The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life Synopsis

Excerpt from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life: A Study in Religious Sociology

In reality, then, there are no religions which are false. All are true in their own fashion all answer, though in different ways, to the given conditions of human existence. It is undeniably possible to arrange them in a hierarchy. Some can be called superior to others, in the sense that they call into play higher mental functions, that they are richer in ideas and sentiments, that they contain more concepts with fewer sensations and images, and that their arrangement is wiser. But howsoever real this greater complexity and this higher ideality may be, they are not sufficient to place the corresponding religions in different classes. All are religions equally, just as all living beings are equally alive, from the most humble plastids up to man. So when we turn to primitive religions it is not with the idea of depreciating. Religion in general, for these religions are no less respectable than the others. They respond to the same needs, they play the same role, they depend upon the same causes; they can also well serve_ to show the nature of the religious life, and consequently to resolve the problem which we wish to study.

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