Early Religion Research Articles

The All-Knowing God: Researches into Early Religion and Culture. By Raffaele Pettazzoni. Translated by H. J. Rose (Methuen; 60s.)

The All-Knowing God: Researches into Early Religion and Culture. By Raffaele Pettazzoni. Translated by H. J. Rose (Methuen; 60s.)

(R.) Pettazzoni. The All-Knowing God. Researches into early Religion and Culture. Authorised translation by H. J. Rose. London: Methuen, 1956. Pp. xv + 475, with 51 illustrations. 60s.

(R.) Pettazzoni. The All-Knowing God. Researches into early Religion and Culture. Authorised translation by H. J. Rose. London: Methuen, 1956. Pp. xv + 475, with 51 illustrations. 60s. - Volume 77 Issue 1

THE ALL-KNOWING GOD: Researches into early Religion and Culture. By Raffaelle Pettazzoni. Authorized translation by H. J. Rose. 1956. Methuen and Co. PP. xv + 475. £3.

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The All-Knowing God: Researches into Early Religion and CulturePettazoniR.RoseH. J. The All-Knowing God: Researches into Early Religion and Culture , 1956, xv + 475Methuen, 60s

The All-Knowing God: Researches into Early Religion and CulturePettazoniR.RoseH. J. <i>The All-Knowing God: Researches into Early Religion and Culture</i> , 1956, xv + 475Methuen, 60s

The Mountain of God: A Study in Early Religion and Kingship.

The Mountain of God: A Study in Early Religion and Kingship.

The Literary Influence of the Ugaritic Fertility Myth On the Old Testament

study of fertility myths and ritual 1) is of considerable importance, since, in the last few years, so much in the Old Testament has been interpreted in the light of such myths and rituals. The knowledge of the general pattern of Near-Eastern religion has placed in perspective the religion of the Hebrews. essence of this pattern is found in the fertility cult, which centred in the worship of the vegetation deity, who died in the autumn and was resurrected in the spring. religious services took the form of a dramatisation of the death of the god, his resurrection, and his marriage to the mothergoddess. popularity of this cult among the Hebrews has been abundantly evidenced by Old Testament scholars. It was the predominant cult among the Egyptians, Syrians, Babylonians, Assyrians and many other peoples of the Near East. 2) More and more have Old Testament scholars been led to find fertility cult symbolism in a considerable part of the Hebrew scriptures. Gradually it has been emphasised that the 'Canaanite' religion of Palestine was but a variation of the seasons cult ... the early religion of Israel in Palestine was little more than a syncretistic fertility cult with Yahweh predominant. 3) This tendency: to interpret much of the Old Testament in terms of fertility cult and ritual, has been strengthened by the discovery of the Ras Shamra tablets. main part of this literature, in alpha-

The Significance of Luther's Earliest Extant Sermon

The last few decades of research concerning Luther have been clearly characterized by the close attention paid to his early development. Aided by some remarkable discoveries of hitherto unknown early Luther material, scholars have investigated particularly the important period from roughly 1513 to 1517/18, during which the ‘new’ religion of Luther evolved and reached its first flowering. The largely uncharted years before 1513, however, still remain in comparative darkness, despite Otto Scheel's notable work which, for all its completeness, is peripheral rather than central so far as the figure of Luther himself is concerned. While Scheel has succeeded in recreating the environment, physical as well as intellectual, in which the boy and youth lived and moved, he has been able to tell us but little of Luther's early spiritual development. The sources available to us unfortunately do not permit our going much beyond what Scheel has so competently presented. A few early letters and the marginal notes of 1509/10 constitute practically the whole body of direct Luther records before 1513. This situation is most regrettable indeed since we do not really know, aside from the general religious background in which Luther grew up, the all-important specific and personal elements characteristic of his early religion. In other words, we do not actually know the individual and intimate features of the religion from which Luther developed into the ‘new’ religion so wholly and unmistakably his own.

Recent Investigations in Early Germanic Religion

Recent Investigations in Early Germanic Religion

Some Aspects of the Conflicts of Religion in China during the Six Dynasties and T'ang Periods

In the whole history of religious controversy in China there never was a period when the Chinese phrase I kuo san hung; wu shui shih ts'ung1: “One state, three leaders; whom should I follow ?” was more applicable than that which succeeded the introduction of Buddhism in the first century of our era. To understand the conditions of the period in question it is necessary to review briefly the situation before Buddhism arrived. Europeans have long been familiar with the early religion of China as described in the classics; but accepted interpretations are being revised in the light of modern archæological and ethnological research.

