Urreligion

{{Short description|Form of religious tradition}} {{wikt | urreligion}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} '''''Urreligion''''' is a postulated "original" or "oldest" form of religious tradition (the German prefix {{wikt-lang|de|ur-}} expressing the idea of "original", "primal", "primitive", "elder", "primeval", or "''{{wt|en|proto-}}''"). The concept contrasts with later organized religions such as the early theocracies of the Ancient Near East and in later world religions. The term ''Urreligion'' originated in the context of German Romanticism.

==History== Friedrich Creuzer put forward the notion of a monotheistic primeval religion in 1810 – an idea taken up by other authors of the Romantic period, such as J. J. Bachofen,<ref>In his ''Mutterrecht und Urreligion '', Bachofen connects primeval religion and matriarchy.</ref> but decidedly opposed by Johann Heinrich Voss.<ref>''Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen. In Vorträgen und Entwürfen.'' Leipzig and Darmstadt, Heyer und Leske, 1810–1812.</ref> Goethe, in a conversation with Eckermann on 11 March 1832, discussed the human ''Urreligion'', which he characterized as "pure nature and [pure] reason, of divine origin".<ref>[http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Goethe,+Johann+Wolfgang/Gespr%C3%A4che/%5BZu+den+Gespr%C3%A4chen%5D/1832 Gespräche]</ref> The final scene of his ''Faust Part Two'' (1832) has been taken as evoking "the 'Urreligion' of mankind".<ref>O. Durrani, "Biblical Borrowings in Goethe's 'Faust': A Historical Survey of Their Interpretation", ''The Modern Language Review'' 1977</ref>

Often used in the sense of natural religion or indigenous religion, the religious behaviour of pre-modern tribal societies such as shamanism, animism and ancestor worship (e.g. Australian aboriginal mythology<ref>{{cite news |title=Flood gave birth to world's oldest religion |date=2 November 1996 |first=Leigh |last=Dayton |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15220540.600-flood-gave-birth-to-worlds-oldest-religion.html |access-date=15 August 2020}}</ref>), the term ''Urreligion'' has also been used by adherents of various religions to back up the claim that their own religion is somehow "primeval" or "older" than competing traditions. In the context of a given religious faith, literal belief in a creation may be the base of primality. (e.g. Biblical literalism, or literal belief in the Hindu Puranas).

In particular, Urmonotheismus comprises the historical claim that primeval religion was monotheistic. Some have rejected this hypothesis,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Kf1ZwDifdAC&q=urmonotheism&pg=PA136 |title=No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel|page=136|first=Robert Karl|last=Gnuse|publisher=Sheffield Academic Press|year=1997|isbn=1-85075-657-0}}</ref> and certain Christian apologetics circles defend it.<ref>Pajak, Sylwester, ''Urreligion und Uroffenbarung bei P. W. Schmidt'', St. Augustin 1978.</ref>

Nineteenth-century Germanic mysticism sometimes claimed that the Germanic runes bore testimony of a primeval religion.<ref>J. L. Studach, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_YmgCAAAAQAAJ  ''Die Urreligion oder das entdeckte Uralphabet''], 1856</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}} Category:1810 introductions Category:Prehistoric religion Category:History of religion studies Category:Superlatives in religion Category:Romantic idealism