A Comparative View of Religions

A Comparative View of Religions,
by Johannes

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Johannes Henricus Scholten, Translated by Francis T. Washburn
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Title: A Comparative View of Religions
Author: Johannes Henricus Scholten

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Language: English
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1.001

A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS.
Translated from the Dutch of
J. H. SCHOLTEN, Professor at Leyden,
by Francis T. Washburn.

Reprinted by permission from "The Religious Magazine and Monthly
Review." Boston: Crosby & Damrell, 100 Washington St. 1870.

A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS.

INTRODUCTION.[1]
The conception of religion presupposes, a, God as object; b, man as
subject; c, the mutual relation existing between them. According to the
various stages of development which men have reached, religious
belief manifests itself either in the form of a passive feeling of
dependence, where the subject, not yet conscious of his independence,
feels himself wholly overmastered by the deity, or the object of
worship, as by a power outside of and opposed to himself; or, when the
feeling of independence has awakened, in a one-sided elevation of the
human, whereby man in worshiping a deity deifies himself. In the
highest stage of religious development, the most entire feeling of
dependence is united in religion with the strongest consciousness of

personal independence. The first of these forms is exhibited in the
fetich and nature-worship of the ancient nations; the second in
Buddhism, and in the deification of the human, which reaches its full
height among the Greeks. The true religion, prepared in Israel, is the
Christian, in which man, grown conscious of his oneness with God, is
ruled by the divine as an inner power of life, and acts spontaneously
and freely while in the fullest dependence upon God. Since Christ, no
more perfect religion has appeared. What is true and good in Islamism
was borrowed from Israel and Christianity.
Although it is probable that every nation passed through different forms
of religious belief before its religion reached its highest development,
yet the earlier periods lie in great part beyond the reach of historical
investigation. The history of religion, therefore, has for its task the
review of the various forms of religion with which we are historically
acquainted, in the order of psychological development.
CHAPTER I.
FETICHISM. THE CHINESE. THE EGYPTIANS.
1. FETICHISM.
The lowest stage of religious development is fetichism, as it is found
among the savage tribes of the polar regions, and in Africa, America,
and Australia. In this stage, man's needs are as yet very limited and
exclusively confined to the material world. Still too little developed
intellectually to worship the divine in nature and her powers, he thinks
he sees the divinity which he seeks in every unknown object which
strikes his senses, or which his imagination calls up. In this stage,
religion has no higher character than that of caprice and of love of the
mysterious and marvelous, mixed with fear and a slavish adoration of
the divine. The worship and the priest's office (Shaman, Shamanism)
consist here chiefly in the use of charms, to exorcise a dreaded power.
From this savage fetichism the nature-worship found among the Aztecs
in Mexico, and the worship of the sun in Peru, are distinguished by the
greater definiteness and order of their religious conceptions and usages.

In them the gods have names, and an ordained priesthood cares for the
religious interests of the people. The highest form to which fetichism
has attained is the worship of Manitou, the great spirit, which is found
among the ancient tribes of North America.
2. THE CHINESE.
When man reaches a higher development, caprice and chance disappear
from religion. Having outgrown fetichism, man begins, as is the case
among the Chinese, to distinguish in the world around him an active
and a passive principle, force and matter (Yang and Yn), heaven and
earth (Kien and Kouen). We have here nature-worship in its beginnings.
In this stage, even less than in fetichism, is there a definite idea of God,
much less a conception of him as personal and spiritual lord. The
Chinese, from the