On Religion Considered in Its Source, Its Forms, and Its Developments

Constant worked on this study of humanity’s religious forms and development throughout his life, eventually publishing five volumes between 1824 and 1831. His aims were to relate religious forms to their historical contexts and civilizational developments, to show partisans of the new post-revolutionary order that the religious impulse was natural to the human heart, and to show religious reactionaries that history had left them behind and that the natural state of the religious sentiment was an unfettered “spirituality” left free to find new forms of expression.
On Religion Considered in Its Source, Its Forms, and Its Developments. Translated by Peter Paul Seaton Jr. Introduction by Pierre Manent (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2017).
Copyright:
The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.
People:
- Author: Benjamin Constant
- Translator: Peter Paul Seaton Jr.
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Table of Contents
- Contents
- Translator’s Note
- Introduction to On Religion*
- ON RELIGION
- Preface
- Notice to the Second Volume (1825)
- Notice to Volume Four (May 1830)
- Third Notice (October 1830)
- FIRST BOOK
- CHAPTER 1: On the Religious Sentiment
- CHAPTER 2: On the Necessity of Distinguishing the Religious Sentiment from Religious Forms in Order to Understand the Development of Religions
- CHAPTER 3: That the Moral Effect of Mythologies Proves the Distinction That We Just Established
- CHAPTER 4: That This Distinction Alone Explains Why Several Religious Forms Appear to Be Enemies of Liberty, While the Religious Sentiment Is Always Favorable to It
- CHAPTER 5: That the Triumph of Emerging Beliefs over Older Ones Is a Proof of the Difference between the Religious Sentiment and Religious Forms
- CHAPTER 6: On the Way in Which Religion Has Been Envisaged until Now
- CHAPTER 7: The Plan of the Work
- CHAPTER 8: Concerning Questions That Would Be a Necessary Part of a History of Religion but Are Irrelevant to Our Purpose
- CHAPTER 9: The Precautions That the Special Nature of Our Inquiry Obliged Us to Take
- BOOK II: ON THE CRUDEST FORM THAT RELIGIOUS IDEAS CAN ASSUME
- CHAPTER 1: The Method We Will Follow in This Book
- CHAPTER 2: On the Form the Religious Sentiment Takes On among the Primitive Savages
- CHAPTER 3: The Religious Sentiment’s Efforts to Rise above This Form
- CHAPTER 4: On the Ideas of Another Life in the Worship of Savages
- CHAPTER 5: On the Errors into Which Several Authors Have Fallen Because They Failed to Note the Struggle of the Religious Sentiment against the Form of Religion at This Period
- CHAPTER 6: On the Influence of Priests in the Primitive State
- CHAPTER 7: Consequences of the Influence of Jongleurs on the Worship of Savages
- CHAPTER 8: Why We Believed That We Needed to Write in Such Detail about the Worship of Savages
- BOOK III: ON THE CAUSES THAT FAVOR THE GROWTH OF PRIESTLY POWER FROM THE FIRST STEPS OF THE HUMAN RACE TOWARD CIVILIZATION
- CHAPTER 1: The Object of This Book
- CHAPTER 2: On the Social State That Is the Closest to the Savage State
- CHAPTER 3: On Causes That Could Contribute Only in a Secondary Manner to the Increase of Priestly Authority
- CHAPTER 4: On the Cause That, Whenever It Exists, Gives the Priesthood Much Power
- CHAPTER 5: Facts That Support the Previous Assertions
- CHAPTER 6: On Two Apparent Exceptions
- CHAPTER 7: On the Variety in the Organization and Forms of Priestly Authority
- CHAPTER 8: On the Division into Castes
- CHAPTER 9: On Priestly Corporations Replacing Castes
- CHAPTER 10: On the Various Competences of the Priesthood among the Nations It Dominated
- BOOK IV: ON THE INFLUENCE OF SECONDARY CAUSES ON THE EXTENT OF PRIESTLY POWER
- CHAPTER 1: An Enumeration of These Causes
- CHAPTER 2: On Climate
- CHAPTER 3: On the Fertility or Sterility of the Soil
- CHAPTER 4: On the Necessity of Material Works and Products for the Physical Existence of Societies
- CHAPTER 5: On the Phenomena That Engender Astonishment or Terror
