The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
by Thomas Henry Huxley
This is Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"




I conceive that the origin, the growth, the decline, and the
fall of those speculations respecting the existence, the powers,
and the dispositions of beings analogous to men, but more or
less devoid of corporeal qualities, which may be broadly
included under the head of theology, are phenomena the study of
which legitimately falls within the province of the
anthropologist. And it is purely as a question of anthropology
(a department of biology to which, at various times, I have
given a good deal of attention) that I propose to treat of the
evolution of theology in the following pages.

With theology as a code of dogmas which are to be believed, or
at any rate repeated, under penalty of present or future
punishment, or as a storehouse of anaesthetics for those who
find the pains of life too hard to bear, I have nothing to do;
and, so far as it may be possible, I shall avoid the expression
of any opinion as to the objective truth or falsehood of the
systems of theological speculation of which I may find occasion
to speak. From my present point of view, theology is regarded as
a natural product of the operations of the human mind, under the
conditions of its existence, just as any other branch of
science, or the arts of architecture, or music, or painting are
such products. Like them, theology has a history. Like them