History of the Science of

Religion
A. Religion—from Latin “religio”
1. Originally seems to referred to as
“fear” or reverence for the gods—later to
the rites offered to them
2. Confusion as to where word
originates
a. “relegere”--to gather things
together” or “to pass over things
repeatedly”
b. “religare”--to bind things
together”—emphasize communal aspect—
draws people into religious rites, practice
and belief
 A. The study of religions seemingly
originated with the Greeks
 1. Herodotus—father of history—took
seriously the chronology of the past
 2. Epicurus—a radical critic of religion
and sought to catalog and explain the
sense of the sacred
 3. Stoics—believed there was a
common denominator of sacred behind
all religion
 B. Romans studied religion
 1. Cicero—concerned with the word
“religion” and was first to use the term
 2. Seneca, Tacitus, and Julius Caesar all
interested in the study
 3. After Christianity emerged study of
different religions was neglected since
the church was more concerned with its
own mission and survival
 C. Confrontation with Islam
 1. Islam rapid expansion
 2. Crusades
 D. The Modern Mission Movement
 With William Carey in 1792
 E. The New Empiricism and
Rationalism
 1. Deists and philosophers such as
Hume, Rousseau, and Voltaire discussed
the problem of “natural religion”
 2. Max Mueller wrote an essay on
comparative mythology—he found the
origin of myths in natural phenomena
Criteria for the Study of World
Religions
 A. Objectivity—students of religion
must observe facts as objectively as
possible
 1. One must consider sacred texts and
historical manifestations of the faith
 2. It is important not to pre-judge
another religious perspective
 B. A Thorough Grounding
 1. Must have knowledge of history,
psychology, philosophy, sociology, and
theology in order to come to the
essence of different religions
 2. Such facts are necessary for
intelligent comparisons and discussions
 C. Proper Criteria
 One must have the responsibility to
establish a criteria for judgment based
on fact, not value judgments
 Distinguishing between fact and
value
 1. A factual judgment asserts that is or
is so
 2. A value judgment asserts that
something ought to be
The Study of Religion
 A. Animism
 Edward Tylor—founder of modern
anthropology

 A type of consciousness in animate

and inanimate objects
 B. Fear
C. Rabbi Brown
 Anicent humanity
was insecure
because of the
forces of nature
 Suggested Gen. 1:1
should have read
 “in the beginning
was fear”
 Lucretius offered this
as explanation of
origin of religion
 “We fear what we do
not know”
 C. Totemism—Durkheim
Worship of ancestors
Religion arose out of fear for
loved ones
Tribe was the family enlarged
Religion is identified with
society
D. High God Revelation—Wilhelm
Schmidt
 Rooted against evolution view of

religion
 Believed most ancient people had a

belief in a higher being

Definitions of Religion
 A. Religion as a phenomenon looked
on as universal—Eliade’s concept of
the
 “sense of the sacred”
 B. Anti-Rationalistic Definitions
 1. Lucretius—an anti-rational, coercive
force