- CHAPTER 6: The Influence of the Character and Customary Occupations of Peoples
- CHAPTER 7: On the Effect of Great Political Calamities
- CHAPTER 8: On the Effect of Migrations
- CHAPTER 9: On the Struggle of Political and Military Power against the Priestly Power
- CHAPTER 10: Continuation of the Same Subject
- CHAPTER 11: A Necessary Explanation of What We Just Said about the Jews
- CHAPTER 12: That the Struggle between the Priesthood and the Temporal Authority Must End to the Advantage of the First, as Soon as the Principle of Priestly Authority Is Admitted
- CHAPTER 13: The Summary of the Foregoing
- BOOK V: ON THE PRIESTHOOD’S SMALL AMOUNT OF AUTHORITY AMONG PEOPLES WHO WORSHIPPED NEITHER THE STARS NOR THE ELEMENTS
- CHAPTER 1: That the Little Authority Priests Have among Nations That Do Not Have the Worship of Stars Is Demonstrated by the History of the First Times of Greece
- CHAPTER 2: That It Is Nonetheless Possible That at a Time Prior to the Heroic Age the Greeks Had Been Enslaved by Priestly Corporations
- CHAPTER 3: On the Religion and the Priesthood of the Earliest Times of the Greek, According to the Testimony of Greek Historians
- CHAPTER 4: On the Influence of Colonies on the Social State and Religion of the Greeks
- CHAPTER 5: On the Modifications the Independent Spirit of Greece Always Caused in What Came from Elsewhere
- CHAPTER 6: The True Elements of Greek Polytheism
- CHAPTER 7: The Results
- BOOK VI: THE CONSTITUTIVE ELEMENTS OF PRIESTLY POLYTHEISM
- CHAPTER 1: On the Combination of the Worship of Elements and the Stars with That of Fetishes
- CHAPTER 2: On the Popular Part of Priestly Polytheism
- CHAPTER 3: On the Secret Doctrine of the Priestly Bodies of Antiquity
- CHAPTER 4: Example of the Foregoing Combination in the Egyptians
- CHAPTER 5: Example of the Same Combination in the Religion of India
- CHAPTER 6: On the Causes That Modified This Combination in India, without, However, Winning the Day against the Priesthood
- CHAPTER 7: That We Would Be Able to Find Examples of the Same Combination among All the Peoples Subject to Priests
- BOOK VII: ON THE ELEMENTS THAT CONSTITUTE POLYTHEISM INDEPENDENT OF PRIESTLY DIRECTION
- CHAPTER 1: That the Combination Described in the Previous Book Is Alien to the Polytheism That Is Not Subject to Priests
- CHAPTER 2: On the State of the Greeks in the Barbaric or Heroic Times
- CHAPTER 3: On Some Questions That Must Be Resolved before Proceeding Further in Our Investigations
- CHAPTER 4: The Point of View under Which We Will Envisage the Polytheism of the Heroic Times
- CHAPTER 5: The Embellishment of Divine Forms in Homeric Polytheism
- CHAPTER 6: On the Character of the Homeric Gods
- CHAPTER 7: On the Greek Notions concerning Destiny
- CHAPTER 8: On the Means Employed by the Greeks to Penetrate the Secrets of Destiny
- CHAPTER 9: On the Greeks’ Notions of the Other Life
- CHAPTER 10: On the Efforts of the Religious Sentiment to Rise above the Religious Form We Just Described
- BOOK VIII: A NECESSARY DIGRESSION ON THE POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO HOMER
- CHAPTER 1: That the Religion of the Odyssey Belongs to Another Epoch Than That of the Iliad
- CHAPTER 2: A Question That Results from the Previous Observations
- CHAPTER 3: That the Composition of the Odyssey, and Hence Its Mythology, Belong to a Period after That of the Iliad
- CHAPTER 4: Conclusion
- BOOK IX: ON THE PRIESTLY RELIGIONS COMPARED WITH INDEPENDENT POLYTHEISM
- CHAPTER 1: The Purpose of This Book
- CHAPTER 2: On the Form of the Gods in the Priestly Religions
- CHAPTER 3: On the Character of the Gods in the Priestly Religions
- CHAPTER 4: On a Singular Notion Whose Traces Are Found in Greek Religion, but Which Is Found Developed and Reduced to a Dogma in Priestly Religions
- CHAPTER 5: On Priestly Notions of Destiny
- CHAPTER 6: On the Priestly Means of Communication with the Gods in Sacerdotal Religions
- CHAPTER 7: On the Notions of the Future Life in Religions Dominated by Priests
- CHAPTER 8: On the Abodes of the Dead, and the Description of Infernal Torments, in Priestly Religions
- CHAPTER 9: On Metempsychosis
