Natural religion

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Natural religion or religion of reason is a concept of the philosophy of religion of the Enlightenment . It denotes a religious worldview that is independent of the specifics of concrete historical religions . These were understood as additions to an originally purely rational religiosity. - The expression is often used as the opposite of the religion of revelation , with a distinction between “nature” and “ grace ” sometimes being the basis. Other counter-terms are "historical religion" or "positive religion" (in the sense of: historically "given", found religion).

Demarcation

The terms natural religion and natural theology are used synonymously by some thinkers, while others use the term “natural religion” to encompass the entire meaning of the two terms. Many theologians and religious scholars, however, differentiate between "natural religion" as a description of a way of life and "natural theology" as a description of philosophical-theological theory formation.

" Natural religion " is an expression used to designate the religions of peoples without writing, which is considered out of date by experts, but is still popular. Today this way of speaking is perceived as problematic because, like “primitive religions”, it is often associated with judgmental connotations and is classically imprecise.

History of the term

Representatives of natural religion

The first representatives of natural religion in the narrower sense can be found in English deism of the 17th century. In classical Thomistic school theology, two levels of knowledge of religious truths are assumed: first, natural knowledge (see natural theology ) and second, divine revelation. In deism, this second stage is viewed as not necessary for religion, so that a purely natural religion is possible.

The first prominent representative of natural religion is Herbert von Cherbury . In his work De religione gentilium errorumque apud eos causis from 1663 he sets out five rationally understandable principles of natural religion:

  1. The assumption of the existence of a higher being
  2. The duty to worship this being
  3. Equating worship with moral action
  4. The requirement to repent and atone for sins
  5. Belief in divine reward and punishment

According to Herbert, these principles represent the unspoiled core of all religions, which, however, has often been expanded or falsified by imagination or priestly deception.

Leibniz also makes a contribution to the justification of natural religion in his theodicy of 1710.

A very influential and elaborate system of natural religion was presented by Matthew Tindal in Christianity as old as the Creation in 1730 . He regards natural religion as necessary because it is tantamount to limiting God's validity to claim that it was not possible for people before the birth of Christ (or any other revelation) to know the true religion. From the beginning God must have given people sufficient ability to understand religion, namely reason. The contents of Tindal's natural religion are essentially the belief in the existence of God and his autonomous happiness. Since man can no longer contribute anything to the happiness of God, he is obliged to promote the happiness of mankind as best as possible. Tindal therefore includes a stoic ethic in his natural religion. It provides for detailed considerations why all traditional revelations - particularly the inconsistent Bible - were unreliable. However, he is of the opinion that Christianity is the religion that is identical in content with the natural religion. Hence, the Bible is only a republication of the contents of natural religion.

Immanuel Kant also represents a form of the religion of reason in The Religion within the Limits of Mere Reason . He looks at religion in terms of its moral utility. Natural religion is that religion in which - as with Tindal - only those religious statements are recognized that have been rationally developed. This is opposed to the revealed religion and the statutory belief, which can be identical with natural religion, but must at least contain part of it in order to be able to be considered a revelation. In addition, however, the existing religions contain a proportion of statutes that are not rationally insightful and which are followed as an end in themselves. Belief in these principles is a religious mania and adherence to them is an unnecessary, even morally wrong "after-service". According to Kant, however, those principles are justified that are intended to bring about a church that obeys the rational laws of religion. Original Christianity raised reasonably understandable laws to be its principle and to that extent was natural. But it is also a learned belief in which the clerics dictate the interpretation of the revelation. Kant criticizes that in all religions - including Christianity - after-service plays a role. The “true sole religion”, on the other hand, contains nothing but laws.

Later religious philosophers of the Enlightenment, however, understand the expression partly in the sense of a kind of meta-religion, which was explicitly understood as a subsequent abstraction of given religions and could only be applied to historical religions as a yardstick constructed in this way .

