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Evolution of Theology: an Anthropological Study By: Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) |
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ESSAY 8 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION"
By Thomas Henry Huxley I conceive that the origin, the growth, the decline, and the fall
of those speculations respecting the existence, the powers, and the
dispositions of beings analogous to men, but more or less devoid of
corporeal qualities, which may be broadly included under the head of
theology, are phenomena the study of which legitimately falls within
the province of the anthropologist. And it is purely as a question of
anthropology (a department of biology to which, at various times, I have
given a good deal of attention) that I propose to treat of the evolution
of theology in the following pages. With theology as a code of dogmas which are to be believed, or at any
rate repeated, under penalty of present or future punishment, or as a
storehouse of anaesthetics for those who find the pains of life too
hard to bear, I have nothing to do; and, so far as it may be possible,
I shall avoid the expression of any opinion as to the objective truth or
falsehood of the systems of theological speculation of which I may find
occasion to speak. From my present point of view, theology is regarded
as a natural product of the operations of the human mind, under the
conditions of its existence, just as any other branch of science, or
the arts of architecture, or music, or painting are such products. Like
them, theology has a history. Like them also, it is to be met with in
certain simple and rudimentary forms; and these can be connected by a
multitude of gradations, which exist or have existed, among people of
various ages and races, with the most highly developed theologies of
past and present times. It is not my object to interfere, even in the
slightest degree, with beliefs which anybody holds sacred; or to alter
the conviction of any one who is of opinion that, in dealing with
theology, we ought to be guided by considerations different from those
which would be thought appropriate if the problem lay in the province
of chemistry or of mineralogy. And if people of these ways of thinking
choose to read beyond the present paragraph, the responsibility for
meeting with anything they may dislike rests with them and not with me. We are all likely to be more familiar with the theological history of
the Israelites than with that of any other nation. We may therefore
fitly make it the first object of our studies; and it will be convenient
to commence with that period which lies between the invasion of Canaan
and the early days of the monarchy, and answers to the eleventh and
twelfth centuries B.C. or thereabouts. The evidence on which any
conclusion as to the nature of Israelitic theology in those days must be
based is wholly contained in the Hebrew Scriptures an agglomeration
of documents which certainly belong to very different ages, but of the
exact dates and authorship of any one of which (except perhaps a few
of the prophetical writings) there is no evidence, either internal or
external, so far as I can discover, of such a nature as to justify more
than a confession of ignorance, or, at most, an approximate conclusion.
In this venerable record of ancient life, miscalled a book, when it
is really a library comparable to a selection of works from English
literature between the times of Beda and those of Milton, we have the
stratified deposits (often confused and even with their natural order
inverted) left by the stream of the intellectual and moral life of
Israel during many centuries. And, embedded in these strata, there are
numerous remains of forms of thought which once lived, and which,
though often unfortunately mere fragments, are of priceless value to
the anthropologist. Our task is to rescue these from their relatively
unimportant surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms
of theology to make the dead world which they record live again. In
other words, our problem is palaeontological, and the method pursued
must be the same as that employed in dealing with other fossil remains... Continue reading book >>
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