To start
with, we
have the primitive religions in which there is a vague sense of the Divine Spirit all
around, but no clear sense of moral or spiritual values. Fetishism, totemism, animism and
ancestor worship - all belong to the childhood of the race and are still
practiced by
tribes who have not
outgrown their spiritual infancy. After the awakening of the racial soul, comes the long
process of purification in which the emerging ethical values are carefully conserved.This stage gives rise to the so called ethical religions of the world
Taoism, Southern Buddhism and Jainism. In these religions a code of ethics is all in all.
Other religions also have their codes of ethics, but they subordinate them to their faith
in God. The next stage in the development of the racial soul is one of love and worship,
and it gives rise to the so-called theistically religions of the world, all of which
recognize a source of light and life, between which and the aspiring soul an ethical and
emotional relation is established. |
