VIII 



THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY : AN 

 ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY 



[1886] 



I CONCEIVE that the origin, the growth, the 

 decline, and the fall of those speculations re- 

 specting 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 anesthetics for those who find the 

 pains of life too hard to bear, I have nothing to 



