RATIONALISM AND IDEA OF GOD 211 



of man which is not spun round with religious emotion 

 and ritual. Very often the idea of God has not in 

 this stage been clearly formulated ; there is simply 

 a notion oi power ^ of mysterious influence, sometimes 

 partly crystallized round a primitive deity. Later, 

 however, the power became frankly anthropomorphic, 

 and Gods came into being — many or one. Man 

 had projected the idea of that active agency he knew 

 best — human personality — into his idea of cosmic 

 powers. 



Into the God thus fashioned there are always pro- 

 jected, to greater or less degree, the ideals of the 

 community ; and thus, at a certain stage of develop- 

 ment, we find definitely tribal Gods. Here the 

 biological function of Gods becomes extremely 

 obvious. The God, by his inspired prophets and 

 priests, orders the destruction of his rivals — the felse 

 Gods of neighbouring tribes — or of his enemies, the 

 members of those tribes. 



The people of the tribe, however the result may 

 have been brought about, do as a matter of fact find 

 themselves, all unconsciously, caught up in the system 

 which they and their forefathers have made. They 

 have fashioned their God so that their inmost life 

 is joined to him. When they sin, they fear him ; 

 when they look into their own hearts to take stock 

 of their ultimate ideals, they find that these are 

 attached, through the impalpable but infinitely re- 

 sistant fibres of tradition, of childish memory and of 



