The Historical Element in Religion

First published in 1935, The Historical Element in Religion explains the Historical Element as arising from the religious man’s interest in the past of a community of which in his religious life he feels himself to be a part, so that its past is, although not remembered by him as an individual, yet in a real sense his own. It is thus not a disinterested scientific curiosity in the past as such, apart from any special concern of one’s own, but is rooted in the sense of continuity of certain past