Naturalism and Religion

Naturalism and Religion is by Rudolf Otto, translated by J. Arthur Thomson and Margaret R. Thomson. The contents list sets out what is distinctive in the religious outlook and in the naturalistic outlook, and includes a heading on Goethe's attitude to naturalism. Chapter III in the contents takes up fundamental principles and how the religious and the naturalistic outlooks conflict, naming mystery, dependence and purpose.

The text says of all religious conceptions that they weave themselves together out of the most inward and subtle experiences, out of impressions which are coarsened in the very act of expressing them. The text says that the highest synthesis, that of proteids, has not yet been discovered, but perhaps that, too, may yet be achieved. The text also says that religion itself consists in believing and experiencing that in time the Eternal, in the finite the Infinite, in the world God is working, revealing Himself, and that in Him lies the reason and cause of all being.