Religion without revelation is dead or dying. When creativity and spontaneity are missing from religious experience in worship and celebration of life revelation is also missing.

        By nature, man is a religious being just as  by nature he is a physical being. When we refer to religion in its broadest sense, i.e., as a system of orientation and an object of devotion, then, ideally, every human being is religious. There has never been any people yet disclosed in history, whether they were primitive or modern, brutish or sophisticated, who did not have some form of religion. In a nutshcll, an understanding of what life is all about, however personal or limited it may be, is one's religion.
      Religion is the belief in God or in a god or a group of gods. It is an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship God, god or a group of gods. And it may be an interest, a belief or an activity that is very important to a person or group.
    There are many - certainly more than one - faiths or religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism Islam, Judaism and Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan. Even a full-fledged hermit can be, indeed is, religious, whether or not he is connected with or is a member of a religious organization.
    Now let us turn our attention to revelation before dealing with the relationship, more correctly, the absence of revelation from the religious experience. Revelation means that something has been revealed or disclosed, especially a striking or "eye-opening," so to speak, disclosure of something not before revealed. Revelation is divine illumination. Theologially speaking, revelation is God's disclosure of Himself and His will to human beings.
  Progressive revelation. "Progressive" is a modifier. Revelation has to reveal or else it is not revelation. Progressive revelation has to not only reveal but to reveal progressively in a logical or systematic connected way in order to be what it claims to be and to substantiate itself as authentic. With progressive revelation each revelation builds on the previous revelation known in that particular environment or  geographical area, and in turn become the foundation for a subseaqent revelation. It is as if the previous revelations find fulfillment and completion in the manifestation of the most recent or present revelation. This, in principle is close to Hegel's method of dialectics, in which there is a starting point called the "thesis," and in seeking completeness there is the "antithesis." To deal with the incompletness of the thesis-anthesis conflict a "synthesis" emerges out of the conflict. The synthesis may become or produce a new thesis.
      The progressive-minded recipient of progressive revelation keeps an open mind to the probability that the last revelation received may not be the final revelation, notwithstanding its place of ultimacy, while becoming ceases in the present as being is becoming. This is a paradox or mystery that can only be accepted as the truth that it is by faith.
     Religion without revelation is religion without progressive revelation. God, the Source, Ultimate Creator and Sustainer, constantly reveals Himelf/Herself/Itself. Of course, neither of these pronouns sufficiently describes the Et cetera called God. Some call the Creator Et cetera; I call the Creator God. Ask yourself this question? "Am I self-created?" Any serious thinking on this question will suggest that there is a Creator who is not I, not anybody, or anything known other than the Creator. Religion without revelation is dead or dying. Void of creativity and spontaneity, it does not have power to rejuvenate, exalt or nourish the spirit that ceaselessly yearns to be one with the Cosmic Source.
      God is still speaking. He speaks continually, not just in sacred scriptures but in myriad ways, even in a flower or the thunder. Are we seeing and listening? Are we grasping what is revealed? Or, are we holding fast to tradition, the status quo, dogmas and cynicism, things and practices that blind us to present awareness, hence to experience present reality?
       With "religion without revelation" the worshiper worships a god or gods spelled, and rightly so, with a small "g." This god or gods is/are too small to be Creator, Universal Father and the "I AM THAT" God told Moses to tell the people held in captivity by Pharoah who had sent him to aid them in their deliverance. I AM THAT means that God is THAT - healing, provision, guidance whatever is needed, according to his will and purpose. God is THAT new thing, even a new Heaven and a new Earth. So get ready for the never-been-before and supernatural serendipity to appear.
     Warning! Do not let the old-time religion or allegiance to the Founding Fathers' offerings interfere with or prevent you from experiencing God's presence in the present. Embrace the religion with progressive revelation. In the final (last received) revelation there is no final revelation.