WorkDenis Diderot

On the Sufficiency of Natural Religion

An early deist manifesto Diderot never printed — it surfaced in 1770 under the name of Vauvenargues, a moralist twenty years dead.

by Denis Diderot29 passages held

French, the original language

Original title: De la suffisance de la religion naturelle
Original language: French

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Overview

Diderot wrote it young, around 1746, and let it sit. Twenty-seven short reflections make one argument: that a religion built on reason and the plain evidence of nature is enough, and that revelation, miracles and priesthoods add nothing a thinking person needs — natural religion suffices, so the rest is surplus. He never published it. It first reached print in 1770, when Jacques-André Naigeon — the same editor who prepared Holbach's anonymous attacks on religion — slipped it into his Recueil philosophique and put it out under a false "London" imprint that in fact came off Marc-Michel Rey's Amsterdam press. Naigeon fathered the piece on Vauvenargues, the moralist Luc de Clapiers, dead for over twenty years and so unable to claim or deny it — the same trick of the borrowed dead name that carried so much of this circle's work into the world. The essay belongs to the young Diderot of the Philosophical Thoughts, still arguing for a God that reason might reach rather than the materialist he later became, which is likely why he never signed it: by 1770 it recorded a position he had left behind. It survived not as his book but as a ghost of someone else's, filed under a name its author never chose.

Key concepts

What is natural religion?

Religion grounded in reason and the plain evidence of nature rather than in scripture or revelation. It holds that a thinking person can arrive at God, if the evidence warrants one, and at the moral duties that follow, simply by observing the world honestly. Diderot treats it as the whole of what religion needs to be, available to anyone anywhere without a church to mediate it.

What does 'sufficiency' mean in the title?

That natural religion is enough, complete in itself. The title claims the sufficiency of the religion of nature: whatever reason and evidence cannot supply, a person does not actually need. Everything revelation adds, miracles, scriptures, priesthoods, is therefore surplus rather than necessity. The single word carries the book's entire thesis, that the plain religion of reason leaves nothing essential out.

Why does Diderot think revelation is unnecessary?

Because natural religion already provides what matters, and revelation adds only what divides. Reason is shared by all and leads toward agreement; revelation differs from sect to sect and has set people at war. So what only some receive by special disclosure cannot be essential, since the rest reach virtue and belief without it. Revelation is redundant at best and a source of strife at worst.

How does this book relate to the Philosophical Thoughts?

It is its companion. Both come from Diderot's deist years around 1746, before his turn to materialism, and both argue for a God that reason might reach rather than deny God outright. Where the Philosophical Thoughts weighs belief in numbered fragments, this piece presses the single claim that natural religion suffices. Diderot later abandoned the position, which is likely why he never signed either as his own doctrine.

Why did it appear under Vauvenargues's name?

As cover. Diderot never printed the essay; it first reached print in 1770 when Naigeon, the editor who prepared Holbach's anonymous attacks, slipped it into his Recueil philosophique under a false London imprint that actually came off Rey's Amsterdam press. Naigeon fathered it on the moralist Vauvenargues, dead over twenty years and unable to claim or deny it, the borrowed dead name this circle used again and again.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Natural religion is enough

How much religion does a thinking person actually need? Diderot answers across these reflections that only what reason and the plain evidence of nature supply counts — everything past that is surplus.

The book makes one argument across twenty-seven short reflections: a religion founded on reason and the evidence of nature suffices for both belief and virtue. What such natural religion cannot supply, a thinking person does not need. God, if reason warrants one, and the moral duties that follow, are available to anyone who looks at the world honestly, without scripture or clergy. This is the young Diderot, still a deist and close to the Philosophical Thoughts, arguing not yet that there is no God but that the God of nature is all one requires. He never signed it; by the time it surfaced he had left the position behind.

natural religion
natural law
reason
evidence
epistemology
virtue
divine justice
religious pluralism

Enter a dialogue

What revelation only adds

If nature's religion is enough, what is revealed religion for? Diderot's answer is unflattering: revelation, miracles and priesthoods add nothing necessary, and bring division where reason would bring agreement.

Set natural religion, open to anyone with reason, beside revealed religion, which differs from sect to sect and nation to nation, and the contrast does the arguing. What all people can reach by reason unites them; what only some receive by revelation divides them, and has set them at each other's throats. Revelation, miracles and priestly authority are therefore surplus at best and a source of strife at worst, adding demands and disagreements the plain religion of nature never needed. Naigeon slipped the piece into a collection in 1770 under a false imprint and a dead moralist's name, Vauvenargues, one more borrowed name carrying this circle's work into print.

revelation
revealed religion
universalism
universality
comparative religion
grace
moral knowledge
religious epistemology

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 29
distinct concepts: 64
by passages held, corpus-wide: #255

What this book thinks together

Every arc around the wheel is one concept in this book. A ribbon joins two the text reaches for together, and its width is how many of its passages hold both. Strongest: ethics with natural religion.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 7 pairings. 16 shared passages in all. 5 weaker pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
ethics	natural religion	3
natural religion	theodicy	3
comparative religion	natural religion	2
consensus	natural religion	2
divine attributes	natural religion	2
divine providence	natural religion	2
evidence	natural religion	2

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

1746 Philosophical Thoughts (Pensées philosophiques)
Diderot's first substantial book, from before his turn to materialism: a deist still arguing here for a God nature might warrant. The form — numbered fragments — is lifted from Pascal and pointed against him.
FR
1773 Conversation of a Father with His Children (Entretien d'un père avec ses enfants)
A semi-autobiographical dialogue rather than a treatise, staging Diderot's own family in Langres to weigh law against conscience; one of the moral fictions he sent out through Grimm's private newsletter rather than into print.
FR
1796 Supplement to Bougainville's Voyage (Supplément au voyage de Bougainville)
One of the philosophical dialogues Diderot wrote late and kept for private circulation, appearing only after his death; here the frame is a real Pacific voyage, and the question is whether Europe's morals are nature's or its own.
FR
1805 Rameau's Nephew (Le neveu de Rameau)
A satirical dialogue between a level-headed philosopher and a brilliant scoundrel — the most unsettling and least classifiable thing Diderot wrote, and the one he kept out of print entirely.
FR
On the Sufficiency of Natural Religion (De la suffisance de la religion naturelle) you are here FR

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