 2. Reinanch—a sum of scruples which

impede the free exercise of our faculties

 3. Marx—a pathological manifestation

of protective forces, deviation caused by
ignorance of natural causes and their
effects
 C. Intellectual Definition
 Max Mueller wrote that religion is a
mental factor independent of sense and
reason to apprehend the infinite in
different names
 D. Emotional Definitions
 1. Schleiermacher saw the essence of
religion as an emotion and consists of
feelings of absolute dependence
 2. McTaggert said religion is best
described as an emotion resting in
conviction of harmony between
ourselves and the universe at large
 E. Religion as Morality
 Immanuel Kant saw religion as the
recognitions of our duties as divine
commands, the driving force of the
sacred is morality, e.g., tabu, holiness
 F. Psychological Definition
 William James said that religion comes
from the feelings and experiences and
individual people
 G. Religion as Ultimate Valuation—Paul Tillich’s
ultimate concern
 1. Ultimate concern has priority in the system
of concerns which constitutes a personality or
a culture—it gives meaning and purpose to
human life
 2. Ultimate concern is pervasive—spread over
the totality of existence
 3. Ultimate concern is concerned with the holy
—Rudolph Otto saw holiness as a special and
unique experience. He coined the phrase
numinous, from Latin meaning divinity, god, or
spirit—refers to a special feeling of aweness or
fear
 4. Ultimate concern has to do with the
expression and communication of religious
experience—religious experience takes place
through symbolic words, objects, and actions
 5. Ultimate Concern is both lived and
celebrated---celebrated through liturgy and
mythology—lived out in the religious
Three Types of Religious
Experience
 A. Cosmic Religion—one in which
there is found a plurality of religious
objects or gods; it is polytheistic.
The many gods are associated with
nature and/or culture. Prehistoric
and folk religions are examples of
this type
 B. Acosmic Religion—one in which is
found the religious object beyond the
common secular world of nature and
society—usually emphasizes the
One.
 Hinduism and transcendental
monism are examples
 C. Historical Religion—one in which
is found the religious object beyond
and within the common world—sees
history as linear—examples are
Judaism, Christanity, and Islam
Religion of Pre-Historic
Humanity
A. Concept of religion is believed to have
began in the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic)
with the Neanderthals (100,000-25,000
years ago)
1. Deliberate and meticulous care of
burying dead, with ceremony
2. The dead were buried in a “fetal”
position—a “return to the womb”
3. Example of burial in Monte Cicero
(Italy)
a. Bones of deer, horse, hyena,
elephant, and lion were on the floor and
heaped up around the walls in piles
b. On the floor beneath the cranaium
were two fractured metacarpals of an
ox and of a deer
c. The skull showed signs of having
received a fatal blow on the right side of
the temple
d. At its base the portion connecting the
braid with the spinal cord had been
cut away after death, probably to extract
the brain
e. The site appeared be a place in which
the body was deposited ceremonially in a
cave used for ritual purposes as a sacred
ossuary
4. Another example of a ritual burial is in Bavaria
a. A nest of 27 human skulls were found in
a group embedded in red ochre, the skulls
looking westward
b. A few yards away was a second identical
group of six skulls—some of these the
cervical vertebrae were still attached and
from their condition the heads must have
been severed from the body after death with
flint knives
 c. Those skulls in the center were tightly
packed together and crushed—it seems that
they had been added one by one from time to
time
d. Twenty of the skulls were of children
ornamented with snail shells; nine were of women
with necklaces of deer teeth, and four were of
adult males
B. Cro-Magnons (25,000-10,000 years ago)—more
developed

1. First “idols” found were of female deities—

shows interest in fertility; the concept of the
“mother goddess” beginning to appear as a
fecundity motif
 2. From drawings, it appears the
concept of symphatic magic was
being conceived
3. Throughout other burial sites,
certain shells (cowrie) were shaped
in the form of a portal through which
a child enters the world
4. During this time there was a
widespread custom of placing
ochreous powder on the body: red
was the color of life and placing the
red ochre on the body suggests a
belief in a “life to come”
5. One anthropologist believes the painting of
the body with the red ochre was the first
“mummification” and an attempt to make the
body “servicable” again
6. Some burial spots could suggest that the living
were making offerings to the dead out of a fear
and awe of them
C. Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age, 10,000-
7,000 years ago
1. This age was a transitional age which
saw the vanishing of the ice sheet and a
gradual shift from nomadic to village life
2. In one grave site in Brittany were found
a great ossuary with ten burial sites,
including the remains of 23 individuals.
a. The bodies were crouched in
shallow trench caves near the
hearths accompanied by implements,
perforated shell necklaces, and braclets
b. The bodies were covered with red
ochre and stone slabs
c. It appeared that the bodies were
clothed where they were interred
 3. In Denmark there was a continuation of
extended burial in earth graves defined by
a small ring of small stones around the body
and covered with a large earth mound
known as dyssers or dolmans
D. The Neolithic (New Stone Age, 7000-3000
years ago
1. This age is characterized by several
great changes
a. Early forms of agriculture, with
active tilling of the soil
b. Domestication of animals and their
gathering into flocks and herds
c. Advances in the arts of pottery,
plaiting, weaving, and sewing
d. Establishment of settled
communities with an accompanying
growth of population
e. The invention of the wheeled cart
f. The first surgery
 2. Religion also being radically transformed
a. The Mother Goddess or Great
Goddess of earlier hunting culture became
associated with creation and regeneration
b. Female divine power went beyond
the animal models of birthing and nurture
to the watering, tending, and
protecting of the whole world of
vegetation
c. Studies of Old Europe (Balkans)
reveal a pantheon of mostly female
deities subsequently obscured,
but not fully displaced by later
Indo-Aryan patriarchal and gender-
polarized views.
 Generalizations of
Tribal Religions

