So for the next podcast, I'm thinking of starting on the topic of "Natural Religion", not natural theology but religion. Thinking of taking a more anthropological/historical approach to extra-Israel-Christian religious practices and beliefs.
In usual philo of religion, where you prove the divine existence by arguments, have been argued already by many others, not much reasons to rehash them. St Paul in Acts 17:28 appealed to their poets. Will make an individual video justifying this approach philosophically.
So here are some texts I want to look at: Winfried Corduan's book arguing for "primitive monotheism", where religions generally started out monotheistic before becoming polytheistic, I think would be a good place to start.
Then I want to compare some of the ancient sources materials, in particular I intend to examine Mozi, an ancient Chinese philosopher, whose conception of God probably comes closest to Christianity's, I would like some aboriginal/Maori source materials as well. I think it would be best to avoid the Mediterranean in general because of their close contact to Israel and special divine revelation. But if you have any other recommended ancient source text, would love to see it.
Finally, I want to conclude with Edward Herbert, the "Father of English Deism", for how "deism" was first conceived. It isn't the usual American deism because he argues that natural religion teaches man to pray and to expect prayers to be answered, so it isn't a "hands off" God. Of course, Herbert's conception of "natural religion", like Aquinas's conception of "natural law", already contains a Christian bias being formulated in Christendom, so we need to wary about using him as evidence of natural religion. But I think he would be good for summing up the shape and contours of what a "perfected" natural religion would look like, even if empirically all cultures will fail to attain it, prior to encounter with the bearers of salvation history.