The Project Gutenberg eBook, History of Religion, by Allan Menzies

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Title: History of Religion
A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems

Author: Allan Menzies

Release Date: September 2, 2009 [eBook #29893]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RELIGION***

E-text prepared by Ron Swanson

HISTORY OF RELIGION

A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the
Origin and Character of the Great Systems

by

ALLAN MENZIES, D.D.

Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of St. Andrews

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the
world.--ACTS xv. 18.

New York
Charles Scribner's Sons
597-599 Fifth Avenue
1917

FIRST EDITION . . . _April_ 1895
SECOND EDITION . . _September_ 1895
_Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1897
_Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1900
_Reprinted_ . . . . _January_ 1902
_Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1903
_Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1905
THIRD EDITION . . . _January_ 1908
FOURTH EDITION . . _September_ 1911
_Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1914
_Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1918

PREFACE

This book makes no pretence to be a guide to all the mythologies, or
to all the religious practices which have prevailed in the world. It
is intended to aid the student who desires to obtain a general idea
of comparative religion, by exhibiting the subject as a connected and
organic whole, and by indicating the leading points of view from
which each of the great systems may best be understood. A certain
amount of discussion is employed in order to bring clearly before the
reader the great motives and ideas by which the various religions are
inspired, and the movements of thought which they present. And the
attempt is made to exhibit the great manifestations of human piety in
their genealogical connection. The writer has ventured to deal with
the religions of the Bible, each in its proper historical place, and
trusts that he has not by doing so rendered any disservice either to
Christian faith or to the science of religion.