«Anthropomorphism» as a Source of Religious Representations: in History and Nowadays

Abstract

In the present article the author discusses the varieties of the anthropomorphic theory of the origin of religion which arose at different times in different intellectual traditions. He analyzes the terminology of the concepts and provides an overview of critical opinions. The key phenomena in the theory under consideration are: anthropomorphism, animism and animatism. The article analyzes the conceptions of the philosophers Xenophanes and Feuerbach, of the British anthropologist E. B. Taylor, of the representatives of the anthropological school in Russia and of the modern cognitive science of religion.

Keywords

• anthropomorphism
• cognitive science of religion
• anthropological school in Russia
• animism
• animatism
• origin of religion.