Changes

[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]] [[Image:CelticTrinityKnot_02.jpg|right|frame]]

[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]] [[Image:CelticTrinityKnot_02.jpg|right|frame]]

A century ago the German Protestant [[theology|theologian]] [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Adolf_Harnack_and_the_Search_for_Missing_Christianity Adolf von Harnack] set about on a quest to discover the "kernel" of Christianity beneath the "husk."  His theory was that obscured beneath the layers of church history and doctrine (the "husk") there must surely lie a simple teaching of Jesus (the "kernel").   In pursuit of this quest Harnack was compelled to take his investigation one level deeper and ask whether there is in fact a universal human experience that is the basis of all spiritual seeking and leads to the subsequent formation of religions.  So Harnack's quest became twofold: (1) to discover the essence of the religious impulse in general, and (2) to discover the essence of the simple message of Jesus that fulfilled that universal impulse.  Both preceeding and following Harnack, other Protestant theologians [notably Friederich Schliermacher and Rudolph Otto] have pursued a similar interest in the possibility of identifying a single underlying principle responsible for the genesis of human religions.  This article is presented in the [[spirit]] of that same quest.   

Around the turn of the last century a number of German Protestant [[theology|theologians]] became interested in the question of the essence and origin of religion.  Underlying this interest was the assumption that their own religious tradition--Christianity--shared a common origin and essence with other religions.  The idea is that while religions have clearly evolved and differentiated from one another, they are ultimately branches growing from a common root.  In theory, that common root can be identified in terms of a universal human concern or existential condition.  Some prominent leaders of this effort include [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Adolf_Harnack_and_the_Search_for_Missing_Christianity Adolf Harnack] ['''the presence of the eternal within time'''], Friederich Schliermacher ['''the feeling of absolute dependence'''), and Rudolph Otto ['''the idea of the holy''']. In each case religion was understood to emerge from a single identifiable concern, universally common to the human heart.  The following article is presented in the [[spirit]] of that same quest.   

==Preface==

==Preface==

In addressing the subject of the origins of religion one is always in danger of offending the devout who believe that true religion originates only through [[divine]]ly given [[revelation]], or the [[skeptic]]s who maintain that religion is a human cultural product and thus heavily contrived if not outright [[fiction]]al.  My hope is that what I present here represents a "third way."  I will state in advance that my while my theory is fully humanistic and phenomenological, it by no means repudiates the possibility or [[reality]] of revelation.  I do claim, however, that religion as an attitude arises in the human heart prior to revelation, and insofar as revelations do exist they are, with few [[Sui Generis|exceptions]], sought and/or recognized by those hearts and minds that are religiously prepared for them, a priori.  

In addressing the subject of the origins of religion one is always in danger of offending the devout who believe that true religion originates only through [[divine]]ly given [[revelation]], or the [[skeptic]]s who maintain that religion is a human cultural product and thus heavily contrived if not outright [[fiction]]al.  My hope is that what I present here represents a "third way."  I will state in advance that my while my theory is fully humanistic and phenomenological, it by no means repudiates the possibility or [[reality]] of revelation.  I do claim, however, that religion as an attitude arises in the human heart prior to revelation, and insofar as revelations do exist they are, with few [[Sui Generis|exceptions]], sought and/or recognized by those hearts and minds that are religiously prepared for them, a priori.