Criticism of natural religion

A first fundamental problem of natural religion, which David Hume , like Kant a pioneer of the Enlightenment , addresses in his dialogues on natural religion , is the foundation of belief in the existence of God. This is usually done with evidence of God . Insofar as it is a matter of proofs a posteriori such as the teleological proof of God , these are dependent on the relatively arbitrary interpretation of the world as such and therefore not plausible. Proofs a priori such as the cosmological argument are on the one hand also not convincing, on the other hand they only aim at the existence of a higher being in general, but could not prove the attributes such as the goodness or omniscience of this being. Insofar as the existence of God is not proven, but only justified as human intuition, the problem becomes urgent, according to Hume, that it is precisely evils that arouse religious feelings. With such an argument the theodicy problem arises in an aggravated form.

Friedrich Schleiermacher formulated a sharp criticism of the natural religion in his speeches on religion of 1799. There he does not understand religion as thinking or acting, but as "intuition and feeling". However, since feelings are individual, religion must also do justice to these individual dispositions. However, while positive religions harbor a principle of individualization, natural religion has been ground down and has "such philosophical and moral manners that it lets little of the peculiar character of religion shine through". An individual design of natural religion is not possible because it is kept completely general and does not offer any starting point for individual development.

The Protestant theology of the later 19th and 20th centuries - especially Karl Barth - criticized the term "natural religion" in general. For Barth, the decisive point is that all forms of knowledge of God are only possible from the unmerited grace of God .

The Catholic tradition, on the other hand, generally allowed at least a knowledge of God from natural human reason itself and proclaimed this doctrine at the First Vatican Council as a dogma. According to this view, a philosophical knowledge of God based on pure reason does not yet lead to a lived religion . In this sense, as outlined at the beginning, a distinction must be made between “natural religion” and “ natural theology ”.

Important post-war theologians of both Christian denominations (e.g. Wolfhart Pannenberg , Karl Rahner , Bernard Lonergan ), following on from predecessors such as Blondel , have also replaced the conception of “natural theology” that prevailed in Neuthomism with an anthropological reflection on the fundamentals. It is no longer about classic proofs of God or so-called extrinsicistic (extrinsic) arguments (which cited the content of the faith itself as "external" evidence such as miracles or the authority of revelation witnesses), but about a fundamental ability to recognize God , an openness to transcendence , which every human being as such (and thus independent of his or her affiliation to specific religions). But even these theologians would not consider an independent “natural religion” independent of historical religions to be possible. The problem of the relationship between nature and natural reason on the one hand and grace and revelation on the other hand is represented by Rahner in terms such as "supernatural existential", "anonymous Christianity" and the like, and in Pannenberg in terms such as "cognitia dei insita" versus "acquisita" ( for example as “planted by nature” versus “knowledge of God acquired in history”).

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ See the article English Deism in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. ↑ See Matthew Tindal: Christianity as old as the Creation or, the Gospel, a Republication of the Religion of Nature ( online text edition ), especially chap. 1 and 2.
  3. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 154. [1]
  4. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 155. [2]
  5. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 156. [3]
  6. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 165. [4]
  7. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 168. [5]
  8. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 158. [6]
  9. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 159f. [7]
  10. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, pp. 165f. [8th]
  11. ↑ See for example Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 174. [9]
  12. ↑ See Immanuel Kant, AA VI, p. 167. [10]
  13. ↑ See David Hume, Dialogues on Natural Religion, sections 7 and 8.
  14. ↑ See David Hume, Dialogues on Natural Religion, section 9.
  15. ↑ See David Hume, Dialogues on Natural Religion, sections 10 and 11.
  16. ↑ See Friedrich Schleiermacher, On Religion. Speeches to the educated among their despisers, 1st ed., P. 29. In later editions, Schleiermacher focuses on feeling.
  17. ↑ See Friedrich Schleiermacher, On Religion. Speeches to the educated among their despisers, 1st edition, p. 135. In later editions: metaphysical instead of philosophical.
  18. ↑ See Friedrich Schleiermacher, On Religion. Speeches to the educated among their despisers, 1st ed., P. 151.