The Education of Negro Ministers

It is not surprising that the Negro minister whose chief function it was to deal with religion in the realm of the supernatural would be the first to emerge in the Negro group and the first to achieve acceptance by the group. Nor is it strange that slave masters would permit a degree of freedom in religion before they would allow it to exist in social and economic areas. Religion is non-competitive. Frequently it does not deal with social and economic needs. Often it projects its hopes in a distant future or dreams of a heaven where the values sought here, but unattained, will be realized in some far-off glory land. The early religion of the Negro was, possibly of necessity, largely of this sort; so it was much easier for the Negro to achieve freedom in religion than it was for him to acquire it in other fields. It is probably true that leaders in great numbers, in social, economic and political areas, would have never been permitted to rise as rapidly as they were allowed to rise in religious circles. Since his religion was non-competitive and since the values sought were not directly those of this world, the Negro was allowed more freedom in church and religion. In a sense, nothing is more vitally a part of man than his religion. It is far more difficult to keep a man, though a slave, from expressing and practicing his religion than it is to prohibit him from expressing and exercising his social and political views. Religion is as close to man as breathing. Then, too, there was the element of fear. The Negro who said God had called him to preach and demonstrated it with convincing speech would naturally make an impression upon a few slave owners. There is a traditional belief that it is a dangerous thing to tamper with a man of God. Even since emancipation some whites have feared the Negro's influence with God. It is reported, and on good authority, that a prominent judge in an outstanding Southern town said on one occasion that he stood in fear of the prayers of C. T. Walker more than he did all the other forces in that state combined. Carter G. Woodson in The History of the Negro Church has pointed out that many decades prior to emancipation powerful Negro preachers impressed the whites by their eloquent speech which was an asset to the Negro in his quest for freedom. As previously stated, the Negro minister was the first to be accepted by the Negro group; primarily because of the nature of religion, partly because the minister was the first to be tolerated in appreciable numbers by the slave owners and because he

The Early Age of Greece - The Edrly Age of Greece. By SirWilliam Ridgeway. Vol. II. Edited by A. S. F. Gow and D. S. Robertson. Pp. xxviii + 747. Cambridge: University Press, 1931. Cloth, 30s. - The Earlier Religion of Greece in the Light of Cretan Discoveries. By Sir.Arthur Evans. Frazer Lecture for 1931 in the University of Cambridge.

The Early Age of Greece - The Edrly Age of Greece. By SirWilliam Ridgeway. Vol. II. Edited by A. S. F. Gow and D. S. Robertson. Pp. xxviii + 747. Cambridge: University Press, 1931. Cloth, 30s. - The Earlier Religion of Greece in the Light of Cretan Discoveries. By Sir.Arthur Evans. Frazer Lecture for 1931 in the University of Cambridge.

Notes and Suggestions on the Early Sumerian Religion and Its Expression

Notes and Suggestions on the Early Sumerian Religion and Its Expression

Note on Dr. Peters' Notes and Suggestions on the Early Sumerian Religion and Its Expression

THE TEXTS PUBLISHED in my Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions are most of them extremely difficult, especially in their present fragmentary condition. I have read Dr. Peters' comments on them with much interest and am grateful to him for his attempt to elucidate their meaning from the knowledge gained by his experience in Babylonia. His observations in most instances commend themselves. It is a question whether he has not at times over-worked the liturgical idea. While I have that feeling in reading his notes, I am not prepared to say that he has. The object of the present note is to discuss Dr. Peters' suggestion that text No. 1 is a hymn or liturgy in part in praise of a king of Kesh, who had rebuilt the temple at Nippur. This possibility, though it occurred to me when editing the text, was not seriously entertained, because so little is known historically of Kesh, that such a consideration seemed to land us in an historical mist. The suggestion is, however, worthy of more serious consideration than was then given it. If it should turn out to point to an historical fact, it might open a new vista in Babylonian history. The ideogram employed in our text for Kesh is Brinnow, No. 10859 (= CT 11.49, 32 ab). The question is, does this ideogram designate a city that was later designated by another ideogram, or does it refer to a city never designated by another ideogram? If the latter alternative is true, then Kesh disappeared at the dawn of written history and we know practically nothi'ng about it. If the former is true, then it is possible that something of its later history is known, or at least ascertainable. Clay (Empire of the Amorites, p. 104) identifies Kesh with Opis. He does this on the authority of Thureau-Dangin, who in SAK, pp. 20, 21, read the ideogram UUU-Kesh. Later in his work, however, (p. 225 note d) Thureau-Dangin recognized UTJU as referring to Opis. Clay's identification is accordingly erroneous. Kesh is designated by quite a different ideogram. If Kesh were the same as Opis,