A. Traditional—no written language exists

B. Naturalistic framework of reference—
biological drives
C. Spontaneous—response to stimuli,
irrational
Broad Generalizations
A. Primitive religion is monistic—no dualism
B. A sense of absolute interdependence of all
things
C. Interdependence maintained by infallible rigid
authority
D. Religion serves to maintain social harmony
and stability
E. No opposites among tribal people—everything
and everybody complementary
Characteristics of
Religion in Primal
Cultures
A. Awe before the Sacred
1. Rudolf Otto in The Ideal of the Holy,
bases the experience of the holy upon an
encounter with a mysterium tremendum et
fascinosum, and found it in all religions—the
degree of the sense of the awe or holy
various tremendously with each group
2. In most primitive societies the sacred
possesses a special significance and cannot be
handled lightly
3. Objects and persons can have this
“awe” within them
B. Expressions of anxiety in ritual
1. When there is a sense of the sacred,
anxiety occurs and will cause “action”
2. This “action” takes the form of special
deeds and words
3. Such anxiety is the basis of all religious
ritual
C. Ritual and Expectancy
1. Some rituals are expectant in nature
2. They presuppose a causal efficacy
3. They are performed to bring health,
offspring, productivity of the soil, fertility of
cattle, et al
4. Other rites occur at specific times for
specific purposes
a. Rites of passage—connected with
birth, name giving, initiation, betrothal,
marriage, death, etc
b. The elevation to tribal leadership
or kingship
D. Myth and Ritual
1. The making of myth is common in all
human cultures
2. Myths help to answer questions as to the
origin of actions or beliefs
3. Cosmogonic or “creation” myths help to
explain the origin of existence
4. An etiological myth is one that explains
how things have come to be as they are now
5. The quasi-historical myth is the
elaboration of an original happening, usually
involving a hero or pioneer figure
E. Types of magic
1. Magic may be loosely defined as an
endeavor through utterance of set words, or the
performance of set acts, or both, to control or
bend the powers of the world to one’s will
2. Sympathetic magic (James Frazer) takes
an imitative form based upon analogy
a. It assumes that look-alikes act
alike, or, more significantly, that like
influences or even produces like
b. Thus, if one imitates the looks and
actions of a person or an animal (or
even a thundercloud), one can
induce a like and desired action in the
imitated being or object
 3. Outcomes of magic are considered to
be:
a. Productive—Cro-Magnon hunting
magic (painting) was a type of
imitative magic
b. Aversive—one can use magic to
hurt one’s enemies by imitating a harmful
act upon an image of a person
c. Contagious—things conjoined and
then separated still are connected—thus
severed hair or fingernails retain a
magical sympathy with the person to
whom they belong
 4. Methods of control of magic
a. Fetishism—refers to any resort to a
presumed power in inanimate
objects— includes objects which
have power innate in them
b. Shamanism—refers to the
conjuring of spirits into or out of
human beings by one who is similarly
spirit-possessed
F. Prayer
1. Prayers in preliterate societies are
generally formal and structured
2. Where the gods are anthropormorphic,
formal prayers generally include elements
found in more literate societies; namely,
adoration, confession of wrongdoing, and
promise of atonement, thanksgiving in grateful
recognition of past favors, and supplication or
petitions of a more or less specific kind
G. Divination
1. A means to by-pass prayer
2. It aims at immediate knowledge of the
intentions or dispositions of the spiritual powers
3. Usually there is a connection between
divination and shamanism
H. Belief in Mana (Used by Codrington)
1. Mana is a Melanesian term widely used
to designate a widespread, although not
universal, belief in occult force of indwelling
supernatural power distinct from spirits
2. The term refers to an experienced
presence of a powerful but silent force
I. Animism
1. An acceptance that all sorts of
motionless objects as well as living and
moving creatures have souls or spirits in them
2. Identified with E. B. Tylor, who wrote that
all nature is possessed, pervaded, crowded
with spiritual beings
J. Veneration and worship of powers
1. Worship can take three modes
a. Sometimes an object itself is
worshipped as living and active,
heavily charged with mana
b. Sometimes the object is nor
worshipped for itself, but for the spirit
or soul lodged in it
c. Sometimes the object is a symbol
of the reality which is worshipped
2. Veneration and awe are “short” of
worship
K. Recognition of a Supreme Being
1. Great debate as to whether primal
peoples had a belief in a supreme being
2. It is rather common to find a belief in a
