RELIGIONS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 441 



upon man and society are made tributary to the history of religion. 

 Psychology, individual and social, anthropology and ethnology, 

 archaeology, social, political, and economic history, as well as litera- 

 ture, are consulted, for it is recognized that nothing which affects 

 man's life, inner or outer, is devoid of influence on his religion. It 

 has also become clearer, in the course of investigation and discussion, 

 that the study of religions is a purely historical discipline, to be 

 pursued by strict historical methods. By confining itself to its proper 

 task it will lay the securer foundations for a philosophy of religion. 

 For this reason objection may properly be made to the name " Science 

 of Religion," introduced by Max Miiller, and adopted by many, for 

 example, by Tiele in his Gifford Lectures. The term "science," by 

 its correspondence to "Science of Language," suggests, to the 

 English reader at least (and was, I think, intended to suggest), a 

 method and a goal different from those which we regard as properly 

 historical; a search for principles and laws such as belong to the 

 natural sciences and to certain philosophical conceptions of history, 

 Hegelian or Positivist. The influence of this idea may be seen in the 

 attempted classifications of religions, whether Miiller's own (artificial) 

 linguistic classification, or Tiele's "morphological," and in intent 

 genetic, system. Asserting the scientific character of all rightly 

 conducted historical investigation, we have no reason to emphasize 

 it specially in the case of the history of religions, and do better to 

 disuse a term which is either a truism or an error. 



It remains to speak briefly of the place which the history of 

 religions has made for itself in the world of learning. 1 The conscious- 

 ness that a new and important field of knowledge had been opened 

 by the discoveries of religious literatures and monuments in the 

 nineteenth century manifested itself in various ways. In Holland a 

 series of volumes, in the sixties, on the leading religions of the world, 

 including Judaism and Christianity, from a purely historical point of 

 view, was followed, in the reorganization of the theological faculties 

 of the state universities in 1877, by the establishment of chairs of 

 the history and philosophy of religion, of which that at Leiden was 

 filled by Tiele; 2 while a corresponding chair in the city University 

 of Amsterdam was occupied by Chantepie de la Saussaye. 3 In 

 France a professorship of the history of religions in the College de 

 France was founded in 1879, and has been filled since that time by 



1 See on the following, A. Re"ville, "La Situation Actuelle de 1'Enseignement de 

 1'Histoire des Religions," Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, XLIII, 1901, 58 ff. 



2 Tiele, C. P., Geschiednis van den Godsdienst in de Oudhcid tot op Alexander 

 den Groote, 1893, 1902, 2 vols. ; German translation by G. Gehrich, Geschichte 

 der Religion im Alterthum, 1895 sqq. ; Elements of the Science of Religion, 1897, 

 1899, 2 vols. (Gifford Lectures). 



3 Chantepie de la Saussaye, P. D., Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, 1887-89, 

 2 vols. 2d ed. (with the cooperation of a number of scholars), 1897, 2 vols. 