The Idea of God in Early Religions. F. B. Jevons

Previous articleNext article FreeBrief MentionThe Idea of God in Early Religions. F. B. Jevons PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 17, Number 1Jan., 1913 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/479157 Views: 77 Journal History This article was published in The American Journal of Theology (1897-1920), which is continued by The Journal of Religion (1921-present). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Idea of God in Early Religions. By F. B. Jevons

<i>The Idea of God in Early Religions</i>. By F. B. J<scp>evons</scp>

The Early Religion of Palestine

In previous article' on this subject we saw that the worship of the earliest period consisted of the slaughtering of sacrificial animal upon rock-altar from which the blood of the victim ran down into cave underneath, to be received by the deities, originally the dead, who dwelt therein. The principal feature of the service at the Canaanitish high-place was the sacrificial meal of which both deity and worshipers partook. We may be sure that the Israelites practiced different kinds of sacrifice before they entered Palestine, but we are equally certain that they soon took over the characteristically agricultural feasts and sacrifices connected with them, which they found in Canaan. We have no certain traces of worship by means of the burnt-offering among the Canaanites; on the other hand it is probable that the burnt-offering was always looked upon as the most fitting sacrifice to Yahweh. The excavations in Palestine have revealed many traces of another kindof sacrifice common among primitive and fairly advanced peoples, namely, human sacrifice. We have already alluded to the traces of the sacrifice of the first-born at Gezer.2 In II Kings 3:27 we read of the sacrifice of his first-born by Mesha, king of Moab, to Chemosh. Ahaz, Manasseh, and other kings of Judah were accused of the same practice. In cistern at Gezer there was found, together with number of skeletons, the upper half of the body of a young girl who had evidently been sawn asunder. The skulls of two other girls, who had been decapitated, were found at the mouth of the same cistern.3 Other evidences of human sacrifice have been found. We naturally think of the offering of captives after victory. S. A. Cook reminds us that every war was 'holy war.' The horrid rites in honor of the gods who fought for their followers are to be traced in Egypt, Assyria, I Biblical World, May, 191o. 2 Ibid., 300 f. 3 Macalister, Bible Side-Lights, 75 f. 368

Influence of Superstition on the Evolution of Property Rights

The student of primitive religion must needs be a sociologist. Modern research into the culture of the lower races has shown us how close is the connection between the faith of the savage and his general social environment. It is an idle task to investigate the beginnings of law and moralitv, of politics and government, without due reference to the beliefs, call them superstitions, if you will, of primitive man. Little has been done, on the other hand, toward setting forth those no less intimate relations between early economics and early religion. Let us take, by way of illustration, that very extensive group of superstitions included under the term taboo. A taboo is a prohibition or interdiction, to which a supernatural is attached. The word comes to us from the South Seas where the taboo system appears to have reached its most elaborate and grotesque development. Contemporary researches, however, are steadily disclosing the existence of very similar conceptions in many other regions of the savage world. And while the range of taboo is relatively restricted in the higher levels of culture, numerous survivals there attest its former sway and importance. Indeed an eminent French savant has recently defined religion itself as essentially a collection of taboos-as a set of divine ordinances without any very obvious meaning, which, from the beginning have fettered man in the free exercise of his faculties. We need not, perhaps, follow M. Reinach to quite this extreme in order to emphasize the influence of taboo ideas and taboo regulations on human conduct. For the purpose of the present discussion it will be sufficient to inquire what in legal language is the sanction of these taboos. What is their compelling power? How do they operate? In somewhat advanced stages of culture the penalty for

The Early Religion of Palestine

Previous articleNext article FreeThe Early Religion of PalestineD. D. LuckenbillD. D. Luckenbill Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 35, Number 5May, 1910 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/474329 Views: 131Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The Biblical World (1893-1920), which is continued by The American Journal of Theology (1897-1920). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Primitive Secret Societies. A Study in Early Politics and Religion . By Hutton Webster, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the University of Nebraska. New York, The Macmillan Co. 1908. Pp. xiii + 227.

<i>Primitive Secret Societies. A Study in Early Politics and Religion</i> . By Hutton Webster, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the University of Nebraska. New York, The Macmillan Co. 1908. Pp. xiii + 227.

Book Review Primitive Secret Societies . A Study in Early Politics and Religion. By Hutton Webster, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the University of Nebraska. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1908.

Book Review Primitive Secret Societies . A Study in Early Politics and Religion. By Hutton Webster, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the University of Nebraska. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1908.