He sends rain and drought, life and death, and the Makolong appeal to him in every need.¹²³123Op. cit., pp. 48 sqq. Cfr. W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Die Stellung der Pygmäenvölker in der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen in Studien und Forschungen zur Menschen- und Völkerkunde, VI–VII, Stuttgart, 1910, pp. 237 sqq., and the same author’s work, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, Vol. I, pp. 132 sqq. Father Schmidt victoriously sustains the thesis that almost purely Monotheistic ideas existed among certain absolutely primitive nations. (Cfr. Le Roy, The Religion of the Primitives, pp. 113 sqq.)

The Hottentots (or Koi-Koin, as they call themselves) inhabit the Cape of Good Hope province, where they are now somewhat advanced from their former extreme degradation. Sir John Lubbock counted them among the races entirely destitute of religion, but we know now that they believe in a supreme being, who resides above the stars, has created all things, and rules the world with great power. His name is Gounja, i. e., Great Chief.¹²⁴124Lubbock, The Origin of Civilization, pp. 224, 388, 409; W. Schneider, op. cit., pp. 53 sq.; Le Roy, The Religion of the Primitives; W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, Vol. I, pp. 133 sqq.

The Kaffirs form the second group of primitives in South Africa. They were at one time believed to lack the very idea of God, but upon closer investigation have been found to possess the notion of a supreme creative spirit, a life-giving and death-dealing power and an omnipotent providence which rules the universe.¹²⁵125W. Schneider, op. cit., pp. 61 sq.

The Makalaka, who form a link between the South African Negroes and the natives of the Zambesi country in the interior of the Dark Continent, profess belief in a supreme being who is benevolent and lives in Heaven.¹²⁶126W. Schneider, op. cit., p. 77.

Of the eighty-two tribes in the Zambesi country, among whom the Marutse and Mabunda are prominent, one of the best authorities on the subject writes: “The Bantu family, before its division into the numerous tribes with which we meet to-day, believed in a powerful and invisible god; among the Marutse this belief persists in a purer form than among any of the other Bantu tribes. They acknowledge an invisible, omniscient lord, who closely observes the conduct of men and deals with every one according to his good pleasure. They are afraid to utter the name of this being and usually employ another word to designate him. … The true name of this being is Nambe Njambe.”¹²⁷127E. Holub, Sieben Jahre in Südafrika, Vol. II, Vienna, 1881, p. 337, quoted by W. Schneider, op. cit., p. 78; cfr. A. Le Roy, The Religion of the Primitives, pp. 114 sqq.; C. Meinhof, Afrikanische Religionen, Berlin, 1912.

The religion of the central African races has not been sufficiently explored to justify any positive statements as to their beliefs.

The Baynazi, who inhabit the country between the mouth of the Quango and the Equator, believe in a supreme spirit, Ndsakumba, to whom they ascribe the creation of the world, which in their opinion is governed by lower spirits, known as Virimu. The Babumba and the Bateke also believe in one god.¹²⁸128W. Schneider, op. cit., p. 81.

Surprisingly well developed is the religious consciousness of the Pygmies, a race of Central African Negritos found chiefly in the great forests of the equatorial belt. They are timid and their level of culture is very low. Bishop Le Roy reports, as the result of his own investigations and those of his fellow missionaries, that these tribes, which are probably descended from the original inhabitants of that region, possess no amulets and adore neither fetishes nor spirits, but recognize a supreme being, whom they worship with prayer and sacrifices. All things belong to him. He is invisible, but sees everything that happens in the world, rewards the good and punishes the wicked.¹²⁹129Les Pygmées, Tours, 1905, pp. 175 sqq.; IDEM, The Religion of the Primitives, passim; W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Die Stellung der Pygmäenvölker, pp. 231 sqq.; Idem, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, Vol. I, p. 113.

Concerning the religious notions of the tribes living between the Kassai and the Tanganyika, we have no reliable information, except that the Bashilanges worship a good spirit residing in heaven, of whom they believe that he has created and preserves all things, rewards the good and punishes the wicked.¹³⁰130W. Schneider, op. cit., p. 82.

The tribes that live around Lake Tanganyika believe in a god, whom they call Kabesa and venerate as the creator of the world; he resides in heaven and receives the good and rejects the bad after death.¹³¹131Op. cit., p. 84.

