Manual of the Science of Religion

ligions: ' He who knows one, knows none,' may rather exaggerate its value, but it is certainly true that the eye which has been sharpened, through a comparative study of religions, can better realise the religious idea of Christianity, and that the history of Christianity can only be rightly understood when one has studied the non-Christian religions from which Christianity borrows so much, or to which it stands in sharp opposition1. Finally, missionaries cannot possibly do good work without having studied this subject. Chapier 2.? The Science of Religion and the Theory of Evolution. Books of Reference. This question is touched on or thoroughly treated in almost all philosophical and historical books of modern times. We shall here only mention a few of the numerous smaller writings and treatises devoted to it. First of all what Max Mih.LER wrote against Darwin in his Chips (Essays), IV ; then L. Noire, Max Miiller und die Sprachphilosophie (1879); L. Geiger, Zur Ent- wicklungsgeschichte der Menschheit (Lectures, 1871) ; M. Lazarus, Ueher die Ideen in der Geschichte (1872); C. P. Tielr, Over de wetten der ontwikkeling van den godsdienst (Theol. Tijdschrift, 1874) ; J. I. Doedes, De toepassing van de ontwikkelingstheorie niet aan te bevelen voor de geschiedenis der godsdiensten (1874). Already in the last century Hume pointed out the necessity of a natural history of religion2. This ideahas been carried out more consistently and more completely in our own time, u...