The Old Testament in World Religion

Abstract

"HOW did religion begin? As a pure monotheismor as a dim terror of the unknown and the " uncanny " ? We do not know, and speculation, while interesting, does not really help us much when we are trying to consider its actual history. Probably many elements have contributed to its structure, arid none of them can be described strictly as being its source. But there is comparatively little doubt as to the most primitive form in which we may actually know it, whether from history or from existing beliefs. We cannot go back, with any degree of confidence, behind an animism. Properly speaking even this, in its strictest form, has nowhere survived"