ABSTRACT
The Origin of Monotheism To trace the origin of nlonotheism may seem a presumptuous undertaking, but it is perhaps less presumptuous than may appear a t first sight. Scholars often forget that important results are sometimes achieved by simple means, and that the production of an encyclopzdia is not necessarily the prelude to far-reaching conclusions. They assume that the preparations must be as great as the subject, but i t requires neither genius nor learning to discover a law so important as that the rise of nations is followed by their fall. On the other hand, it is only a profound and accurate scholarship which can discuss such a minor problem as the composition of the B n e i d . It may require more abundant or remoter facts to find the origin of monotheism than to trace the phases of a nation's rise and fall, but perhaps we have gathered enough facts of late t o make a t least a guess a t this origin. If I can suggest a theory which is simple, which is reasonable, and which does not invoke a single process that cannot be shown actually to occur, I shall have achieved a t least something.
