IDOLATRY. Introcluction.—Tdolatry is the worship of anything instead of God. The term, therefore, includes all the kinds of false and cornipt worship mentioned in the Bible. There is no exactly corresponding general term in Hebrew, but there are some general terms that seem to have the same range but a less precise signification, such as vanity :' in the N. T. elawXoXarpcia, idolatry, appears to be employed in its widest sense, as we may judge from the tropical use in Col. iii. 5, covetousness, which is idolatry.' It is to be re marked that the corruption of true religion is spoken of in the Bible in the same terms as paganism, as a sin of the same kind if not of the same degree.
The main subjects to be considered in this artitle are the origin of idolatry, the classification of diffe rent kinds of idolatry, the history of idolatry, so far as it is necessary for the illustration of the passages in the Bible relating to this matter, an examination of which will be interwoven with this historical outline, and the Hebrew terms for idolatry and idols.
i. Origin of Idalatty.—ln the primxval period man appears to have had not alone a revelation but also an implanted natural law. Adam and some of his descendants, as late as the time of the Flood, certainly lived under a revealed system, now usually spoken of as the patriarchal dispensation, and St. Paul tells us Chat the nations wcre under a natural law. Man in his natural state must always have had a knowledge of God sufficient for the condition in which he had been placed. Although God in times past suffered all nations [or rather all the Gentiles,' ircivra rat Hvn] to walk in their own ways, nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, 'being understood by the things that are „made, [even] his eternal power and godhead.' But the people of whom. we are speaking changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an irnage made like to cor ruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things," and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.' Thus arose that strange superstition which is known by the term Fetishism [or low nature worship], consisting in the worship of animals, trees, rivers, hills, and stones ' ,(Genesis of the Earth ana' ofifan, 2d ed., pp. 160, 161). St. Paul sp&aks of those who invented this idolatry as there fore forsaken of God and .suffered to sink into the deepest moral corruption. It is remarkable that among highly-civilized nations the convene obtains ; moral corruption being very frequently the cause of the abandoning of true religion for infidelity.
St. Paul thus shews us what was the earliest kind of idolatry, but he does not state what mental condition gave rise to it. We can only trace this condition by examining those nations which still practice this lowest system, but we shall not enter upon this subject in the present article, and it is probable that it cannot be satisfactorily exhausted, as we can scarcely understand, however we may define, the mental condition of the races which practise fetishism.
ii. Classification of Idolatry. —AD unmixed systems of idolatry may be classified under the following heads ; all mixed systems may be resolved into two or more of them.
1. Low nature-worship or fetishism, the wor ship of animals, trees, rivers, hills, and stones. The fetishism of the Negroes is thought to admit of a belief in a supreme intelligence : if this be true such a belief is either a relic of a higher religion or else is derived from the Muslim tribes of Africa. Fetishism is closely connected with magic, and the Nigritian priests are universally magicians.
2. Shamanism, or the magical side of fetishism, the religion of the Mongolian tribes, and ap parently the primitive religion of China.