The Negro tribes of East Africa recognize a supreme being, whom most of them call Mulungu. He is believed to be the creator of all things and the author of whatever is good. They sacrifice to this being when in need of assistance, and honor him by petty gifts, which they offer at meal time.¹³²132Op. cit., pp. 88 sq.

The Yorubas of Southern Nigeria, according to the latest student of their religious beliefs, Dr. Stephen S. Farrow, recognize four distinct classes of spiritual beings, viz.: (1) a Supreme Being, infinitely good, and unique; (2) a multitude of lesser deities, called orishas; (3) the spirits of the dead (ancestor-worship, etc.); (4) an evil spirit, who takes precedence of all those in Class 2, and who inspired the leading orisha, Ifa. On this remarkable system of religious beliefs Dr. Farrow observes: “Scientifically, these four classes fall into two divisions: Classes 2, 3, and 4 comprise a full system of Polydæmonism, or ‘Animism,’ not in Dr. Tylor’s narrower sense of the word, but in its widest application. The Supreme Being of Class 1 is entirely left out of the Yoruba Animistic system, from which the belief in Him is quite distinct, and to which it is clearly anterior. It is plainly the remnant of an ancient Monotheism.” In confirmation of this conclusion, Dr. Farrow lays stress on certain significant facts. Thus, he observes that there is a vast difference between the highest orisha and the Supreme Deity, and he asks the pointed question: “If the latter is a development of Animism, why is there no trace of any connection?” And, again, after noting that “the Supreme Being is not worshipped, but left in the background,” he adds: “How is this to be reconciled with the opinion that belief in Him is a development of the lower faith? The opposite result should be found.” It is further added that the belief in the Supreme Being is most jealously guarded by the highest of the heathen priests, who have never come under any Christian influence, and it is enshrined in an ancient Yoruba lyric poem, of which a translation is given.¹³³133 See Supplementary Note 2, p. 123.

Thus we find among the primitive races of Africa a wide-spread belief in one supreme being, in whom they see the creator of the world and the author of all good things, without, however, always rendering him due worship or honors. This god and his cult are nearly everywhere among these tribes relegated to the background, and the spirits of ancestors are worshipped by sorcery and all sorts of superstitious practices. “The African idea of God nowhere bears traces of a joyous development, but shows incontestable signs of stunted growth and the distortion of an originally purer and richer consciousness of the deity.”¹³⁴134W. Schneider, op. cit., p. 97.

The Negroes of Africa are not atheists; nor are they Polytheists in the strict sense of the term. Their idea of the deity more nearly approaches Monotheism; but they do not carry out the Monotheistic concept consistently. They believe in God without rendering Him divine worship and without obeying His laws.

B. The Natives of Australia and of the South Sea Islands.—The chief god of the Polynesians is Tangaroa (Tangaloa, Taaroa, Kanaloa), who because of his majesty and power has been compared to the Grecian Zeus. He is regarded as the lord of heaven, the creator of the world and of mankind.¹³⁵135E. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, Vol. I, 2nd ed., Leipsic, 1894, p. 286; W. Schneider, Die Naturvölker, Vol. II, Paderborn, 1886, pp. 368, 404.

The Melanesian idea of the deity agrees in its essential traits with the Polynesian.¹³⁶136E. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, Vol. I, p. 294.

The Micronesians, a people of mixed Polynesian and Papuan stock, in language, customs, and civil institutions belong to the Polynesian family.¹³⁷137O. Peschel, Völkerkunde, 7th ed., Leipsic, 1897, p. 380. Sir John Lubbock counted them among the races that had no religion, but more careful research has established the fact that they venerate a “Great Spirit,” who is identical with the Polynesian Tangaroa.¹³⁸138Lubbock, The Origin of Civilisation, pp. 315, 355, 374, 380; Schneider, Die Naturvölker, Vol. I, p. 370.

The natives of the Australian mainland have no metals, bows, earthen vessels or fixed dwellings, and lack all traces of an ancient and more perfect culture, thus showing that they rank low in the scale of human development.¹³⁹139Cfr. O. Peschel, Völkerkunde, pp. 349 sqq.; Lubbock, op. cit., pp. 325, 384, 402, 406. They were formerly regarded as entirely destitute of religious beliefs, but it is now quite generally recognized that they worship a supreme being (Koyan, Nurrundere, Motogon), who, himself uncreated, dwelt in heaven before the hero-gods brought forth the world and the human race by blowing or painting. He is the source of all goodness. Having had much unpleasant experience on earth, however, he has retired to his palace in heaven.¹⁴⁰140E. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, Vol. I, pp. 352 sqq.

