Urreligion
Urreligion is a postulated "original" or "oldest" form of religious tradition. The concept contrasts with that of organized religion, as found in the theocracies of the early urban cultures of the Ancient Near East or in world religions as they have developed.
The term Urreligion originated in the context of German Romanticism.History
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, but decidedly opposed by Johann Heinrich Voss. Goethe in a conversation with Eckermann on 11 March 1832 discussed the human Urreligion, which he characterized as "pure nature and reason, of divine origin".
The final scene of his Faust Part Two has been taken as evoking "the 'Urreligion' of mankind".
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, 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..
In particular, Urmonotheismus comprises the historical claim that primeval religion was monotheistic. Some have rejected this hypothesis, and certain Christian apologetics circles defend it.
Nineteenth-century Germanic mysticism sometimes claimed that the Germanic runes bore testimony of a primeval religion.
Some more recent new religious movements that claim to restore primeval religion include Godianism
and Umbanda.
