The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion

The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion (1909)
by James Henry Leuba

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347069The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion1909James Henry Leuba

Preface edit

This little book, the last of a series of similar volumes each containing an exposition by a recognised authority of one of the many Religions the world has known, might have been put with as much propriety at the head of the series, there to show how Religion originated in the mind of man, what mental powers it presupposes, what is its nature and what its relation to the non-religious life. But one is, no doubt, better able to take up profitably these problems after having familiarised oneself with the several aspects of religious life. Therefore The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion was placed at the end, where it fulfils the additional purpose of linking the concluded series of Histories of Religions with a cognate one, now being prepared by the same publishers, on Ancient and Modern Systems of Philosophy.

CONTENTS edit

CHAP.

I.	The Fundamental Nature of Religion
II.	Three Types of Behaviour Differentiated
III.	Origin of the Ideas of Ghosts, Nature-Beings, and Gods
IV.	Magic and Religion
V.	The Original Emotion of Primitive Religious Life
VI.	Concluding Remarks on the Nature and the Function of Religion

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1946, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 77 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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