RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Heart, Biblical Usage Heathenism
monotheism. Yet the conception and the expression " god " is earlier than the polytheistic systems
historically known. The culture of
3. The the Indo-Germanic peoples before
Deities their separation was certainly higher
of than that of many tribes of the present,
Polytheism, and they already had the word (and
therefore the conception). Indeed, besides the word deva in its various forms, Persians and Slavs had the form baga or bogu," lord," while Indians and Iranians had asura, ahura, " the living." Semitic peoples had several names for " god," the most common of which was el or il (see Elohim), the etymology of which is uncertain, while " lord " or " king " was used both for " god " and " God." Similarly the civilization of Central America had an expression for " god." But in these cases it can not be determined what the original conception was, though the probability is that it expressed not so much the being of deity as the relation of that deity to man; it was not abstract, but concrete, denoting a personal power upon which man felt himself dependent, yet possessing the ability to approach. Sometimes this appears as the relation of lord and subject; again the expression implies participation in the forms of nature, as in the case of deva, " light," which brings out the contrast employed in Indo- Germanic and other religions between light and darkness. Yet the material for adequate knowledge is lacking, as Indo-Germanic language has furnished few words which can be accepted as original names of deities; indeed the Sanskrit Dyaus pitar, Gk. Zeus pater, Lat. Juppiter or Diespiter are almost alone, and express the idea of the heaven-god. In other religions also the god of the heaven appears to be the earliest, and in later times the chief deity. The original Indo-Germanic deities must have been few, though comparison of Iranian and Indian conceptions shows a larger number common to both, but with many changes introduced. Dyaus is in India replaced by Varuna, in Persia by Ahura Mazda, " the living " or " wise lord," and alongside this highest god in both countries are six other deities closely connected with him. In historic times all the Indo-Germanic peoples developed rich pantheons which included not only nature deities, but personifications of ethical and religious ideas. Even in the Vedas the original nature sources of some of the deities are partly forgotten in an ethical or religious relationship, and this is true of the other branches of the family in historic times. Even in the case of original nature deities it may not be held that that was the only idea present and that no ethical relations were conceived ; indeed the ethical was often a result of the phase of natural relationship to the world represented by a particular deity, as in the case of a god of light who battled with the powers of darkness. Polytheism seems to have come about through gaining in nature a conception of deity followed by a
differentiation of natural phenomena
4- Develop- and specialization of functions of the
ment of powers conceived as producing them.
Polytheism. This is confirmed by the fact that often
several gods are found connected with the same phenomena, as when in India, Surya, Pushan, Vishnu, Tvashtar, Savitar, and Vivasvant
are all connected with the sun. Further development comes in the unfolding of purely ethical conceptions into deities which had no relationship to natural phenomena. It has been objected to this that such a development would lead to the worship of all the gods of a circle in any given place or time, whereas historically, as among the Greeks, only certain of the gods were honored in any one city. Then polytheism is the result of a syncretism of varied cults brought about through extraneous political or other circumstances, which later involved a partition of the realms of nature among the several deities. But comparison shows that the condition in historic times among Greeks, Slavs, Egyptians, Babylonians, and others was due to differentiation in an original system of deities. The first tendency of polytheism then is not toward monotheism, but away from it. Purely ethical ideas of the being of the gods are not a consequence of polytheism, but rather exist in spite of it. Religious feeling demanded of its gods omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, righteousness, and holiness, attributes which the cults show were originally given to them, for the possibility of a cult is dependent upon the omnipresence of the deity, through which men can have access to him. And so with the other attributes of deity. The religious mode of viewing things appears in the fact that to the highest god absolute deity is attributed, while many times the other deities are creations. Polytheism seems to reveal not a development to higher views, but a coarsening of conceptions. Most polytheistic religions set apart special places for the worship of deities through sacred symbols or images. Originally these were but external expressions of the presence of deity, but for the majority they became deity itself, and were so worshiped, examples of which are given in the image-worship of Roman Catholic peoples, among Greeks and Romans of the first century of our era, and in modern Brahmanism. Sacrifice, originally an expression of dependence, became a means of magic, and the entire cult is hardly distinguishable from fetishism and shamanism.
A further matter of importance is the development
of myth in the polytheistic religions. Myth is the
setting forth of occurrences and opera-
5. Mythol- tions of nature in the guise of the
ogy and events and happenings of divine or Star- semidivine persons, so far as these
Worship, have religious meanings, or at least are brought into connection with religious conceptions and usages (see Comparative Religion, VI., 1, a, §§ 7-8). Myth is not to be confused with the saga, which often means what has developed out of the myth, and has to do with heroes rather than with deities. The myth is generally an article of faith, which the saga is not, at least in the religious sense. The characteristic of the myth is its anthropomorphism carried over to the domain of nature, so that operations in that sphere appear as the acts of persons with the feeling and methods of men, as when the storm is pictured as the battle of a deity with the cloud-demons. Myth stands in close relationship with polytheism, and has undergone the same development; as the gods
Heathenism Heaven