William Robertson Smith Quotes

• We are so accustomed to think of religion as a thing between individual men and God that we can hardly enter into the idea of a religion in which a whole nation in its national organisation appears as the religious unit.

  William Robertson Smith

  Religious, Men, Thinking

  William Robertson Smith (2004). “The Prophets of Israel: and their place in history to the close of the Eighth Century B.C.”, p.20, Wipf and Stock Publishers

  44 Copy quote

• But we must not forget, this ritual expressed, certain ideas which lie at the very root of true religion, the fellowship of the worshippers with one another in their fellowship with the deity, and the consecration of the bonds of kinship as the type of all right ethical relations between man and man.

  William Robertson Smith

  Religious, Lying, Men

  4 Copy quote

• Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare of society, and in all that was necessary to this end every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political community to which he belonged.

  William Robertson Smith

  Men, Community, Political

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.29, Transaction Publishers

  8 Copy quote

• Thus a man was born into a fixed relation to certain gods as surely as he was born into a relation to his fellow-men; and his religion... was simply one side of the general scheme of conduct prescribed for him by his position as a member of society.

  William Robertson Smith

  Men, Religion, Sides

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.30, Transaction Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• The myths connected with individual sanctuaries and ceremonies were merely part of the apparatus of the worship; they served to excite the fancy and sustain the interest of the worshipper... no one cared what he believed about its origin.

  William Robertson Smith

  Sanctuary, Fancy, Worship

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.11, Transaction Publishers

  8 Copy quote

• It is only in times of social dissolution, as in the last age of the small Semitic states, when men and their gods were alike powerless before the advance of the Assyrians, that magical superstitions based on mere terror, or rites designed to conciliate alien gods, invade the sphere of tribal or national religion. In better times the religion of the tribe or state has nothing in common with the private and foreign superstitions or magical rites that savage terror may dictate to the individual.

  William Robertson Smith

  Men, Age, May

  William Robertson Smith (1889). “Lectures on the Religion of the Semites: First Series. The Fundamental Institutions”

  4 Copy quote

• But, strictly speaking, this mythology was no essential part of ancient religion, for it had no sacred sanction and no binding force on the worshippers.

  William Robertson Smith

  Aquariums, Religion, Essentials

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.17, Transaction Publishers

  8 Copy quote

• In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma; that is, the sacred lore of priests and people... and these stories afford the only explanation that is offered of the precepts of religion and the prescribed rules of ritual.

  William Robertson Smith

  Religious, People, Religion

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.17, Transaction Publishers

  10 Copy quote

• Belief in a certain series of myths was neither obligatory as a part of the true religion, nor was it supposed that, by believing, a man acquired religious merit and conciliated the favour of the gods.

  William Robertson Smith

  Religious, Believe, Men

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.17, Transaction Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• The land of a god corresponds with the land of his worshipers.

  William Robertson Smith

  Land

  William Robertson Smith, John Sutherland Black (1907). “Lectures on the Religion of the Semites: First Series. The Fundamental Institutions”

  4 Copy quote

• The god, it would appear, was frequently thought of as the physical progenitor or first father of his people.

  William Robertson Smith

  Father, People, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• Even the highest forms of sacrificial worship present much that is repulsive to modern ideas, and in particular it requires an effort to reconcile our imagination to the bloody ritual which is prominent in almost every religion which has a strong sense of sin.

  William Robertson Smith

  Strong, Ideas, Imagination

  6 Copy quote

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

  William Robertson Smith

  Religion, Deities, Nations

  William Robertson Smith (2006). “The Old Testament in the Jewish Church: Twelve Lectures on Biblical Criticism”, p.272, Wipf and Stock Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• In better times the religion of the tribe or state has nothing in common with the private and foreign superstitions or magical rites that savage terror may dictate to the individual.

  William Robertson Smith

  Religion, Savages, May

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.55, Transaction Publishers

  6 Copy quote

• That the God-man died for his people, and that His death is their life, is an idea which was in some degree foreshadowed by the older mystical sacrifices.

  William Robertson Smith

  Sacrifice, Men, Ideas

  7 Copy quote

• This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis, but it satisfies the conditions of a legitimate hypothesis, by postulating the operation of no unknown or uncertain cause, but only of that force of precedent which in all times has been so strong to keep alive religious forms of which the original meaning is lost.

  William Robertson Smith

  Religious, Strong, Alive

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.404, Transaction Publishers

  4 Copy quote

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