William Robertson Smith

We are so accustomed to think of religion as a thing between individual men and…

Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare…

The dissolution of the nation destroys the national religion, and dethrones the national deity…

Thus a man was born into a fixed relation to certain gods as surely as…

In better times the religion of the tribe or state has nothing in common with…

In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma that is, the sacred…

But, strictly speaking, this mythology was no essential part of ancient religion, for it had…

Even the highest forms of sacrificial worship present much that is repulsive to modern ideas…