- BOOK X: ON THE TEACHINGS PECULIAR TO PRIESTLY POLYTHEISM
- CHAPTER 1: The Object of This Book
- CHAPTER 2: On the Supremacy of One God over the Others in the Priestly Religions
- CHAPTER 3: On the Inferior Gods or the Priestly Demonology
- CHAPTER 4: On Malevolent Divinities
- CHAPTER 5: Consequences of This Teaching in the Priestly Religions
- CHAPTER 6: On the Notion of an Original Fall1
- CHAPTER 7: On a Mediating God
- CHAPTER 8: On Triple or Ternary Divinities
- CHAPTER 9: On the Doctrine of the Destruction of the World
- CHAPTER 10: On the Phallus, the Lingam, and Hermaphroditic Deities1
- BOOK XI: ON THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF PRIESTLY RELIGIONS
- CHAPTER 1: Exposition of This Principle
- CHAPTER 2: On Human Sacrifices
- CHAPTER 3: On Privations against Nature
- CHAPTER 4: On Licentious Rituals
- CHAPTER 5: On the Sanctity of Pain
- CHAPTER 6: On Some Doctrines That Could Have Been Introduced into the Priestly Religions as Consequences of Those We Just Discussed
- CHAPTER 7: A Demonstration of the Previous Assertions, Drawn from the Composition of the Polytheism of Ancient Rome
- BOOK XII: ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDEPENDENT POLYTHEISM TO ITS HIGHEST POINT OF PERFECTION1
- CHAPTER 1: How the Progress of the Social State Introduces Morality into Religion
- CHAPTER 2: On the Contradictions That Characterize This Period of Polytheism, and the Way in Which These Contradictions Disappear
- CHAPTER 3: That the Poems of Hesiod Are Contemporaneous with the Revolution We Are Describing
- CHAPTER 4: On Pindar1
- CHAPTER 5: On the Underworld of Pindar Compared with That of Homer and Hesiod
- CHAPTER 6: That the Same Progression Can Be Seen in the Historians
- CHAPTER 7: Of the Same Progression among the Greek Tragedians
- CHAPTER 8: On Euripides
- CHAPTER 9: A Few Words on Aristophanes
- CHAPTER 10: Why We Do Not Speak Here of the Greek Philosophers
- CHAPTER 11: On the Relations of Morality with the Two Religious Forms
- CHAPTER 12: On the True Relations of Religion with Morality
- BOOK XIII: THAT THE GREEK MYSTERY CULTS WERE INSTITUTIONS BORROWED FROM FOREIGN PRIESTHOODS, AND WHICH, WHILE CONTRADICTING THE PUBLIC RELIGION, DID NOT MODIFY IT AT ALL IN ITS POPULAR PORTION
- CHAPTER 1: How Much the Subject of This Book Is Beset with Difficulties
- CHAPTER 2: What the Mystery Cults Were among the Nations Subject to Priests
- CHAPTER 3: How These Mysteries Were Transported into Greece, and What They Became
- CHAPTER 4: The Conformity of the Teachings of the Greek Mysteries with the Priestly Rituals and Teachings
- CHAPTER 5: On the Spirit That Reigned in the Mysteries
- CHAPTER 6: Summary of the Composition of the Greek Mysteries
- CHAPTER 7: On Gradual Initiations, as the Initiation into the Priestly Hierarchy
- CHAPTER 8: On the Real Object of the Mysteries
- CHAPTER 9: On the Explanations That Have Been Given of the Mysteries
- CHAPTER 10: That Our Way of Envisaging the Mystery Cults Alone Explains the Often Contradictory Attitude of the Greeks toward These Institutions
- BOOK XIV: ON THE SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION, AND ON THE REVOLUTION THAT SUBSTITUTED A PRIESTLY BELIEF FOR INDEPENDENT POLYTHEISM IN SCANDINAVIA
- CHAPTER 1: Preliminary Observation
- CHAPTER 2: How the Scandinavians Passed from Fetishism to Polytheism
- CHAPTER 3: Revolution in the Scandinavian Polytheism
- CHAPTER 4: That the Question Whether There Was a Third Religious Revolution in Scandinavia Is Irrelevant to Our Subject
- CHAPTER 5: That the Two Revolutions of Scandinavian Polytheism Confirm Our Assertions Concerning the Nature and Differences between the Two Polytheisms
- BOOK XV: RESULTS OF THE WORK
- CHAPTER 1: Question to Resolve
- CHAPTER 2: On the Disadvantages of the Principle of Stasis, Even in the Religions That Do Not Confer an Unlimited Power on the Priesthood
- CHAPTER 3: That the Purity of Doctrine Diminishes Nothing in the Dangers of the Principle of Stasis in Religion
- CHAPTER 4: How Harmful to Religion Itself Is Every Obstacle to Its Progressive Perfectibility