Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 41:161 (Jan 1884)
Article: Prof. Max Muller On The Origin And Growth Of Religion
Author: S. H. Kellogg

BSac 41:161 (Jan 1884) p. 132

Prof. Max Muller On The Origin And Growth Of Religion

Prof. S. H. Kellogg

It was early in 1878 that the first course of The Hibbert Lectures was delivered by Professor Max Müller in the chapter-house of Westminster Abbey. He chose as his subject, The Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religions of India. So great was the interest awakened both by the topic and the high qualifications of the lecturer for its discussion, that each lecture of the course had to be repeated in order to accommodate the many who desired to hear them. All who have read these lectures since their publication will agree that they are indeed of quite unusual interest, and present us with much most valuable information touching the nature and history of the religious beliefs of the early Aryans of India,— a subject on which, indeed, few should be more competent to speak than the accomplished Professor of Sanskrit in Oxford University. Few books, certainly, which have dealt with this question of the origin and growth of religion have been honored with so appreciative a reception and wide-spread publication as this first volume of the Hibbert Lectures. Not to speak of their circulation in Europe and America, it is very remarkable that they should be reproduced even in the vernacular languages of India. The first of such translations was into the Gujeráti language in 1881. This has just been followed by a Marathi version, the work of one Vasudev Kanitkar, a native pleader in the High Court of Bombay, of which the “Academy” tells us that it is dedicated to his highness the Gaikwar of Baroda, and was liberally supported both by the government of Bom-

BSac 41:161 (Jan 1884) p. 133

bay and by various Hindu princes and noblemen. The same authority informs us that a translation in Sanskrit and another in Bengáli will also shortly follow, and that a native gentleman, Behramji M. Malabari, has undertaken to secure the publication of these lectures in all the vernaculars of India.

A book on such a subject and with such a history certainly has much more than an ephemeral interest. And especially when such lectures as these on such a topic from so distinguished a scholar, are offered to the pantheists and idolaters of India in their own languages, and that under the auspices of a professedly Christian government, and are also commended, as in the “Academy,” as “particularly useful as a text-book for schools and colleges in India,” then, indeed, the whole Christian world may well feel a special concern and interest in the teachings of the Oxford Professor on this living and vital question of the origin of religion.

None who are familiar with the writings of Professor Max Müller would anticipate that he ever would speak of the r...