Religion and Anthropology

This paper is written from the genetic viewpoint and traces the bearings of anthropology and history upon the science of religion. Anthropology shows us that religion is an integral function of the human social order: that it varies with the evolution of this order: that its final test must consist in its human service (a) as reflecting the fundamental, effective values of man's life and (b) as also reflecting man's more permanent and intelligent attitudes toward his environment. From primitive times to the present day, religion has exhibited two permanent types. As these appear in savage life they are denominated animistic and naturistic: as they are exhibited by our highest civilizations they are spoken of as monotheistic and pantheistic. The one is distinctively human in temperament: the other is cosmic. The future form of religion would appear to depend upon whether man masters his environment and dedicates his powers to worthy social ends or whether man's environment masters him and extinguishes creative impulse toward human uplift

Anthropology of religion · History of religions · Human life · Impulse (physics) · Order (exchange) · Personality · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Temperament · Theology · Anthropology · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies