The Religious Sentiment Its Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion — A Reader’s Guide

An Inductive Approach to Religious Origins

Brinton’s preface lays out a clear methodological stance. He criticizes the existing “science of religion” as a mere comparison of worship systems in their historic development, neglecting the deeper psychological question. His own analysis treats the Laws of Mind as “physiological elements of growth” and the Laws of Thought as formal only, not a development of those physiological elements. This position, he acknowledges, is not conceded by the reigning school of psychology, and he defends it as far as the plan of the treatise allows. The excerpts show that Brinton grounds his theory in concrete ethnographic material—for instance, the account of Catherine Wabose, “the prophetess of Chegoimegon,” whose inspiration he calls “psychologically most valuable.”

The Religious Sentiment Defined as Wish

In Chapter V, Brinton offers a compact definition of the elemental religious sentiment: “a Wish whose fruition depends upon unknown power.” From this definition, he derives that mythologies, creeds, and dogmas are all “theories respecting the nature and action of the unknown power.” He emphasizes that these theories are not recognized as such by their adherents; they arise unconsciously or through tradition and always carry “the stamp of divinity through inspiration and revelation.” The text then illustrates the sacredness attached to such narratives with examples from Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism, noting that “to misplace a vowel point in copying the sacred books was esteemed a sin by the Rabbis.”

Mythical Cycles and Their Subjects

The chapter proceeds to outline three major mythical cycles around which myths have centered: the Epochs of Nature, the Paradise lost and to be regained, and the Hierarchy of the Gods. Under the first cycle, Brinton connects the idea of time to creation myths, then to recurrent epochs, flood myths, and the Day of Judgment. The second cycle treats the human tendency to imagine a Golden Age in the past and believe it will return, with the material Paradise becoming spiritual as intellect advances. The third cycle discusses the dual classification of gods into helpers and hinderers, the persistence of numerical separateness even in monotheisms, and the triune nature of single gods. Brinton concludes that the truly religious notion of divinity is under “logical, not mathematical unity,” which discards mythical conceptions.

Readers should note that the excerpts represent only the preface and the opening of Chapter V. Brinton’s full argument extends across nine text sections and nearly 70,000 words, drawing on a wide range of sources from Native American accounts to the Koran, Spinoza, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. The book is best approached as a sustained philosophical argument grounded in ethnographic and historical data, not as a survey of religions. Its value lies in the clarity of its central definition and the systematic way Brinton applies it to diverse material.

Reading Brinton's careful mapping of the religious sentiment, I found myself pausing on his idea of myths as "theories about unknown power." That curious blend of humility and boldness felt familiar, and my thoughts drifted to Plato’s Apology, where Socrates confronts a different unknown—the divine mission he cannot fully explain. Both works circle the same quiet honesty.Apology — Background and Themes