ABSTRACT
In acquainting themselves with the dynamics of this process, people encounter every extreme, from the crudest to the loftiest expressions of man’s need for communication with the Infinite. The history of religion begins with the beginning of the history of man. Man has always sought man’s company, though he often met with indifference and rebuke in doing so. He had to rely on bonds which nature had created, but his inventiveness led him to find other motives and incitements to unite with his fellows. The peculiar tension resulting from the mixed feelings of separation and relatedness is one of the most decisive and effective stimuli and incitements to the formation and destruction of groups, and therefore becomes one of the fundamental factors in the dynamics of religious life. The dualism of “natural” and “specific” religious groups could be traced practically throughout the history of religion.