deity up in the sky or at a great distance from
the earth
3. Daily activities did not include such a
high deity
4. The great deity usually was the creator
of the more popular deities
L. Taboo-Tabu
1. Taboos are prohibitions applied to things,
persons, and actions because they are
considered sacred, dangerous, or socially
forbidden
2. Many taboos are due to fear based on
mana; others may reflect the dread of
pollution
M. Purification rites
1. Ceremonies of purification and cleansing
are due to the belief of taboos or the impurity
of a certain person or object
2. In some cases, purification rites are used
for the motive of purifying oneself for future
ritual
3. Purification rites may take the form of
fasting, abstention from sex, ablutions, et al
N. Sacrifices and gifts
1. Sacrifice usually entails the giving up or
destruction (e.g., burning) of
something, animate or inanimate, human,
animal, or vegetable in order to cause it to
pass from human possession to that of the
divine
2. Original sacrifices seem to have involved
animal and/or human sacrifices, because the
spirits as well as humans need the vitality and
strength present in life and blood
3. Sacrifice may be performed to seek
reconciliation with a divinity
4. Sacrifice may be performed to placate
the gods; thus considered to be propitiatory
O. Attitudes toward the dead
1. In many ancient societies, there
developed a view that the dead may cause
injury to the living
2. Thus, some kind of actions or words may
be performed to prevent such interference
P. Totemism
1. A very common characteristic of primal
religions recognize the existence of a more or
less intimate relationship between certain
human groups or particular individuals and
classes or species of animals, plant, or
inanimate object in nature
2. This recognition results in special social
grouping and special rituals unique to that
social grouping
3. If an animal is the totem, the group is
forbidden to eat the animal except in special
cases
4. By eating the animal, the group takes on
the power of that particular animal
African Religion
I. No way to really discuss as one
category since differences are so
great—we can look at a few recurring
themes
A. Transcendence
1. Names and expressions
of divinities vary greatly
2. But there does seem to
be a general belief that
there exists a kind of a
supreme being who has
control over the lesser spirits
 3. The first observations
that African religion was
simply forms of primitive
polytheism does not seem to
bear out
4. The supreme being is
described in various ways—
as a beneficent being, a
father or mother, or as a
holy god
5. Popular religion seems to
be polytheistic; these beings
seem to be representatives or
servants of the higher god
 6. Like most religions, there
are creation stories
 B. Stages on Life’s way—one’s
life is dominated by rituals—rites of
passage
1.Birth—children are
important— naming ceremonies
is important ceremony,
accomplished in a
variety of ways
2. Initiation—the coming of
age, assumption of
responsibilities of
 3. Marriage—very
important and intricate
4. Death—serious and
somewhat fearful experience;
there is general belief in a
life after death; reincarnation
believed by some
 C. Religious roles
1. Includes prophets, shamans,
sacred kings, traditional
medicine men
2. They have means of
foreseeing the future
3. Oracles are important
4. The priest is important; uses
established ritual forms
which relate human life to
transcendent life
5. King is important feature
Native American
Religion
A. Like African religions, there is
great variety
1. Differences between
gatherers and farmers
2. The latter celebrate the
cycle of the agricultural year
3. Many hunter-gatherers have
stories of a transformer of trickster
who set things in motion
4. For farmers the creator is not
a person, but a power in the sky
B. Recurring Themes
1. Transcendence
a. There exists in all
persons and objects a
mystifying spirit—called mana
by Melanesians
b. Many do not have
concept of a single high god
 c. Paul Radin notes two
aspects of this high god
(a) the supreme deity is
just and rational but remote
(b) the transformer who
is not always fair, but
actively intervene in human
life; there also exists
great number of
other spirits—
good and bad
 C. Stages on Life’s way
1. Birth—naming ceremony
is extremely important
2. Initiation
a. A vision quest for
boys and sometimes for
girls
b. Usually
accomplished by sending
them into
wilderness, usually sees a
supernatural visitor, that
becomes major divinity of
 3. Marriage—intricate—no
single pattern—many see in
women a mysterious power
4. Death—usually takes on form
of fear and avoidance—contact
with corpse leads to separation
or isolation
D. Religious roles—emphasis on
shaman, medicine man and priest—
priests lead in established rituals, no
vision necessary