RELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN Animism. By Edward Clodd , author of The Story of Creation . Pantheism. By James Allanson Picton , author of The Religion of the Universe . The Religions of Ancient China. By Professor Giles , LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge. The Religion of Ancient Greece. By Jane Harrison , Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge, author of Prolegomena to Study of Greek Religion . Islam. By the Rt. Hon. Ameer Ali Syed , of the Judicial Committee of His

This little book, the last of a series of similar volumes each containing an exposition by a recognised authority of one of the many Religions the world has known, might have been put with as much propriety at the head of the series, there to show how Religion originated in the mind of man, what mental powers it presupposes, what is its nature and what its relation to the non-religious life. But one is, no doubt, better able to take up profitably these problems after having familiarised oneself

THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF RELIGION The opinions advanced in this essay and the arguments with which they are supported will be more readily appreciated if the fundamental nature of Religion is set forth in a few introductory pages. The students of Religion have usually been content to describe it either in intellectual or in affective terms. ‘This particular idea or belief,’ or ‘this particular feeling or emotion,’ is, they have said, ‘the essence’ or the ‘vital element’ of Religion. So that mos

THREE TYPES OF BEHAVIOUR DIFFERENTIATED In his dealings with the different kinds of objects or forces with which he is, or thinks himself, in relation, man has developed three distinct types of behaviour. A concrete illustration will bring them before us more forcibly than an abstract characterisation. A stoker in the hold of a ship, throwing coal into the furnace, represents one of them. His purpose is to produce propelling energy. The amount of coal he shovels in, together with the air-draught

ORIGIN OF THE IDEAS OF GHOSTS, NATURE-BEINGS AND GODS Every savage tribe known to us has already passed beyond the naturistic stage of development. The living savages believe in ghosts, in spirits, and all of them, perhaps, also in particular spirits elevated to the dignity of gods. Whence these ideas of unseen personal beings? They may be traced to four independent sources. (1) States of temporary loss of consciousness—trances, swoons, sleep, etc. —seem in themselves sufficient to suggest to ig

MAGIC AND RELIGION In the preceding section, I have compared animal with human behaviour in an attempt to single out the psychological traits whose presence in man accounts for his possession of Religion and of Magic. I must now complete the characterisation and the account of the origin of these two higher types of behaviour. The relation obtaining between Magic and Religion has been variously understood. Most authorities hold that Magic preceded Religion, and that they are in some way genetica

THE ORIGINAL EMOTION OF PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS LIFE The failure to recognise in Religion three functionally related constituents—conation, feeling, and thought—is responsible for a confusing use of the term ‘origin.’ Some have said that Religion began with the belief in superhuman, mysterious beings; others that it had its origin in the emotional life, and these usually specify fear; while a third group have declared that its genesis is to be found in the will-to-live. At this stage of our inquiry

CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE NATURE AND THE FUNCTION OF RELIGION The organised, historical Religions are sufficiently described, in their objective aspect, as systems of practical relations with unseen, hyperhuman, and personal Beings. The experiences in which this type of Religion consists, when subjectively considered, are the states of consciousness correlated with the aforesaid relations. Judged according to this definition, several savage tribes and a very large number of persons among civilis