There is a notable difference, in respect of religion, between the natives of Southeastern Australia and those inhabiting the central and northern portions of that continent. While the latter excel their southern neighbors in culture and social attainments, they have a much less developed religious consciousness,¹⁴¹141Cfr. Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, 2nd ed., London, 1900, pp. 178 sqq.; W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, Vol. I, pp. 113 sqq., 222 sqq., 281 sqq.—a proof, if any were needed, that religion and culture do not necessarily go hand in hand.

The Andaman Islanders, who are possibly related to the Micronesians,¹⁴²142E. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, Vol. I, p. 199. rank somewhat higher in the scale of general culture than the Australians, but otherwise retain all the characteristics of a primitive race as yet untouched by outside influences. An English official, who lived among these people for eleven years and carefully studied their religious beliefs and customs, reports that the Andamanese worship a supreme being, Puluga, who resembles fire, but is invisible, was never born and will never die. Through his power all things have been created, with the sole exception of evil. He knows the secret thoughts of men, and his anger is roused by injustice, falsehood, theft, murder, and adultery. He helps those who are in need and judges the souls of men when they arrive in the other world. The Andamanese seem to be free from Animism and Ancestor Worship, which play such an important part in the religion of nearly all the tribes we have so far reviewed.¹⁴³143Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, pp. 194 sq.; cfr. Max Müller, Anthropological Religion; W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Die Stellung der Pygmäenvölker, pp. 193 sqq.; IDEM, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, Vol. I, pp. 129 sqq.; IDEM, “Die religiösen Verhältnisse der Andamanesen-Pygmäen” in Anthropos, XVI/XVII (1921–1922), pp. 978–1005.

C. The Madagascans and Malayans.—The natives of Madagascar, an island in the Indian Ocean, on the East coast of Africa, have a poorly developed sense of religion. Although they acknowledge a large number of gods, they do not worship them. They have no temples, idols, or sacrifices. Nevertheless they invoke a supreme god, whom they call lord of heaven and creator of the world. “It is to thee,” they pray, “that we appeal, O god, who hast created men, heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, the rainbow, the wind, the earth, the sea, the sweet water and every being that breathes and moves under the vault of heaven.”¹⁴⁴144Chr. Pesch, S. J., Der Gottesbegriff in den heidnischen Religionen der Neuzeit, Vol. II, Freiburg i. B., 1888, p. 38.

The Malayans residing on the Great Sunda Islands, are kin to the Madagascans, but, unlike them, possess a well-developed pantheon. On important occasions they are wont to pray to the highest god, whom they regard as the creator of the world and of mankind, the father of gods, who dwells invisibly in Heaven.¹⁴⁵145E. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, Vol. I, pp. 436 sq. These people have not entirely lost the Monotheistic idea of God, though it has been considerably obscured among them by Polytheism.

An exceptional position in the Malay States is occupied by the Semang, who inhabit the Malacca peninsula. Like the Andaman Islanders, the Bushmen, and the inhabitants of Central Africa, the Semang belong to the Pygmy race and their culture is very low.¹⁴⁶146W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Die Stellung der Pygmäenvölker, p. 54. Yet they are not, as one might expect, addicted to Animism or Ancestor Worship,¹⁴⁷147Op. cit., p. 224. but adore and invoke a supreme, super-excellent god, whom they call Kari. Existing before the creation of the universe, Kari produced all things, with the exception of the earth and man. These latter creatures were called into being by a subordinate god at Kari’s command. Kari himself is invisible, all-powerful, and omniscient. He knows the good and evil deeds of men and is the supreme judge of souls, the lord over life and death. Here, again, it is remarkable that among the three tribes which inhabit Malacca, the knowledge and worship of the supreme being decrease, and Animism and Manism increase, in proportion to the progress of civilization.¹⁴⁸148See P. Schebesta, S. V. D., Bei den Urwaldzwergen von Malaya, Leipsic, 1927. The least cultured are the Semang, the oldest tribe on the peninsula. Next come the Sakei. The highest degree of culture is enjoyed by the Jakun, whose religious status is in inverse proportion to their cultural attainments.

