revealed religion

English

Noun

revealed religion (countable and uncountable, plural revealed religions)

1. (uncountable) The type of religion which relies on communication originating directly from a divine being (as reported by prophets, mystics, disciples, etc.) to establish what religious beliefs are authoritative and acceptable.

   Coordinate term: natural religion

   • 1856, Charles Kingsley, chapter 16, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet:

     I am in no wise anxious to weaken the antithesis between natural and revealed religion. Science may help the former, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the latter.

   • 1909, H. G. Wells, chapter 2, in Tono Bungay:

     I avowed outright my entire disbelief in the whole scheme of revealed religion.

   • 2010 September 19, Rachel Donadio, John F. Burns, “Pope Ends British Trip With Beatification”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 August 2015:

     The pope praised Cardinal Newman . . . for “his insights into the relationship between faith and reason, into the vital place of revealed religion in a civilized society.”

2. (countable) A particular system of religious beliefs based on such communication from a divine being.

   Coordinate term: natural religion

   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, chapter 6, in Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I:

     Cicero . . . destroyed the whole revealed religion of the Greeks and Romans (for why should not theirs be a revealed religion as well as that of Christ?)

   • 1892, George Gissing, chapter 4, in Born In Exile:

     "The more I study these objections, the less able I am to see how they come in conflict with belief in Christianity as a revealed religion."

   • 1901, Upton Sinclair, chapter 1, in King Midas:

     But very few of the world's real thinkers believe in revealed religions any more—they have come to see them simply as guesses of humanity at God's great sacred mystery.

   • 2001 October 7, David Selbourne, “This war is not about terror, it's about Islam”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 12 August 2015:

     [T]he fount of Islamic energy . . . : the desire to protect the purity of the Islamic faith and to vindicate its claim to be the final revealed religion on earth.

Translations

(countable) religion which relies on communication originating directly from a divine being to establish what religious beliefs are authoritative and acceptable

• Finnish: ilmestysuskonto
• French: religion révélée (fr) f
• Polish: religia objawiona f

Further reading

• “revealed religion”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.