oa De wraak van de ‘primitieven’: godsdienstgeschiedenis van Neanderthaler tot New Age

1Dit artikel is een bewerking van het college ter opening van het academisch jaar dat op 11 september 1991 voor de Faculteit Godgeleerdheid te Leiden werd uitgesproken.

A framework for the general history of religions is offered in this study. The reasons why it has been developed are discussed first. They are the need to replace the present defective one in primitive, ancient and world religions by a more adequate one; to turn historical religions into an object of comparative religion; and the need to enhance the explanatory power of the study of religions. The proposed framework hinges on the dependence of the history of religions on the history of human societies. Six types of human societies are then sketched and the six corresponding types of religions. The study concludes with ‘the revenge of the “primitives”’: the re-emergence in the newest religions of the marks of historically earlier types of religions.