D. The Primitive Races of America.—“No American nation,” says Ratzel, “is without a religion. … The concept of one God hovers vaguely over the worship of heaven or of the sun. … The Indian idea of God becomes distinct only when it enters into cosmogonic relations; then it crystallizes into the notion of one personal Creator. The highest god created the sun, the moon, and the stars.”¹⁴⁹149E. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, p. 573; Boas’s article “Religion” in Hodge’s Handbook of American Indians, Washington, D. C., 1912, Vol. II, pp. 365 sqq., is unsatisfactory.

This belief in a supreme god, who dwells in heaven and thence governs the world, is found also among the Eskimos of the North, though their religious worship is full of Manism, Animism, and sorcery.

The “Great Spirit” (Manito) is venerated by the Indians of North America as the creator who has made all things, who takes the good into heaven after death and punishes the wicked. However, he is not concerned about the doings of his creatures here on earth, but has withdrawn to his heavenly abode and leaves the government of the world in the hands of lower spirits.

We meet with the same religious beliefs, on the whole, among the Indians of Central and South America, except those of Brazil, who stand on a much lower religious plane.¹⁵⁰150Cfr. Chr. Pesch, S. J., Der Gottesbegriff (see note 144, supra), pp. 100 sqq.

The natives of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago situated at the extreme south, separated from the mainland of South America by the Strait of Magellan, were described by Darwin as completely destitute of religious notions, but have since been found to believe in a just god, who sends disasters as a punishment for crime.¹⁵¹151O. Peschel, Völkerkunde, pp. 151 sq. Here, too, it must be remarked that these people, though representing an extremely low grade of culture, do not venerate spirits or ancestors and show no other signs of religious degeneration.¹⁵²152Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, p. 174. Recent ethnologic research has demonstrated that the Fuegians, especially those of the Yagan tribe, have an exceedingly pure and highly developed idea of God, whom they call Watauinewa, i. e., the ancient, eternal, immutable one; also Hitapuan, i. e., my father. Watauinewa, as his name indicates, existed always, according to the Yagans; he is extremely powerful, the lord of life and death; all things belong to him. He is the supreme being, but he is good, and men may ask him for any gift and must be grateful if he grants their petitions. He resides in heaven and, being a pure spirit, is invisible, though he sees and hears everything, even what happens in secret, and sternly punishes the evil deeds of men. Watauinewa does not seem to play a rôle in any of the myths and sagas of the Yagans.

That the belief in Watauinewa is not attributable to the influence of Christian missionaries, is proved by very ancient and linguistically obsolete formulas and phrases used by these Indians in reference to the supreme being.¹⁵³153W. Koppers, S. V. D., La Religion et l’Être Suprême chez les Yagans in Études, Paris, Vol. 173 (1922); IDEM, Bei den Indianern auf Feuerland, Stuttgart, 1924, Chapter XIV; IDEM, “Die Feuerlandsreise von Gusinde-Koppers zu Anfang 1922,” in Anthropos, XVI/XVII (1921–1922), pp. 520 sqq.; M. Gusinde, S. V. D., “P. M. Gusindes vierte Reise zum Feuerlandstamm der Yagan,” ibid., pp. 966–977; W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Menschheitswege zum Gotterkennen, Munich, 1923, pp. 32 sqq., 48 sq.

In view of these facts it can hardly be doubted that the Yagans of Tierra del Fuego have inherited from their ancestors an ancient Monotheistic belief in a comparatively pure form.¹⁵⁴154Cfr. E. R. Hull, S. J., Archaic Religions, Bombay, 1913, pp. 170 sqq.; P. Ehrenreich, Die Mythen und Legenden der südamerikanischen Naturvölker, Berlin, 1908; M. Wolf, Iroquois Religion, New York, 1919, and the numerous monographs of such writers as Boas, Dorsey, Swanton, Fewkes, Fletcher, Cushing, etc.

E. Summary and Conclusion.—We have studied the concept of God among many different nations and found that, while not one of the races and tribes outside the pale of Christian revelation possesses a purely Monotheistic religion, traces of Monotheism are everywhere in evidence, among the cultured nations of pagan antiquity as well as among the Indo-Germans, the Semites, the Chinese, and even more so among the primitives of the present time.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to investigate the religious development of the ancient nations in its first beginnings. The oldest documents that have come down to us indicate an evolution extending over many centuries of a highly developed culture. But in the religious traditions of all those nations there are signs pointing unmistakably to Monotheistic beginnings. The Indo-Germanic and the Semitic nations have but one name wherewith to designate the Supreme Deity, who is at the head of the gods and excels all others. The concept of this being grows more perfect and the number of the other gods dwindles in proportion as we go farther back in tracing the process of religious development. Evidently there must have been a time when men knew and worshipped but one God, or, in other words, when pure Monotheism was predominant throughout the world.

