Religion and Sex: An Account of the Erotogenetic Theory of Religion as Formulated by Theodore Schroeder

Ever since Descartes and Kant, and even earlier, it has been the custom of philosophers to give an account of the relations which their respective philosophical views and theories bear to the problem of religion. Within recent years the scientific study of religion has received considerable impetus and illumination through psychology. With the phenomenal development of psychological inquiry within the second half of the nineteenth century and its spread to every phase of mental life it is only natural that the facts and phenomena of religion should have not escaped the scientific interest of those trained to look upon such significant facts and phenomena from the broad standpoint of empirical psychology.

It must be mentioned, however, that whereas books abound bearing the term “psychological” on their title page, not everything published under this designation is really concerned with psychology. The term has become attractive and therefore, to a certain extent, fashionable. This is true, in no small measure, of books devoted to religious topics and carying on their title page the claim “psychological.” Frequently such books have as little in common with psychology proper as with astronomy. Their authors merely reproduce, not always with any show of originality, the hackneyed theological dogmas of their own particular religious circle or sect, and frequently betray an extreme absence of psychologic insight into the problems with which they attempt to deal, in spite of the pretentious titles with which they provide their books. Considerable of the literature that formerly appeared plainly as theological, is now displayed before the eyes