The Project Gutenberg EBook of Religion & Sex, by Chapman Cohen

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Religion & Sex
Studies in the Pathology of Religious Development

Author: Chapman Cohen

Release Date: October 21, 2009 [EBook #30306]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGION & SEX ***

Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, S.D., and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

THE OPEN MIND LIBRARY

BEING A SERIES OF WORKS DEALING WITH
QUESTIONS AS HANDLED BY DIFFERENT
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT, IN RELIGION,
ETHICS, PHILOSOPHY & PSYCHOLOGY

RELIGION & SEX

STUDIES IN THE PATHOLOGY
OF RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT
BY CHAPMAN COHEN

T. N. FOULIS, PUBLISHER
LONDON, EDINBURGH, & BOSTON

_Published October 1919_

_Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_

THE LIST OF CHAPTERS

I. SCIENCE & THE SUPERNATURAL _page_ 1

II. THE PRIMITIVE MIND & ITS ENVIRONMENT 35

III. THE RELIGION OF MENTAL DISEASE 51

IV. SEX & RELIGION IN PRIMITIVE LIFE 89

V. THE INFLUENCE OF SEXUAL & PATHOLOGIC
STATES ON RELIGIOUS BELIEF 120

VI. THE STREAM OF TENDENCY 145

VII. CONVERSION 169

VIII. RELIGIOUS EPIDEMICS 205

IX. RELIGIOUS EPIDEMICS--(_concluded_) 226

X. THE WITCH MANIA 243

XI. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION 269

PREFACE

In spite of all that has been done in the way of applying scientific
principles to religious ideas, there is much that yet remains to be
accomplished. Generally speaking science has only dealt with the subject
of religion in its more normal and more regularised forms. The last
half-century has produced many elaborate and fruitful studies of the
origin of religious ideas, while comparative mythology has shown a close
and suggestive relationship between creeds and symbols that were once
believed to have nothing in common. But beyond these fields of resear