Cornelis Petrus Tiele (16 December 1830 – 11 January 1902) was aDutchtheologian andscholar of religions.
Tiele was born atLeiden. He was educated atAmsterdam, first studying at theAthenaeum Illustre, as the communalhigh school of the capital was then named, and afterwards at theseminary of theRemonstrant Brotherhood.[1]
He was destined for thepastorate in his own brotherhood. After steadily declining for a considerable period, this had increased its influence in the second half of the 19th century by widening the tenets of theDutch Methodists, which had caused many of the liberalclergy among theLutherans andCalvinists to go over to theRemonstrants. Tiele had liberal religious views himself, which he early enunciated from thepulpit, as Remonstrant pastor ofMoordrecht (1853) and atRotterdam (1856).[1]
Upon the removal of the seminary of the brotherhood from Amsterdam to Leiden in 1873, Tiele was appointed one of its leading professors. In 1877 followed his appointment at theUniversity of Leiden as professor of thehistory of religions, a chair specially created for him.[1]
WithAbraham Kuenen andJ. H. Scholten, amongst others, he founded the "Leiden school" of modern theology. From 1867 he assisted Kuenen,A. D. Loman andL. W. Rauwenhoff in editing theTheologisch Tijdschrift.[1] In 1889 he became a member of theTeylers Eerste Genootschap.[2]In 1901, he resigned his professorship at Leiden University, and died in January 1902.[1]
Tiele's zeal and power for work were as extraordinary as his vast knowledge of ancient languages, peoples and religions, upon which his researches, according toF. Max Müller, shed a new and vivid light.[1]
Of his many learned works, theVergelijkende geschiedenis van de egyptische en mesopotamische Godsdiensten (1872), and theGeschiedenis van den Godsdienst (1876; new ed. 1891), have been translated into English, the former byJames Ballingall (1878–1882), the latter byJoseph Estlin Carpenter (1877) under the titleOutlines of the History of Religion (French translation, 1885; German translation, 1895). A French translation of theComparative History was published in 1882.[1]
Other works by Tiele are:
He was also a contributor to theEncyclopaedia Biblica, and the writer of the article "Religions" in the 9th edition of theEncyclopædia Britannica (1875).[3]
A volume of Tiele'ssermons appeared in 1865, and a collection of hispoems in 1863. He also edited (1868) the poems ofPetrus Augustus de Genestet. In his time, Tiele was best known to English students by hisOutlines and theGifford LecturesOn the Elements of the Science of Religion, delivered in 1896–1898 atEdinburgh University. They appeared simultaneously in Dutch at Amsterdam, in English in London and Edinburgh (1897–1899, 2 vols).[1]
Tiele was an early proponent of the Dutch school of "science of religion", and proposed that religion is a psychological phenomenon and one of the most profound needs of human beings.[4] Tiele categorized and studied religions as Nature and Ethical religions, a concept that George Galloway contested in 1920 because in practice such a distinction is difficult to draw.[5]
Tiele has also been credited as the founder of the Dutch school of the comparative studies of religions, his influence suggested to be as significant asMax Muller.[6] He was the first professor in The Netherlands to hold a chair in such studies after the Dutch government established this position in 1876.[6] Tiele proposed that religions develop in phases, from being nature religions, to becoming mythological religions, then doctrinal religions, and ultimately as world or universal religions. The last stage holds "holy awe", "looking up to God as the Most High" and "belonging to the adored one forever, in life and in death".[6] In these categories, Tiele in 1877 placedBuddhism,Christianity, andIslam as universal religions.[7] Later studies and a better understanding of Buddhism has discredited some of the premises of Tiele's theory. Buddhism, like a few other Indian religions, is essentially a non-theistic religion and it does not suggest its followers to belong to aGod in Buddhism or to "look up to God as the Most High".[8][9]
Tiele was elected an International Member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1898.[10] Edinburgh University in 1900 conferred upon Tiele the degree ofD.D.honoris causa, an honor bestowed upon him previously by the universities ofDublin andBologna. He was also a fellow of at least fifteen learned societies in theNetherlands,Belgium,France,Germany,Italy,Great Britain, and theUnited States.[1]
Pieter Anton Tiele was his brother.
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tiele, Cornelis Petrus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 963.