The Origin and Growth of Religion: Facts and Theories [Hardcover]

Wilhelm Schmidt (Author)

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Text: English, German (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Pub (August 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815404085
• ISBN-13: 978-0815404088
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,912,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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This review is from: The origin and growth of religion;: Facts and theories

_The Origin and Growth of Religion: Facts and Theories_ (1931) by Jesuit priest Wilhelm Schmidt (1868 - 1954) here translated by H. J. Rose provides a fascinating account of the origin and growth of religion and in particular the theory that the earliest religion was in fact monotheistic (the worship of the High God). Fr. Wilhelm Schmidt was a German Roman Catholic Jesuit priest who performed valuable work in linguistics and anthropology and was perhaps most famous for maintaining that the earliest worship was that of the High God (monotheism). This book examines the comparative history of religion, showing the role of various theories of religion and the development of worship amongst the world's most primitive peoples, and extrapolating from this the origin of religion in monotheism. This book remains important because whereas other theories had focused on the origin of religion in magic, polytheism, etc., this theory remained the first to consider monotheism as the source of all religion. Schmidt's work came to be respected even by non-Catholic and even non-Christian anthropologists (including atheists) for his thorough research.

The book consists of the following parts:

The Author's Preface - explains how this book came about as a follow up to his earlier work _Ursprung der Gottesidee_ and considers the role of the Idea of God in the origin of religions (and the importance of the sky god as the High God of religion).

Part I: Introduction, Historical, and Preliminary Remarks.

"The Comparative History of Religion, Its Nature, Aim, and Methods" - lays out his comparative theory of religions, defines the history of religion (contrasting a subjective and objective study of religions and noting the importance of a comparative history of all religions), and relates religion to psychological and philosophical theories.

"Outline History of the Subject" - explains the importance of ethnology for the study of religion and the succession of religions. Schmidt considers the succession of theories contrasting the various developments - the theories of Greek and Roman times, the early days of Christianity, the Middle Ages, and the Age of Discovery; the history of religion as real science in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (nature-myths and star-myths); the idea of [...]-worship in the nineteenth century (in Africa, Oceania, and America - A. Comte); religion as the worship of ancestors or manism (Herbert Spencer); the role of the agricultural and horticultural peoples which were matrilineal (animism - E. B. Tylor); religion as nature-myth and astral-myth in the nineteenth century with the decipherment of the high cultures of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians; religion as totemism (among the higher hunting tribes - Robertson Smith, J. G. Frazer); the origins of religion in magic (Frazer, King) and the Protestant psychology of religion; religion as the personification of natural phenomena (Max Muller); progressivist evolution (Tylor, Lang) and the culmination of this idea in the monotheistic theory first expounded by Lang. Schmidt also considers the succession of methods in the nature school, the outbreak of materialism and Darwinism, ethnology and cultural history, and various transitory theories; as well as, the succession of attitudes - before the French Revolution (traditionalism, idealism, romanticism), the nineteenth century (materialism, Darwinism, Hegel), and the twentieth century (the breakdown of progressivist evolutionism).

"The Precursors of the Compartive Method" - considers precursors in Greek and Roman thought, Neo-Platonism, the Humanistic school, Christianity and the Middle Ages, and the Age of Discovery (Reformation and Counter-Reformation).

Part II: The Nineteenth Century.

"Nature-Myths" - considers the theory of nature-myths, their role in the study of religion in Protestant circles and Catholic circles (including the theory of traditionalism which maintained that "religious truths were not a product of the intellect, but had been given to man by God in a primaeval revelation, simultaneously to the primaeval language" - Chateaubriand, de Maistre, de Bonald, Bonnetty, de Lammenais), the symbolists and the foundation of the historical method (Friedrich Creuzer, Otfried Muller), and the nature-myth school (Schlegel, Max Muller). Schmidt considers the role of nature-myths in among the Indo-Europeans, the role of the supreme being, the earth, the sun, the moon, fire, the thunder god, gods of the dead and ancestors.

"Fetishism" - considers the role of fetishism in the theories of A. Comte and positivism and Sir J. Lubbock.

"Manism, or Ghost-Worship" - examines the ghost theory of Herbert Spencer and the importance of ancestor worship in primitive, primary, and secondary and tertiary cultures as well as problems with this theory.

"Animism" - considers the theory of animism developed by E. B. Tylor considering such questions as the origin of animism, the evolutionary character of this theory, and Tylor's understanding of the primitive high gods.

Part III: The Twentieth Century.

"Star-Myths and Panbabylonianism" - considers the role of astral mythology and panbabylonianism in the history of religions.

"Totemism" - explains the theory of totemism and the totemic animal or plant as expounded by J. G. Frazer as well as the theory of sacrifice of Robertson Smith, the role of the Oedipus complex in Freud's theory, and the pantotemism of E. Durkheim.

"Magism and Dynamism" - the theory that religion originated in magic. This theory was expounded by such individuals as J. H. King, J. G. Frazer, et al (the intellectualist theory of magic), E. Durkheim, L. Levy-Bruhl, et al (the volitionalist and sociological theories of magic), the emotionalist theories of magic (R. Otto, et al), and various criticisms of these theories. Schmidt also considers the alleged universality of magic amongst the Melanesian Mana, and the Amerindian Orenda, Wakanda, and Manitows.

Part IV: The Supreme Sky-God in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

"The Sky-God in Theories of the Nineteenth Century" - the sky-god in pastoral nomadic culture, the neglect of the sky-god, the origin of the theory of the sky-god, and its subsequent demise.

"The Primitive High God" - the development of this theory in the thought of Andrew Lang (_The Making of Religion (1898)), the strong opposition that emerged to Lang, and the emergence of his theory.

"The Progressive Recognition of the Primitive High God, During the Twentieth Century" - the development of Lang's theories as they relate to the Indo-Europeans, the Amerindians, the pygmy peoples, and the Semites. The recognition of this theory by psychologists and historians of religion. And the culmination of this theory in the idea of a primitive monotheism in the work of R. Pettazzoni and Foucart.

Part V: Methodological Basis. Content of the Primitive Belief in High Gods.

"The Historical Method and Its Results for Ethnology" - the role of the historical method in Germany and its relationship to cultures and historians (W. Foy, B. Ankermann, F. Graebner, and W. Schmidt and their opposition).

"The Date and Distribution of the Primitive High Gods" - high gods of low races. The role of primitive peoples in terms of ethnology, geography, economics and religion. The distribution of the supreme being in Southern primitive cultures, Arctic primitive cultures, and the North American primitives.

"The Nature, Attributes and Worship of the Primitive High God" - the primitive High God as the earliest monotheism. The forms of the primitive High God as First Father, the origin of evil, and other superior beings. The form of the supreme being, the name of the supreme being, and the supreme being as creator. The attributes of the supreme being (including eternity, omniscience, beneficence, morality, omnipotence, and creactive power). The supreme being as giver of the moral code and a system of moral rewards and punishments. The worship of the supreme being in terms of prayer, sacrifice, and formal ceremonies.

"Origin and History of the Primitive High God" - the origin of the idea of the Supreme Being, the organic unity of the data. The role of the gods of the matrilineal agrarian culture, the patrilineal totemic culture, the patriarchal cattle-breeding culture, and secondary and tertiary cultures. And finally, the Supreme Being in historical times, and the degradation, sinking into immorality and antisocial behavior as the Supreme Being becomes more and more distant.

This book provides a fascinating account of the origin and growth of religions. Schmidt explains how the earliest form of religion was monotheism which later became degraded. Further, Schmidt explains how the High God of the most primitive peoples bears the attributes of the one true God. It is for this reason that this theory remains highly important to the world today in that it appears to confirm our fundamental understanding as to the origin of monotheistic belief in the life of man.