CHAPTER XXVI 



THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS EVOLUTION 



(B) From the Stage of Monotheism Upward 



By a full and exact recognition of the widespread influence 

 of Heliotheism from about 4000 to 500 B. C. we can alone 

 learn, and correctly follow, the pathway reached by man in 

 attaining to the next higher stage of monotheism. 



It would be impossible in the present work to follow, even 

 superficially, the numerous ramifications of action and reac- 

 tion, of effort and failure, of advance and retreat, that man 

 passed through, in order to reach the platform of monotheism. 

 Here also, as in all previous religious advances, the main lines 

 of progress were not planned out and performed by nations 

 or even groups of men, but almost invariably by one, or by 

 a few men, whose intense concentrated cogito-spiritic energy 

 influenced and moved larger and larger numbers of their fel- 

 lows. 



Many reasons and convergent lines of study seem to indi- 

 cate that transition from heliotheism to widespread mono- 

 theism was largely made from about 2000 to 400 B. C. This 

 took place in Iran or Medo-Persia, in Assyria, in Egypt, in 

 Palestine, and in Greece, at varying times during the above 

 period. It is well to bear in mind also here that — contrary 

 to past popular opinion — all of these places enjoyed constant 

 commercial intercourse with each other, or were constantlv 

 invading each other's territory, and so undergoing the vary- 

 ing fortunes of war. Captives taken in war would carry, 

 and we know did often cany, the religious views of their own 

 people amongst their conquerors. So the above wide area 

 common to western Asia, north-eastern Africa, and south- 

 eastern Europe became the fermenting and stimulating center 

 for further and higher religious advance. 



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