Does it follow from this that Monotheism was the first religion, that it marked the beginning of the religious life of mankind? Must the evolution of the pagan religions be conceived as a constant and progressive process of degeneration? To both questions the answer is: yes. This reply becomes all the more convincing if we take into account the peculiar character of the nature religions of the present time. We cannot investigate the first stages of the pagan religions of antiquity, but we can examine the development of the religions of the primitive races of to-day. These races are far behind the civilized nations of antiquity, but the farther removed they are from culture, the more plainly does the Monotheistic character of their religion appear. On the lowest stage of cultural development the concept of God appears in such purity and perfection that we could almost call it Monotheistic sans phrase.¹⁵⁵155L. von Schröder (Wesen und Ursprung der Religion, Munich, 1905, pp. 17 sqq.) writes: “If we regard the religions of the primitive and most primitive nations more closely, we meet with a remarkable fact, which simply cannot be squared with the current theories of the origin of religion from Animism or Nature Worship. It is the widely spread, not to say universal, belief in a supreme being, which is mostly conceived as creative, is goodness itself, and demands of men that they be righteous, just, moral, in some respects unselfish, and self-sacrificing. This being watches over the doings of men and is frequently, though not always, conceived as punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. … We have here an extremely simple, but at the same time highly important primitive thought: There is some one, there must be some one, who has made all things; there is one who wills me to act thus or thus, to omit this or that, and so forth.” Consequently, if the religious consciousness of the primitive races of the present day is, on the whole, more perfectly developed than that of the cultured nations of pagan antiquity, and if, moreover, the races and tribes which are still in the first stages of development possess a conception and worship of God which, though tainted, must be recognized in its innermost essence as Monotheistic, then no other rational explanation is possible but that religion originated in Monotheism.

This also explains two other facts, namely, that the history of all pagan religions is a record of degeneration and that civilization and religion do not run parallel.¹⁵⁶156Cfr. W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Die Stellung der Pygmäenvölker, p. 297. On the deeper reason and the extent of these phenomena we shall have something more to say later on.

For further reading, see page 128.

§ III. The Origin of the Monotheistic Concept of God

What we have set forth above gives rise to the question: How did the idea of one God originate at the beginning of human development? If the origin of Monotheistic religion seems to be shrouded in obscurity, this is true to an even greater extent of the first manifestations of the concept of the deity which underlies that religion in human consciousness.

In this part of our treatise we shall abstract from the possibility of a supernatural revelation (which cannot of course, be denied from the theistic standpoint), and strive to find the answer to our question in the indications furnished by human nature, which is the same in all nations and individuals, and in the historic forms of religion found nearest to the cradle of humanity.

The capacity and disposition to formulate a concept of the deity follows from the ability of the human intellect to think. The natural and compelling desire of the intellect to find a sufficient reason and explanation for every phenomenon of the internal and external world furnished the first occasion for investigating the origin and purpose of man and his environment.

In what direction this investigation was undertaken, and what most strongly attracted the attention of the human mind at the beginning, may be clearly seen from the mythology of the different nations, which in its initial stages harks back in nearly all cases to ideas connected with the regular movements and changes of the sun and the moon, and, in the second place, with extraordinary atmospheric phenomena that struck primitive man most forcibly and seemed to point to sun and moon as their causes.¹⁵⁷157P. Ehrenreich, Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen Grundlagen, Leipsic, 1910, p. 109. The heavenly gods, whom we meet with among most nations, and whose number shows a strong tendency to increase in proportion to the growth of ethnologic knowledge,¹⁵⁸158IDEM, Götter und Heilbringer, Berlin, 1906, p. 587. were at an early date brought into connection with the sun and the moon, which were regarded as the abode of the gods, their means of locomotion, their badges, their eyes, etc.¹⁵⁹159Op. cit., p. 589.

These beliefs, in spite of the grotesque distortions of truth which they betray, allow us to perceive that among all the phenomena of nature the splendor of the sun and the moon and the regular movements of these heavenly bodies, which manifestly obeyed certain definite laws, made a deep and lasting impression on the mind of primitive man. To this we may add as secondary momenta the phenomena of the weather, rain, hurricanes, thunder and lightning, etc., which with their overpowering grandeur caused wonder, fear, and admiration.

