Encyclopedia of World Religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, Prehistoric, & Primitive Religions

254 Pages·1975·112.668 MB·English

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THE DAWN OF BELIEF
Comparative Religion
The term 'comparative religion' has gradu­ the cities . . . he set the gods in their cult­ thinkers was Euhemerus of Messene (c 300
ally become the established designation for places, he established their offerings, • he BC). He hit upon a novel means of pro­
the discipline more correctly described as founded their shrines'. The claim is a naive pounding his theory. In a fictitious travel­
'the comparative study of religion'. Among assertion by the priests of Ptah that their narrative, he described how he had found
English-speaking scholars comparative god was the creator of all the other Egyptian an inscription on an island in the Indian
religion generally ineludes what Con­ gods, and that he had arranged for their Ocean which revealed that the Greek gods
tinental scholars tend to regard as two ritual service. However, despite its naivety, had originally been great kings who were
separate subjects, the history of religions the claim has a great significance. It shows subsequently deified. This theory, known as
and the phenomenology of religions. But that already in Egypt people were interested Euhemerism, is not entirely without foun­
these subjects are essentially interrelated, in the origin of religion. A similar signifi­ dation, although it is not a sound explana­
for rto serious comparative study of religion cance attaches to a Sumerian text of about tion of the origin of the chief gods of ancient
can be undertaken without both a sound the same period which tells how the gods had Greece. A remarkable instance of its truth
knowledge of the history of the religions to labour to provide their food until the wise · is the deification oflmhotep; but it is unlikely
concerned and a wide acquaintance with the god Enki made men of clay, to be their that Euhemerus knew of this instance.
variety of forms in which religious faith and servants. In other words, according to ancient The religious syncretism of the Graeco­
practice have found expression. Sumerian thought, the purpose of the human Roman world also prompted a comparison of
Religion, in two of its basic concerns at race was to feed the gods by sacrifices and deities. Already in the 5th century BC, the
least, can be traced back to the very begin­ house them in temples. historian Herodotus had identified certain
ning of human society. The peoples of the These primitive theories, if such they Egyptian and Greek deities; but the most
Old Stone Age ritually buried their dead and may be called, about the origin of religion notable example of this practice occurs in the
practised fertility rituals. Then religion were in no sense adversely critical of beautiful description of the Egyptian god­
was doubtless largely the practical expres­ religion as an institution. Indeed, they dess Isis by the Latin poet Apuleius (2nd
sion of deep-felt emotions awakened by the obviously regarded it as being of divine century AD) in his famous romance The
mysteries of birth and death. Some reason­ origin, and constituting the reason for the Golden Ass. Isis reveals herself as the Great
ing about these issues must certainly have existence of human society. It was, charac­ Goddess, who is worshipped by many
informed the ritual action, but in the absence teristically, in the world of Greek culture peoples under various names (Minerva,
of written records we can know nothing of that a sceptical appraisal of religious Venus, Ceres and many more) but under
its nature or content. However, it would origins first appeared. The philosopher her true name of Isis by the Egyptians.
seem improbable that these remote ancestors Xenophanes of Colophon, writing in the 6th The famous saying of the Latin poet and
of our race would have been mentally capable century BC, perceived that the conception of philosopher Lucretius (1st century BC)
of looking critically at their religious customs deity is essentially conditioned by ethnic epitomizes his evaluation of religion: tan­
and asking how they had originated. factors, as well as being basically anthropo­ tum religio potuit suadere malorum, 'so
Evidence of such ability is clearly found in morphic. He pointed out that the Thracians great is the power of religion for evil'.
the earliest writings known to us, which thought of their gods as Thracians, with grey According to Lucretius, religion arose out of
date from the third millennium BC in both eyes and red hair, whereas the Ethiopians the exploitation of man's fear of death and
Egypt and Mesopotamia. On the so-called naturally conceived of theirs as having the unknown by unscrupulous priests and
Shabaka Stone, now preserved in the negroid features. And he cynically remarked seers; and he laboured to free his fellow-men
British Museum, a text in honour of Ptah, that horses and oxen, if they could carve, from this evil by arguing that death is per­
the god of Memphis, the earliest capital of would undoubtedly represent the gods in sonal extinction, beyond which there is
Egypt, briefly tells how religion started. their own animal forms. nothing more to fear. .
Ptah, it claims, 'created the gods, he made Xenophanes was followed by many other The great variety of religions that com­
thinkers who could detach themselves from peted for allegiance in the Graeco-Roman
Tombs built into the rocks at Myra in Turkey, the religious beliefs and practices of their world, and their tendency to mingle with
a survival of the ancient belief that the myster­ environment, and speculate freely on the each other, led other thinkers to find less
ious nature of caves made them proper places nature and origin of religion as a human sceptical explanations of religion's origin.
for contact with the supernatural institution. One of the most notable of these For example, Maximus of. T�e (c 12 -
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