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BOOK REVIEWS
THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND'
For a long time to come it will be a daring feat for any single man
to write a history of the religions of the world. When one remembers
the vast array of scholars who have labored in the fields of documentary
criticism, history, and doctrine to achieve what we know of the develop-
ment of Christianity, the task before the writer who would deal with all
religions seems appalling. Why not then a co-operative work done by
a group of specialists? The answer is that there is no such group of
specialists who are sufficiently agreed on method to make their work a
unity. Until that consensus as to method is achieved we shall be
grateful that individual scholars like Professor Soper are brave enough
to undertake the task. His work deals with all the great living religions
as well as those of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. It is
delightfully easy to read and has the great virtue of clarity. Most
writers of history of religions get lost in the forest of facts, confuse and
weary the reader, so that the main line of the religious development is
lost. Professor Soper avoids that danger and has produced a work
which is probably the best in English for the beginner in the field.
One questions the advisability of including the chapter on "animistic
religion." Certainly it should not be under that antiquated Tylorean
title, but "primitive religion," the author notes, is no better. As a
matter of fact there is no such thing as animistic or primitive religion
which can be described in one sweeping picture. Perhaps "Beginnings
of Religion" might be a better title, but then does not the subject belong
to the psychology rather than to the history of religion ? Magic, taboo,
fetishism, totemism, sacrifice, are not precisely the same in all religious
groups and the historical thing would seem to be to deal with them as they
appear, carrying their peculiar meaning, in the story of the beginning
of each religious development.
A serious defect of the book is that the religions are interpreted too
much in terms of gods, beliefs, and ideas, rather than in terms of social
situations. Religion is rooted in life; and gods, cult, and creeds emerge
as a people solves its life problems. The history of a religion should
' The Religions of Mankind. Edmund Davison Soper. New York: Abingdon
Press, 1921. 344 pages. $3.00.
6sa
BOOK REVIEWS 653
follow the developing social life, its interests, needs, and problems and
show how their satisfaction, solution, or frustration produced the char-
acteristic religious forms and beUefs of the people. Only so is it possible
to understand their joy in a religion different from that of other peoples.
This probably accounts for the fact that the author condemns some
things and often regrets that other religions did not achieve the exalted
ideas of God and salvation attained in Christianity. The reason is in
the social situation and the task of the historian of religion is to under-
stand it.
Professor Soper has chosen deliberately to give to his book an apolo-
getic cast in the interest of Christianity as he interprets it. His philoso-
phic presupposition is that God has been progressively revealing himself
to the peoples as they were able to receive the truth and that he has
revealed himself most completely in Jesus Christ. There can be no
objection to this position if one is writing apologetics. It is just so
that modern Buddhist and Moslem writers are presenting their own reli-
gions. But for all things there is a time — a time for apologetics and a
time for history of religions. They do not belong together. The sacred
duty of the scientific student of religions is not to pity, nor to preach,
nor to condemn, but to understand and to interpret. And yet, in spite
of its apologetics, which may indeed commend it to the general reader, the
Christian pastor, and beginning students to whom it is addressed, the
book is a welcome addition to the literature of the science.
A. Eustace Haydon
UNrVERSITY OF CHICAGO
ISRAEL AND EGYPT'
This is the work of a busy pastor in Glasgow. The amount of labor
that has gone into the making of this book is amazing. Mr. Knight
has read almost everything of importance upon the subject and he has
reported his reading accurately. The care that is shown in the proof-
reading is typical of the whole work. The book is a veritable mine of
information upon Egypt and Palestine and will constitute a monument
to the diligence of the author.
The historical value of this book is open to serious question. The
reviewer will not concern himself with its contribution to the history of
Egypt, except to point out that Mr. Knight takes Petrie as his guide for
^Nile and Jordan. An Archaeological History of the Inter-Rdations between
Egypt and Palestine from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Jerusalem in A .D. •jo. G. A.
Frank Knight. London: James Clarke and Co., 1921. 3di-l-572 pages. 5 maps. 36^.
