RELIGIONS 371 of western Asia. This too had its distinct place in the general history of religion. For though it seems not to have spread much farther than the Iranian languages, and the attempts of Mazdayagnan missionaries to convert certain Tartar or Mongolish tribes were not crowned with extraordinary success, its tenets deeply influenced the post-exilian angelology and demonology of the Jews, and through it the belief on these subjects current among mediaeval Christians. Moreover, not indeed the whole system, but still some of its semi-spurious offshoots, remnants of the OLD EAST ARYAN mythology, neglected by the Zarathustrian reformers, but afterwards revived and mixed up with Semitic elements, the worship of Mithra and Anahita, wandered from Asia Minor through Greece and Italy to Germany and found adherents everywhere. The final and, if we except that of Mosaism, the most interesting chapter of the ancient history of religions is that which narrates the growth, the transformations and vicissitudes, the decline and corruption of the worship belonging to Greece and Rome. Its importance to general history needs no exposition. But its real purport is in the main not realized, or at least misunderstood. It is indeed the history of the spread of that rich and composite mythological system which is called Hellenic religion over the whole civilized world of Europe and part of Asia and Africa, and of the total transformation of the ancient Roman religion by its influence. But, studied in the true historical, that is, genetic and comparative, spirit not with the jealous narrow-mindedness of the old classi- cal school, whose idol, the self-sufficient and self-educated Greek, has already been broken to pieces, nor with the one-sidedness of some comparative mythologists, who have substituted the self-sufficient Aryan for that imaginary Greek Hellenic religion appears to be rooted, not only in the old national worship, but also, and even deeper, in the religions of some Eastern peoples, as is the case with Hellenic art and all the other branches of that splendid civilization. It would never have risen so high above the level of old Pelasgic faith and worship, never have spread over so wide an area, never have reigned with ever increasing authority in Etruria and in Rome, had not the deeper religious ideas of Semitic and other Eastern nations, which prevailed in the Phoenician colonies on the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and above all in that focus of all kinds of worship, Asia Minor, become assimi- lated with it, and for this too must be acknowledged had it not after all impressed those ideas with the stamp of Aryan fancy and Hellenic taste, the stamp of its own genius. The great stream of religious development which had its sources in Egypt, in Babylon, and in Iran, and many less important affluents, finishes its course in the Graeco-Roman religion. With this the old world dies away. But then the preaching of the gospel had already laid the foundations of a new and higher world of religious life, which no more belongs to ancient history. Modern history of religions is chiefly the history of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, and of their wrestling with the ancient faiths and primitive modes of worship, which slowly fade away before their encroachments, and which, where they still survive in some parts of the world and do not reform themselves after the model of the dominant religion, draw nearer and nearer to extinction. But the subject is too vast to be treated of in detail here. It has been our object only to show, even for the ancient history of religions, the continuity and coherence which nobody will deny with regard to the modern. In both ancient and modern times, religions spread (1) by the influence of superior civilization, (2) by conquest, (3) by colonization or commerce, (4) by missions. Examples are too numerous and too well known to require mention here. Literature. The numerous monographs on special religions, as well as treatises on the philosophy of religion, on mythology, on comparative mythology even, must be excluded from this notice. Only the most important collections of historical monographs, and those philosophical works which are not purely or principally speculative, but are based on the comparative study of the religions themselves, will be mentioned. For the so-called science of religion in general see Benjamin Constant, De la Religion considtree dans sa source, ses formes, et ses decclo2}pemcnts, 5 vols., Paris, 1824-31; E. Spiess, De religio- num indayationis comparative viac dignitate theologica, Jena, 1871; F. Max Miiller, Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. , London, 1867; Id., Introduction to the Science of Religion, London, 1873; Ernile Burnouf, La Science