PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERATURE 211 really departed from the concept of psychology as the science of inner experience and of experience per se as somewhat more psychical than physical. His conception of psychical and physical is, therefore, not at all that of Ktilpe, aud the latter, in attempting to identify the two, has made his otherwise clear statement of his position somewhat equivocal. WARNER FITE. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The Evolution of the Idea of God: An Inquiry into the Origins of Religion GRANT ALLEN. New York, Henry Holt & Co. 1897. Mr. Allen's attempt to reduce religion to a cult of the dead, and to derive the idea of God from the worship of a venerated or dreaded an- cestor is far from satisfactory. There is throughout this laborious inquiry the atmosphere of special pleading; all manner of facts are whipped into line in order to certify a particular theory which has evi- dently controlled his method of investigation and predetermined its results. The main thesis of this work is that the customs of disposing of the dead among primitive peoples indicate the various stages of be- lief in reference to the state and condition of the departed, and conse- quent tendencies to revere and worship them. The most primitive custom is the preservation of the corpse on high platforms in huts or tents, resulting in mummification. An advanced stage is that of burial of the dead, and a still higher is reached in cremation. Cor- responding to these three stages the following ideas in reference to the dead are entertained: In the first, they are thought of as bodily living; in the second, death is regarded as only temporary, a resurrec- tion of the body being confidently expected; in the third, the soul is re- garded as distinct from the body, and maintaining a separate existence after the body is wholly destroyed. In the highest stage, the spirit of a brave and great chief, admired or feared in his lifetime, comes to be worshipped after death. This is the beginning of ancestor worship, out of which polytheism gradually arose as the process of deification of chiefs or kings developed. Mr. Allen finds also that the worship of stones, stakes, trees, totems, sacred wells, etc., all came from early association of these objects with the burial of the dead. The sacred
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The Evolution of the Idea of God- An Inquiry Into the Origins of Religion
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8/11/2019 The Evolution of the Idea of God- An Inquiry Into the Origins of Religion