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    The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion
    The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion
    The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion
    Ebook94 pages1 hour

    The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion

    By James H. (James Henry) Leuba

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion

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      Book preview

      The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion - James H. (James Henry) Leuba

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Psychological Origin and the Nature of

      Religion, by James H. Leuba

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion

      Author: James H. Leuba

      Release Date: April 22, 2012 [EBook #39511]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIGIN, NATURE OF RELIGION ***

      Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed

      Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was

      produced from images generously made available by The

      Internet Archive.)

      Religions Ancient and Modern

      THE

      PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIGIN

      AND THE NATURE OF

      RELIGION

      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 Majesty’s Privy Council, author of The Spirit of Islam and Ethics of Islam.

      Magic and Fetishism. By Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., Lecturer on Ethnology at Cambridge University.

      The Religion of Ancient Egypt. By Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.

      The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. By Theophilus G. Pinches, late of the British Museum.

      Early Buddhism. By Professor Rhys Davids, LL.D., late Secretary of The Royal Asiatic Society.

      Hinduism. By Dr. L. D. Barnett, of the Department of Oriental Printed Books and MSS., British Museum.

      Scandinavian Religion. By William A. Craigie, Joint Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

      Celtic Religion. By Professor Anwyl, Professor of Welsh at University College, Aberystwyth.

      The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland. By Charles Squire, author of The Mythology of the British Islands.

      Judaism. By Israel Abrahams, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in Cambridge University, author of Jewish Life in the Middle Ages.

      The Religion of Ancient Rome. By Cyril Bailey, M.A.

      Shinto, The Ancient Religion of Japan. By W. G. Aston, C. M. G.

      The Religion of Ancient Mexico and Peru. By Lewis Spence, M.A.

      Early Christianity. By S. B. Black, Professor at M’Gill University.

      The Psychological Origin and Nature of Religion. By Professor J. H. Leuba.

      The Religion of Ancient Palestine. By Stanley A. Cook.

      Mithraism. By W. J. Phythian-Adams.

      PHILOSOPHIES

      Early Greek Philosophy. By A. W. Benn, author of The Philosophy of Greece, Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century.

      Stoicism. By Professor St. George Stock, author of Deductive Logic, editor of the Apology of Plato, etc.

      Plato. By Professor A. E. Taylor, St. Andrews University, author of The Problem of Conduct.

      Scholasticism. By Father Rickaby, S.J.

      Hobbes. By Professor A. E. Taylor.

      Locke. By Professor Alexander, of Owens College.

      Comte and Mill. By T. Whittaker, author of The Neoplatonists Apollonius of Tyana and other Essays.

      Herbert Spencer. By W. H. Hudson, author of An Introduction to Spencer’s Philosophy.

      Schopenhauer. By T. Whittaker.

      Berkeley. By Professor Campbell Fraser, D.C.L., LL.D.

      Swedenborg. By Dr. Sewall.

      Nietzsche: His Life and Works. By Anthony M. Ludovich.

      Bergson. By Joseph Solomon.

      Rationalism. By J. M. Robertson.

      Pragmatism. By D. L. Murray.

      Rudolf Eucken. By W. Tudor-Jones.

      Epicurus. By Professor A. E. Taylor.

      William James. By Howard V. Knox.

      THE

      PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIGIN

      AND THE NATURE OF

      RELIGION

      By

      JAMES H. LEUBA

      BRYN MAWR COLLEGE, U.S.A.

      LONDON

      CONSTABLE & COMPANY Ltd

      10 AND 12 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE W.C.2

      1921

      PREFACE

      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 with the several aspects of religious life. Therefore The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion was placed at the end, where it fulfils the additional purpose of linking the concluded series of Histories of Religions with a cognate one, now being prepared by the same publishers, on Ancient and Modern Systems of Philosophy.

      CONTENTS

      THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIGIN AND

      THE NATURE OF RELIGION

      CHAPTER I

      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 most of the hundreds of definitions which have been proposed fall into two classes. We have, on the one hand, the definitions of Spencer, Max Müller, Romanes, Goblet d’Alviella, and others, for whom Religion is ‘the recognition of a mystery pressing for interpretation,’ or ‘a department of thought,’ or ‘a belief in superhuman beings’; and, on the other, the formulas of Schleiermacher, the Ritschlian theologians, Tiele, etc., who hold that Religion is ‘a feeling of absolute dependence upon God,’ or ‘that pure and reverential disposition or frame of mind we call piety.’ According to Tiele, ‘the essence of piety, and, therefore, the essence of Religion, is adoration.’

      The recent advance of psychological science and the increasingly careful and minute work of ethnographists have tended to discredit these one-sided conceptions. To-day it has become customary to admit that ‘in Religion all sides of the personality participate. Will, feeling, and intelligence are necessary and inseparable constituents of Religion.’ But statements such as this one do not necessarily imply a correct understanding of the functional relation of the three aspects of psychic life. One may be acquainted with the three branches of government—legislative, executive, and judicial—and nevertheless grossly misunderstand their respective

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