The Devil in Faith and History

The origin of religion has been explained in terms both of monotheism and polytheism. Mankind, according to the first theory, personified as a single being the creative and controlling power manifest in the universe, locating it in the sky as a “High God.” The polytheistic explanation is based on the assumption of a primitive animism, whereby the diverse manifestations of power in the world are assigned to many sources—hence many gods.

Which of these interpretations is the sounder, or whether some other theory is more likely, cannot be debated here. But we may remark that, however he has sought to explain the world in which he finds himself, man has to account for the existence within it of both a good, creative and an evil, destructive force. A survey of the many, and often strange, forms in which he has tried to do this is intrinsically interesting, and it repays study for the insight it affords into the mental and emotional bases of the great historic cultures of our race.

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