The Religious Sentiment Its Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion

The author turns a scholarly eye toward the deepest human impulse to worship, asking what in the mind first gave rise to the idea of gods. Beginning with the relatively uncomplicated belief systems of America’s native peoples, he uses them as a laboratory for an inductive study that later expands to the historic religions of the Old World. By treating religious feeling as a natural phenomenon, he seeks to place it within the same scientific framework applied to other aspects of the mind.

Throughout the work, sensation, emotion and the pursuit of pleasure are presented as the primary forces that shape religious thought, while intellect provides the culminating point of mental development. The treatise outlines a set of “laws of thought” that govern how ideas associate, reason, and ultimately seek truth. In doing so, it tackles enduring questions—why humans imagine deities, what sustains worship, and whether prayer or reason holds the greater sway—offering a measured, interdisciplinary perspective on the enduring mystery of faith.