revealed religion

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.
   • 1856, Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet, ch. 16:

     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, Tono Bungay, ch. 2:

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

   • 2010 Sep. 19, Rachel Donadio and John F. Burns, "Pope Ends British Trip With Beatification," New York Times (retrieved 12 Aug 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.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I, ch. 6:

     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, Born In Exile, ch. 4:

     "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, King Midas, ch. 1:

     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 Oct. 7, David Selbourne, "This war is not about terror, it's about Islam," Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 12 Aug 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.

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