Natural Religion

Natural religion might have the following meanings:

  • In the modern study of religion it is used to refer to the notion that there is a spontaneous religious apprehension of the world common to all human beings, see:
    • Urreligion
    • origin of religion
    • anthropology of religion
  • As a reverent form of nature worship, embodied in a well-known quote from Frank Lloyd Wright: "I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
  • Referring to the religions of people prior to their Christianization.

Famous quotes containing the words natural and/or religion:

    “[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
    —Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)

    “In the religion of all nations a purity is hinted at, which, I fear, men never attain to.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)