These phenomena must have exerted their influence most strongly when man observed them for the first time, with a mind not yet warped by prejudices and false notions. At that time the light and course of the stars, the setting of the sun in the evening and its rising in the morning, the sublime spectacle of a thunder-storm and the disastrous consequences of tornadoes, must have given rise more vividly than ever after to the question, whence all these phenomena came and what was their purpose. Men concluded that effects whose magnitude and sublimity manifested superhuman power and strict compliance with law, indicated superhuman wisdom and must have an adequate cause, and, being endowed with a mind bent upon ascertaining the truth, they formed the conclusion that there must be a super-mundane being that governs the heavenly phenomena with infinite power and wisdom, and that man, too, is dependent on this being, to whom, like all other creatures, he owes his existence. This supreme being must be recognized and worshipped by all as the omnipotent Father and infinitely wise Ruler of the universe. When these thoughts imposed themselves on the mind of man, the Monotheistic concept of the deity in its fundamental outlines had come into being.¹⁶⁰160Cfr. W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Menschheitswege zum Gotterkennen, pp. 51 sqq.; A. Anwander, Die Religionen der Menschheit, pp. 50 sqq.

Note on Henotheism.—Henotheism (or Kathenotheism) is a term introduced by Max Müller to describe the tendency to make a single god in a pantheon supreme and to exalt him as the sole or at least the supreme god, though recognizing many others. Henotheism is said to be a characteristic of the Vedic religion. In the hymns of the Veda, according to Müller, one god is often invoked, not to the exclusion of, but with no particular attention paid to, the others. Where the choice is that of a community, and is theoretically permanent, the term used is Monolatry. The religious belief in which this worship is rooted, cannot correctly be called Polytheism; nor is it true Monotheism.

Eduard von Hartmann defines Henotheism in much the same way as Max Müller, but regards it, not as a particular manifestation of the religious instinct, but as the terminus a quo, the point of departure, of the entire religious evolution of the human race.¹⁶¹161Cfr. Chantepie de la Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, 4th ed., Vol. I, pp. 8, 10 sq., 442 sq., Vol. II, pp. 61 sq., 493, 502 sq. However, it is impossible to establish a real distinction between Henotheism and Polytheism, since a worship of the kind described can be shown to have existed among nations whose religion was distinctly Polytheistic. In fact, among the races and tribes addicted to Polytheism there is scarcely one that always worshipped all its gods in the same manner, without at times showing a preference for the one or the other, to the neglect of the rest.

It would be even more difficult to prove that Henotheism in the sense defined by Max Müller was a stage of religious development preceding Monotheism and, therefore, is to be regarded as the starting-point of religious development.

§ IV. Monotheism vs. Paganism

The study of religion among diverse peoples has shown us that all forms of religion not based on supernatural revelation gradually drifted away from original Monotheism. The totality of these religions is called Paganism, in contradistinction to those which have remained Monotheistic, namely, Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism.

This universal degeneration of religion is a surprising historical fact, for since Monotheism is the only religion that can be justified in the light of reason, it would have been natural to expect that belief in one God should have permanently kept the upper hand. That it did not do so, gives rise to the question: How are we to explain the deterioration of primitive Monotheism into Paganism?

With this question there is intimately bound up another, namely: How could God permit such a tragic error as the universal defection of humanity from Monotheism? We answer:

The development of Paganism from pure Monotheism was the result of human guilt and weakness, and God’s tolerance of this aberration must be regarded as part of His gracious plan to conduct the human race back to truth and salvation.

1. The defection of the greater portion of mankind from Monotheism must be ascribed to human guilt and weakness. Man is endowed with free will, and as long as he has not yet been admitted to the possession of God through the attainment of his last end, he is at liberty to turn away from Him and to seek his happiness and the supreme perfection of his nature elsewhere, in creatures.

