GOD AND THE WORLD. 283 



glance at the most important forms of the belief and 

 their relation to the modern thought that has been 

 evoked by a sound study of nature. For further 

 information on this interesting question the reader 

 would do well to consult the distinguished work of 

 Adalbert Svoboda, Forms of Faith (1897). 



When we pass over the finer shades and the 

 variegated clothing of the God-idea and confine our 

 attention to its chief element, we can distribute all 

 the different presentations of it in two groups — the 

 theistic and pantheistic group. The latter is closely 

 connected with the monistic, or rational, view of 

 things, and the former is associated with dualism and 

 mysticism. 



I. THEISM. 



In this view God is distinct from, and opposed to, 

 the world as its creator, sustainer, and ruler. He is 

 always conceived in a more or less human form, as an 

 organism which thinks and acts like a man — only on 

 a much higher scale. This anthropomorphic God, 

 polyphyletically evolved by the different races, 

 assumes an infinity of shapes in their imagination, 

 from fetichism to the refined monotheistic religions 

 of the present day. The chief forms of theism are 

 polytheism, triplotheism, amphitheism, and mono- 

 theism. 



The polytheist peoples the world with a variety of 

 gods and goddesses, which enter into its machinery 

 more or less independently. Fetichism sees such 

 subordinate deities in the lifeless bodies of nature, in 

 rocks, in water, in the air, in human productions of 

 every kind (pictures, statues, etc.). Demonism sees 



