The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Theology: An
Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry Huxley

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Title: The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"

Author: Thomas Henry Huxley

Posting Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #2634]
Release Date: May, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY

ESSAY #8 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION"

By Thomas Henry Huxley

I conceive that the origin, the growth, the decline, and the fall
of those speculations respecting 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 anaesthetics for those who find the pains of life too
hard to bear, I have nothing to do; and, so far as it may be possible,
I shall avoid the expression of any opinion as to the objective truth or
falsehood of the systems of theological speculation of which I may find
occasion to speak. From my present point of view, theology is regarded
as a natural product of the operations of the human mind, under the
conditions of its existence, just as any other branch of science, or
the arts of architecture, or music, or painting are such products. Like
them, theology has a history. Like them also, it is to be met with in
certain simple and rudimentary forms; and these can be connected by a
multitude of gradations, which exist or have existed, among people of
various ages and races, with the most highly developed theologies of
past