Man is led to turn away from God by his inordinate self-love. He ought to be governed by the fundamental instincts of self-preservation and the conservation of the species, but unfortunately temperance and fortitude degenerate into intemperance, cowardice, and vice, and thus he throws off the yoke of reason. In the intellectual realm, where justice ought to govern man’s conduct towards his fellowmen, self-love prompts injustice towards others and manifests itself in rudeness, avarice, cruelty, and malice. Once the human will has become a slave to selfishness, the intellect can no longer maintain its independence, and man loses interest in truth and adapts his judgment to the dictates of his misguided will. Selfishness causes him to regard his ego as the goal and centre of all his aspirations, and thus he enters into the sharpest possible opposition to religion, which proposes God as man’s last end and purpose. This opposition and the contradiction existing between the demands of unlimited selfishness and those of sound reason, are perceived by the latter; but after passion has once gained complete control of man, it subjugates reason, warps the judgment, and impels the intellect to counterfeit the idea of God and, finally, to get rid of it entirely. The heart, blinded by passion, renounces God or reconstitutes His image according to its own egotistic wishes. This usually produces religious indifference and eventually results in rank atheism, and in this process we have the psychological explanation of Paganism. For when man disobeyed God and devoted all his thoughts and efforts to the gratification of his lower instincts, the idea of God gradually lost its intellectual content, and the deity was conceived as similar to man, subject to human weaknesses and passions. From this stage it was but one step to the assumption of a multitude of gods and the worship of these instead of the one true God. What further aided the development of Polytheism and helped to distort the idea of God, was the dispersion of the human race and its division into innumerable nations and tribes with different languages, customs, and social conditions. All these factors co-operated in impressing a special, national and individual stamp on the idea of God held by each nation. Thus in course of time each evolved its own idea of God and persuaded itself that this idea corresponded to the reality.

However, the process of degeneration did not end here. Soon men came to regard certain awe-inspiring natural phenomena, such as thunderstorms and earthquakes, as direct manifestations of the deity, or identified the deity with external symbols (the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky, etc.), and began to worship these symbols.¹⁶²162Cfr. Wisdom, XIII; P. Ehrenreich, Die allgemeine Mythologie, p. 589. Thus the anthropomorphic idea of God, in connection with certain particularly striking contrasts in nature, such as light and darkness, heaven and earth, day and night, gave rise to a dualistic conception, which developed either in the direction of sex or ethics. Thus the multiplication of gods, not infrequently promoted by the fusion of peoples or their gods into new unities, slowly but irresistibly took its course, until it arrived at Fetishism, Animism, and Nature Worship.

That the human race did not lose religion altogether in this process of degeneration is a clear proof that atheism is contrary to nature. The truth was too impressive to be entirely lost. It could be obscured and distorted, but it could not be completely suppressed. This also explains why, in spite of their degraded notions of the deity, the pagan nations still regard their highest god as the author and custodian of the moral order. It also explains why the adherents of Paganism, in spite of their defective religious ideas, willingly assume so many arduous duties and sacrifices. Though their gods are represented to them in the crudest and most sensual form, they have not lost belief entirely in the supreme dominion of the deity as such.

The worship which these pagans give to their gods, on the other hand, fully corresponds to their distorted religious notions. They simply attribute to their gods the unlimited selfishness and the unbridled passions of man and, as a consequence, find it quite natural that the gods should be served by acts of impurity and violence, and all sorts of cruel sacrifices, including human lives.¹⁶³163Cfr. F. Hettinger, Apologie des Christentums, Vol. V, 4th ed., Freiburg i. B., 1908, pp. 236 sqq.; S. Weber, Christliche Apologetik, Freiburg i. B., 1907, pp. 122 sq.; J. Döllinger, The Gentile and the Jew in the Courts of the Temple of Christ, tr. by N. Darnell, 2nd ed., London, 1906, Vol. I, pp. 68 sqq.; E. L. Fischer, Heidentum und Offenbarung, Mayence, 1878; F. Kaulen, Die Sprachenverwirrung zu Babel, Mayence, 1861; W. Schmidt, S. V. D., Die Menschheitswege zum Gotterkennen, pp. 49 sqq.

2. God permitted Paganism to rise and spread because He wished to use it as a guide-post to direct the human race on the way to salvation. The fact that the majority of men were blinded by pagan errors and strayed from the path of truth, does not disprove the theistic world-view. For it was not God who, after offering Himself as the ultimate goal of human aspirations and perfections, arbitrarily rejected man: it was man who incurred the guilt of this disastrous separation by deliberately cutting loose from God. True, God could have prevented the fall of the human race; but, aside from the fact that a forced religion would be of little value, God was not bound to save man against his will. In His justice, wisdom, and holiness He was under no obligation to man except to give him the means necessary to attain his last end, if he cared to do so. For the abuse of his liberty man alone was accountable.

