{"product_id":"2940015630466","title":"A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIONS","description":"CHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFETICHISM. THE CHINESE. THE EGYPTIANS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. FETICHISM.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe lowest stage of religious development is fetichism, as it is found\u003cbr\u003eamong the savage tribes of the polar regions, and in Africa, America,\u003cbr\u003eand Australia. In this stage, man's needs are as yet very limited and\u003cbr\u003eexclusively confined to the material world. Still too little developed\u003cbr\u003eintellectually to worship the divine in nature and her powers, he thinks\u003cbr\u003ehe sees the divinity which he seeks in every unknown object which\u003cbr\u003estrikes his senses, or which his imagination calls up. In this stage,\u003cbr\u003ereligion has no higher character than that of caprice and of love of\u003cbr\u003ethe mysterious and marvelous, mixed with fear and a slavish adoration of\u003cbr\u003ethe divine. The worship and the priest's office (Shaman, Shamanism)\u003cbr\u003econsist here chiefly in the use of charms, to exorcise a dreaded power.\u003cbr\u003eFrom this savage fetichism the nature-worship found among the Aztecs in\u003cbr\u003eMexico, and the worship of the sun in Peru, are distinguished by the\u003cbr\u003egreater definiteness and order of their religious conceptions and\u003cbr\u003eusages. In them the gods have names, and an ordained priesthood cares\u003cbr\u003efor the religious interests of the people. The highest form to which\u003cbr\u003efetichism has attained is the worship of Manitou, the great spirit,\u003cbr\u003ewhich is found among the ancient tribes of North America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2. THE CHINESE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen man reaches a higher development, caprice and chance disappear from\u003cbr\u003ereligion. Having outgrown fetichism, man begins, as is the case among\u003cbr\u003ethe Chinese, to distinguish in the world around him an active and a\u003cbr\u003epassive principle, force and matter (Yang and Yn), heaven and earth\u003cbr\u003e(Kien and Kouen). We have here nature-worship in its beginnings. In this\u003cbr\u003estage, even less than in fetichism, is there a definite idea of God,\u003cbr\u003emuch less a conception of him as personal and spiritual lord. The\u003cbr\u003eChinese, from the practical, empirical point of view peculiar to him,\u003cbr\u003erecognizes the spiritual only in man and chiefly in the state. His\u003cbr\u003ereligion, therefore, is confined exclusively to the faithful keeping of\u003cbr\u003ethe laws of the state (the Celestial Kingdom), in which he sees the\u003cbr\u003ereflection of heaven, to the recognition of the Emperor as the son and\u003cbr\u003erepresentative of heaven, and to the worship of the forefathers,\u003cbr\u003eespecially of the great men and departed emperors, to whose memory the\u003cbr\u003eChinese temples, or pagodas, are dedicated. The origin of this religion\u003cbr\u003edates, according to the tradition, from Fo-hi (2950 B.C.), the founder\u003cbr\u003eof the Chinese state. In the fifth century before Christ, Kong-tse, or\u003cbr\u003eKong-fu-tse (Confucius), appeared as a reformer of the religion of his\u003cbr\u003ecountrymen, and gathered the ancient records and traditions of his\u003cbr\u003epeople into a sacred literature, which is known by the name of the\u003cbr\u003e\"King\" (the books), \"Yo-King\" (the book of nature), \"Chu-King\" (the book\u003cbr\u003eof history), \"Chi-King\" (the book of songs). The contents of the \"King\"\u003cbr\u003ebecame later with the Chinese sages Meng-tse (360 B.C.) and Tschu-tsche\u003cbr\u003e(1200 A.D.) an object of philosophical speculation. The doctrine of\u003cbr\u003eLao-tse, the younger contemporary of Kong-tse, which lays down as the\u003cbr\u003ebasis of the world, that is of the unreal or non-existent, a supreme\u003cbr\u003eprinciple, _Tao_, or _Being_, corresponds with the Brahma doctrine of\u003cbr\u003ethe Indians, among whom he lived for a long time; but this doctrine\u003cbr\u003enever became popular in China.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3. THE EGYPTIANS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe worship of nature, which is seen in its beginnings among the\u003cbr\u003eChinese, exhibits itself among the Egyptians in a more developed form as\u003cbr\u003etheogony. Here also the reflecting mind rose to the recognition of two\u003cbr\u003efundamental principles, the producing and the passive power of nature,\u003cbr\u003eKneph and Neith, from which sprang successively the remaining powers of\u003cbr\u003enature, time, air, earth, light and darkness, personified by the fantasy\u003cbr\u003eof the people into as many divinities. The Egyptian mythology also (none\u003cbr\u003ehas as yet been discovered among the Chinese) exhibits a like character.\u003cbr\u003eFruitfulness and drought, the results of the Nile's overflowing and\u003cbr\u003ereceding, are imaged in the myth of _Osiris_, _Isis_, and _Typhon_. The\u003cbr\u003evisible form under which the divine was worshiped in Egypt was the\u003cbr\u003esacred animal, the bull _Apis_, dedicated to _Osiris_, the cow,\u003cbr\u003ededicated to _Isis_, as symbols of agriculture; the bird _Ibis_, the\u003cbr\u003ecrocodile, the dog _Anubis_, and other animals, whose physical\u003cbr\u003echaracteristics impressed the as yet childish man, who saw in them the\u003cbr\u003esymbol, either of the beneficent power of nature which moved him to\u003cbr\u003ethankfulness, or of a destructive power which he dreaded and whose anger\u003cbr\u003ehe sought to avert. The religion of Egypt was not of a purely spiritual\u003cbr\u003echaracter.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47074168209648,"sku":"2940015630466","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015630466","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}