ABSTRACT
In Chapter 19 [of my book Phdnomenologie der Religion, Tubingen: Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1933], we discerned syncretism to be the process leading from polydemonism to polytheism. But we must now apprehend its essential nature somewhat more thoroughly: in fact, as one form of the dynamic of religions. In other words, if we wish to discover the essence of the socalled "great religions," which must now be discussed, it is imperative for us not merely to contemplate their static character, but also to consider their dynamic. A historic religion, then, is a form, an organized system. Nonetheless its characteristics are not fixed and rigid; rather they are in perpetual flux: not manufactured but growing, and in a state of incessant expansion. "Every religion, therefore, has its own previous history and is to a certain extent a 'syncretism'. Then comes the time when, from being a summation, it becomes a whole and obeys its own laws" (Wach 1924, 86).