On the other hand, the aberrations of the pagan world must be regarded as a means by which Divine Providence intended to restore the connection between humanity and its highest aim and purpose. Nothing was so well calculated to make man realize his intellectual and moral degradation as the dark night of Paganism. God permitted man to drain the poison cup of sin to its last dregs, so that he might learn from bitter experience the folly of serving his fellow-creatures instead of his Maker. No doubt these considerations brought many pagans to their senses and, with the help of divine grace, which is denied to no man of good will, enabled them to reach their supernatural goal.

The divine toleration of Paganism, of course, did not entail the eternal damnation of all its adherents. God’s goodness and mercy cannot permit any man to be lost without his fault.

As the toleration of paganism itself, so, too, its long duration had an educational purpose. The longer God tarried before coming to the rescue, the more time man had to realize his own impotence and misery, the more clearly was he enabled to see that God does not need man, whereas man cannot possibly be happy without God, and separation from Him by sin is the greatest misfortune that can befall a rational creature. This conviction offered the most favorable condition for a contrite return of sinful humanity to its Creator and a ready acceptance of the divine aid when proffered.¹⁶⁴164Cfr. S. Weber, Christliche Apologetik, l. c.; F. Hettinger, Apologie, Vol. V, pp. 511 sqq.

§ V. Religion and Civilization

1. Civilization Defined.—Civilization is the perfection of man in the spiritual as well as in the material order. Consequently, it includes whatever appertains to his economic well-being and his intellectual, esthetic, moral, and religious culture.¹⁶⁵165Cfr. R. v. Nostiz-Rieneck, S. J., Das Problem der Kultur, Freiburg i. B., 1888. Frequently the religious factor is separated from the others, and only from this point of view is it possible to speak of civilization and religion as two separate and distinct entities, as we shall do in the following paragraphs.

The observation that religious development does not always run parallel with the progress of civilization, nay, often stands in direct opposition to it, gives rise to two questions: (a) What is the relation between religion and civilization? and (b) How can progress in civilization go hand in hand with retrogression in religion?

We maintain that civilization and religion are not opposed to each other per se, and the decay of religion that sometimes accompanies the progress of civilization is the result of false cultural standards and misdirected efforts.

2. Civilization and Religion are not per se opposed to each other. Man is by nature endowed with a tendency to develop his interior and exterior life. By means of this natural tendency the Creator has assigned to him the task of developing and ennobling his faculties in the intellectual as well as in the material order and of co-operating with his fellowmen in the steady perfectioning of human nature and the conditions under which it flourishes in private and public life. The whole material creation is designed to serve man as a means for attaining this end. But we must remember that these efforts and their result, which we usually call progress of civilization, are never to be regarded as an end, but only as a means to an end. That end is the honor and glory of God, who is the highest goal and the centre of all human activity as well as of the created universe in general. Every creature must glorify Him. In this sense whatever tends to promote true civilization is ennobled by that very fact and contributes its share towards widening and deepening the influence of religion on life.¹⁶⁶166H. Pesch, S. J., Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, Vol. I, Freiburg, 1905, pp. 128 sqq.

3. The Progress of Civilization and the Degeneration of Religion.—Though individual nations have degenerated, civilization on the whole has made undoubted progress in the course of centuries.¹⁶⁷167G. Ratzinger, Die Volkswirtschaft in ihren sittlichen Grundlagen, 2nd ed., Freiburg, 1895, p. 511. The development of religion has not always kept pace with that of civilization. Frequently the tendency has been in the opposite direction. While this is not a necessary result of the connection existing between civilization and religion, it is nevertheless intimately bound up with the nature of both these factors and can easily be deduced and explained therefrom. The efforts for the advancement of civilization mostly belong to the material order, and consequently appeal more strongly to men than the religious life with its predominantly spiritual content, its supramundane goal, and the stern duties which it imposes. Thus there arises the danger that man may devote his powers one-sidedly to the advancement of worldly culture and neglect the religious life.

In the long run, of course, civilization can make no real and permanent progress without the aid of religion. Luxury, effeminacy, and vice undermine the welfare of nations as well as individuals.¹⁶⁸168Cfr. H. Schell, Religion und Offenbarung, 3rd ed., Paderborn, 1907, pp. 16 sq.; E. R. Hull, S. J., Archaic Religions, pp. 127 sqq.; H. G. Graham, Prosperity, Catholic and Protestant, London, 1912.

For further reading, see page 129.