What we now call the Christian religion existed amongst the ancients, and was from the beginning of the human race, until Christ Himself came in the flesh; from which time the already existing true religion began to be styled Christian.
— Saint Augustine, Retractationes, I, xiii, 3
Most modern historians of religion disagree with Augustine. The very title of Religion in Human Evolution, the recent magisterial magnum opus of that archon of latter day sociology of religion, the late Robert N. Bellah, aptly indicates their perfectly contrary hypothesis: that monotheism is a late development in a long process of evolution from early and metaphysically confused animism, nature worship, magic, ancestor worship, or the like. Their presumption seems to be that early man was rather dim, compared to themselves, and that any abstract notion he had not derived rather immediately from the rudimentary components of his everyday life was quite beyond him.
But this is of course only a prejudice. As Paul Radin pointed out in Primitive Man as Philosopher, we have on the contrary good reason to think that our earliest ancestors were just as intelligent and percipient as we are.
In his own masterful review of the discipline of the history of religion, The Origin and Growth of Religion: Facts and Theories, Wilhelm Schmidt demonstrates by a survey of the most primitive cultures all over the globe that the first religion of man is in fact monotheism.
Almost the whole of his book is taken up with a history of his own discipline, explaining how each theory of the origin of religion gave way to the next over the last 200 years, evaluating the methods, proposals and arguments of the various scholars and their schools, and testing them against the facts. He finds they fall all short, because they almost all fail to examine the historical evidence furnished by the most primitive tribes. He does not dispute that there has been evolution in religion, but insists that an assessment of the most primitive societies indicates that it rather started with monotheism than ended with it.
Only in the last few pages of the book does he provide a précis of the religion of early man as it is still to be found in cultures which have changed the least since human beginnings. Despite their complete and quite distant geographical separation, these cultures manifest a remarkable unanimity of doctrine: they are without exception monotheistic, believing in a Most High God, who is the God of all gods. While they often to be sure credit the existence of all manner of supernatural beings, they all who do believe also that such beings are the creatures and subjects of a High God, than whom there is no greater.
What then is the religion of Adam? Here follows an outline of Schmidt’s last chapters, which describes the features that the religions of the most primitive peoples hold in common, and which lends remarkable support to Augustine’s thesis.
The Habitation, Form and Name of the Primitive Supreme Being
- One class of testimonies suggest that the Supreme Being is without form.
- A second class suggest that he is like a man.
- The third suggests that he is white or shining or like fire in appearance.
- Among most peoples it is said that he used formerly to live on earth with men, whom he taught all manner of good and instructed in their social and moral laws.
- Among practically all peoples of the primitive culture [it] is propounded that he left the earth, generally because of some sin of mankind, and went up to heaven, where he now lives.
- Lightning is very often represented as his weapon, thunder or the roaring and whistling of storm as the expressions of his anger.
- “Father” is applied to the Supreme Being in all primitive cultures.
- “Creator” is next most widely distributed.
- Many call him by his abode: Sky or Heaven.
- He is also known by names that connote his eternity: “the old one above,” “the primeval,” and so forth.
- “The Ainu Supreme Being has three names, all of them beautiful: they are ‘Upholder’ [of the Universe], ‘Cradle’ [of the child], and ‘Inspirer and Protector.’”
- “The Koryaks too have a long string of names for their Supreme Being: they call him Master, He Who Is, Overseer, Power, He Who Is Outside, and Universe.”
Attributes of the Supreme Being
- Perfect morality
- Creative Power
Relation of the Supreme Being to Morality
- Author of Moral Rewards and Punishments in this world and the next
It would seem that the First Things are first, not just in the science of metaphysics, but in the history of human understanding.