Commonplace Entry 9: William Blake's All Religions Are One
7 Principles outlined by 18th Century Poet William Blake helped define his philosophy that all religions have premise in the same root of origination. "Principle 2nd" states, "As all men are alike in outward form, So (and with the same infinite variety) all are alike in the Poetic Genius" (126).
According to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Romantic Period, Blake was both against Natural Deism and Christian Orthodoxy (125). Using language and style relative to both schools of thought, Blake set about to create a new argument. He believed all people possessed the same creative spark of Genius, derived from Roman ideology. And because of this belief in imaginative spark, he argued that all people have some intrinsic value and potential.
Blake, William. All Religions Are One: The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness, The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 10th Edition, Volume D, The Romantic Period, New York, London, W.W. Norton Company, 2018, pp. 125-126.
