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The Goodness of Gods

Abstract

DR. WESTERMARCK'S contribution to the “Forum Series” consists of four chapters in which he follows up the development of the idea of god from its earliest beginnings among primitive peoples in the belief in supernatural beings, to its fully developed form in the higher religions, the religion of the ancient Egyptians, Zoroastrianism, the Vedic religion, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. In the final chapter, “The Betterment of the Gods,” the author deals specifically with the ethical side of his theory. The treatment in so small a compass is necessarily concise, and the reader is referred for the data upon which Dr. Westermarck's views are based to his “Origin and Development of the Moral Idea.”

The Goodness of Gods.

Prof.

Edward

Westermarck

By. (The Forum Series.) Pp. vi + 58. (London: Watts and Co., 1926.) Is. net.

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The Goodness of Gods. Nature 119, 557 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119557d0

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