Name of the science which compares one religion with another with a view to discovering common elements in all of them, and to tracing their development from primitive forms to their present tenets and practises. The effort of many students of this science to prove that Christianity is merely an evolution of the religions of primitive races and of paganism has proved futile chiefly through the studies of Catholic experts in ethnology, and the labors of Catholic missionaries among primitive peoples, notably the members of the Society of the Divine Word.