An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Religion

An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Religion is by Frank Byron Jevons, and its title page heads it The Hartford-Lamson Lectures on the Religions of the World. A note says the Hartford-Lamson Lectures on the Religions of the World are delivered at Hartford Theological Seminary and are designed primarily to give students a good knowledge of the religious history, beliefs, and customs of the peoples among whom they expect to labor. The text says that if, as Höffding believes, the word god originally meant he who is worshipped, and gods are worshipped by the community, then fetiches, as they are nowhere worshipped by the community, are in no case gods.

The text says prayer is a phenomenon in the history of religion to which the science of religion has devoted but little attention, the reason alleged being that it is so simple and familiar as not to demand detailed study. The text asks first whether the difference is so great, and next whether it is the real difference between fetichism and religion in the polytheistic stage. The text states that the difference in point of personality between the spirits of fetichism and the gods of polytheism is not absolute.