belief

myth

religion

occupation / innovator as

historian of religion

librarian

archaeologist

anthropologist

linguist

theologian

physicist

university teacher

cause of death

natural causes

Protestantism

scientific organization

Royal Society of Edinburgh

is not a component of early religion. No one supposed that, by believing, a man acquired religious merit and conciliated the favor of the Gods.

Belief in a certain series of myths was neither obligatory as a part of the true religion, nor was it supposed that, by believing, a man acquired religious merit and conciliated the favour of the gods. William Robertson Smith

is not concerned with origin, but serves merely as part of the apparatus of the worship, acting to excite the fancy and sustain the interest of the worshipper.

The myths connected with individual sanctuaries and ceremonies were merely part of the apparatus of the worship... they served to excite the fancy and sustain the interest of the worshipper. . . no one cared what he believed about its origin. William Robertson Smith

is a thing originally not about the saving of souls but about the preservation and welfare of society, such that every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political community to which he belonged.

Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare of society, and in all that was necessary to this end every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political community to which he belonged. William Robertson Smith

William Robertson SmithThinkers

William Robertson Smith