(Chiefly in and after the Eighteenth Century and Affected 1. DIVERGENCE OF CHRISTIAN AND IROQUOIS POINTS OF VIEW Disappearance of some Great Deities; the White Dog Feast.. Iroquois notions concerning :-Good and Evil, Heaven, Hell, Sin and Confession, Prayer, Baptism CHAPTER I. THE SETTING. INTRODUCTION. CENTURIES ago teachers of religion explained the relation of religion and morals by declaring that, as God had revealed, the way to salvation lay through earthly conduct. They approached their problem from a distinctly super-earthly point of view and they worked out their solution by means of the inspirational method. In recent years both a different point of view and a different method have been suggested because of the results obtained in such fields of social science as ethnology, anthropology and sociology. Students of religion and of morals have become aware not merely of the fact that, whether civilized or uncivilized, groups other than their own have genuine religions and moralities, but they have become aware also of the fact that the religions and moralities of civilized peoples have been influenced by the religions and moralities of such other groups. Consequently these students see the problem from a point of view characterized best perhaps as social, and attempt to work out a solution by means of the historical and comparative methods. Investigations by these methods were made rarely before the present generation because the worker in the field of religion or of morals has had to depend upon the results of the labors of his fellows in the allied fields of social science; and these fellow-laborers have got but recently beyond their own pioneer days. It comes about therefore that at present he who seeks light upon the relation of religion and morals can find little. If he turn to the periodicals he may meet from time to time a brief article that endeavors to support, with only the evidence that a few pages can contain, some conclusions regarding the relation of religion and morals among numerous, as well as various, human groups. The scarcity of pertinent, periodical articles before the present century is indicated by a bibliography for the last decade of the nineteenth century, entitled "Subject Index to Periodical Articles on Religion" and compiled by E. C. Richardson. Under the headings "Religion" and "Ethics" are mentioned as many as fifty different articles that deal with the relation of these activities; but of these fifty only two deal with the relation in that detached, scientific manner now so necessary. These two were written a generation ago by Professor C. H. Toy, one on "Ethics and Religion "1 and the other on "The Religious Element in Ethical Codes." Professor Toy discusses briefly the relation of religion and morals among many peoples and gives some evidence that supports his views. He affirms that there was a time when religion and ethics were practically identical, and furthermore that religion appears in the field of ethics as a sanction. These two conclusions are of interest because subsequent writers repeat them in order often to deny the first and generally to accept the second. If the inquirer turns to the periodicals of this century he will find some noteworthy articles. In the American Anthropologist for 19103 is a ten page article by A. L. Kroeber on "The Morals of Uncivilized People" of which three pages are given to the problem of the relation of religion and morals. To Dr. Kroeber religion seems to have no inherent connection with morals, but both usually become associated intimately; for savages who have definite relations with the gods have also definite obligations. They have things to do or not to do. They have obligations, in other words, analogous to those we owe our fellows and therefore have obligations that are, or are very similar to, ethical obligations. In Folk-Lore for 1915 appeared an article, about twice as long as that by Dr. Kroeber, on "The Religious Basis of Social Union." In this summary Dr. F. W. Bussell searches for the historical basis of social groupings among savages and in civilized communities. He is sure that a study of social organizations will reveal the fact that, whatever their form or conception, in the past there has lain in them some vaguely religious thought such as that of ancestral spirits, or of the 1 Pop. Sci. Mon., XXXVI (1889-90), 727-744. 2 Int. Jour. Ethics, I (1890-91), 289–311. 3 N. s., XII, 437 sq. 4 XXVI, 339-357. |