The Later Evolution of Religion

92:1.1The evo­lu­tion of re­li­gion has been traced from early fear and ghosts down through many suc­ces­sive stages of de­vel­op­ment, in­clud­ing those ef­forts first to co­erce and then to ca­jole the spir­its. Tribal fe­tishes grew into totems and tribal gods; magic for­mu­las be­came mod­ern prayers. Cir­cum­ci­sion, at first a sac­ri­fice, be­came a hy­gienic pro­ce­dure.

92:1.2Re­li­gion pro­gressed from na­ture wor­ship up through ghost wor­ship to fet­ish­ism through­out the sav­age child­hood of the races. With the dawn of civ­i­liza­tion the hu­man race es­poused the more mys­tic and sym­bolic be­liefs, while now, with ap­proach­ing ma­tu­rity, man­kind is ripen­ing for the ap­pre­ci­a­tion of real re­li­gion, even a be­gin­ning of the rev­e­la­tion of truth it­self.

92:1.3Re­li­gion arises as a bi­o­logic re­ac­tion of mind to spir­i­tual be­liefs and the en­vi­ron­ment; it is the last thing to per­ish or change in a race. Re­li­gion is so­ci­ety’s ad­just­ment, in any age, to that which is mys­te­ri­ous. As a so­cial in­sti­tu­tion it em­braces rites, sym­bols, cults, scrip­tures, al­tars, shrines, and tem­ples. Holy wa­ter, relics, fe­tishes, charms, vest­ments, bells, drums, and priest­hoods are com­mon to all re­li­gions. And it is im­pos­si­ble en­tirely to di­vorce purely evolved re­li­gion from ei­ther magic or sor­cery.

92:1.4Mys­tery and power have al­ways stim­u­lated re­li­gious feel­ings and fears, while emo­tion has ever func­tioned as a pow­er­ful con­di­tion­ing fac­tor in their de­vel­op­ment. Fear has al­ways been the ba­sic re­li­gious stim­u­lus. Fear fash­ions the gods of evo­lu­tion­ary re­li­gion and mo­ti­vates the re­li­gious rit­ual of the prim­i­tive be­liev­ers. As civ­i­liza­tion ad­vances, fear be­comes mod­i­fied by rev­er­ence, ad­mi­ra­tion, re­spect, and sym­pa­thy and is then fur­ther con­di­tioned by re­morse and re­pen­tance.

92:1.5One Asi­atic peo­ple taught that “God is a great fear”; that is the out­growth of purely evo­lu­tion­ary re­li­gion. Je­sus, the rev­e­la­tion of the high­est type of re­li­gious liv­ing, pro­claimed that “God is love.”