des Religions, 4th ed., Paris, 1885; Daniel G. Brinton, The Religious Sentiment, its Source and Aim, New York, 1876 ; A. Reville, Froleyomincs de I'Histoire dcs Re- ligions, Paris, 1881 ; W. D. Whitney, "On the so-called Science of Religion," in the Princeton Review ; Id., Oriental and Linguistic Studies, 1st and 2d series, New York, 1873-74; L. Vezes, De la Religion ct dcs Religions, Montauban, s.a. A more or less complete history of religions (narrative and de- scriptive) was attempted by Meiners, Allg. kritische Geschichte dcr Religionen, 2 vols., Hanover, 1806-7; A. v. Colin, Lehrbuch der vorchristl. Religionsgeschichte, Lemgo, 1855; J. H. Scholten, Geschie- denis der godsdienst en wijsbcgeerte, 3d ed. , Leyden, 1863 ; J. Gardner, The Religions of the World, London, 1872 ; C. P. Tiele, Outlines of the History of Religion to the spread of the Universal Religions, transl. by J. p]. Carpenter, London, 1877 (a totally re-written Dutch edition is in preparation). The history of the principal religions of the world is described in the series of monographs published at Haarlem entitled De Voornaamste Godsdicnsten(Islamism, by Dozy, 1863; Pars-ism, by Tiele, 18G; Buddhism, by Kern, 1883-84; Greek Religion, by Van Oordt, 1864; Norse Religion, by Meyboom, 1868; Israel, 2 vols., by Kuenen, 1869-70; Roman Catholicism, by Pierson, 4 vols., 1868-74; Protestantism, by Rauwenhoff, 2 vols., 1865-71). See, too, C. P. Tiele, Hist, comparvc des religions de I'Egypte ct dcs pcuplcs Semitiques, trans, by G. Collins, Paris, 1882 ; A. Reville, Les religions dcs peuples non-civilises, Paris, 1883 ; Id., Les religions du Mexique, de VAmer. centrale, ct du Perou, Paris, 1885 (compare the Hibbert Lectures for 1884). Of another series, under the title Oriental Religions and their relation to Universal Religion, by Samuel Johnson, three volumes only are published (India, 2d ed., London, 1873; China, Boston, 1877; Persia, 1885). P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye published four popular sketches of the religions of Confucius, Lao-tsze, Zarathustra, and Buddha, but with copious notes and references, Utrecht, 1883. Equally popular is G. Rawlinson's Religions of the Ancient World, London, s.a. To the comparative study of religions and to the philosophy of the history of religions belong 0. Pfleiderer, Die Religion, ihr Wesen und ihre Geschichte, Berlin, 1869 ; Id., Rcligionsphilosophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage, 1878 ^(2d ed. revised and enlarged, in 2 vols., 1883-84); E. Renan, Etudes d'histoire rcligieuse, 2d ed. , Paris, 1857 ; Jas. Freeman Clarke, Ten Great Religions, an Essay in Comparative Theology, Boston, 1871 (called by Prof. Whitney an industrious collector and an impartial reporter) ; E. F. Langhans, Das Christenthurn und seine Mission im Lichle der Weltgcschichte, Zurich, 1875 ; A. M. Fairbairn, Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and History, 1876; Chas. Newton Scott. The Foregleams of Christianity, London, 1877 ; J. Stuart Blackie, The Natural History of Atheism, London, 1877; C. Puini, Saggi di storia della Religione, Florence, 1882 ; E. von Hartmann, Das rclig. Bewusstsein der Menschheit im Stufcngange seiner Entwickelung, Berlin, 1882 ; Jul. Happel, Das Christcnthum und die hcutiyc ver- gleichende Religionsgeschichte, Leipsic, 1882. See, too, the Hibbert Lectures of F. Max Miiller, 1878, and of A. Kuenen, National Religions and Universal Religions, 1 882. The connexion between religion on the one side and state and society on the other is discussed by J. C. Bluntschli, Altasiatische Gottcs- und Weltideen, Nordlingen, 1866 ; C. Twesten, Die rcligids., polii', und socialen Ideen der asiat. Culturvolker und der Aegypter, 2 vols. , Berlin, 1872 (ed. by M. Lazarus) ; Gilliot, Etudes histor. et c.-it. sur les religions et institutions compares, Paris, 1883. E. Wippermanu's Altorient. Religionsstaaten, Marburg, 1851, is now antiquated. The views of the present writer on various subjects relating to the science of religion have been expounded in several volumes of the Theol. Tijdschrift and De Gids. Only a few of these papers have been translated into German or French. See, e.g., Revue politique et litteraire, 12th August 1876 and 12th January 1878. In the Theol. Tijdschrift are to be found some articles on cognate sub- jects by Profs. Kuenen and Rauwenhoff and by Dr A. Bruining. Valuable contributions to the history of religious are given by the Revuo de I'Histoire des Religions, edited by Vernes, 1880-84, and by Jean Reville, 1885. Prof. Max Miiller is rendering an im- portant service to the comparative study of religions by his col- lection of translations entitled Sacred Books of the Eait, of which some twenty-four volumes have appeared, and which is still in course of publication. (C. P. T. )
