This is one of several short musical sketches with brief, epigraphic texts that Ives included in his self-financed volume of 114 Songs. The music appears to have originated in an anthem, later lost, composed by Ives in 1902 while he was the organist of the Central Presbyterian Church at Seventh Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan.

In that position, he did little to surprise or upset the congregation, but by 1910, when this song seems to have been written, he would sometimes add some strange touches, including mysterious streams of chords and a bass line in parallel fifths. This kind of texture creates an ancient, organum-like sonority, which is one reason that it was banned by standard Western harmony "rules" for centuries.

As touched up in 1920 for publication in 114 Songs, Religion had a basically diatonic melodic line over harmony that moves unpredictably. The text is from Dr. James T. Bixby's "Modern Dogmatism," which asserts that "there is no unbelief" as "the heart lives by faith the lips deny." On these words, the music builds to a mild version of Ives' usual "transcendental" texture. Then the song attempts to evoke eternity by subsiding into quiet chords; the sequence of chords ends in G flat minor, a tonality far from the opening's solid D major only 14 measures earlier. Along the way there is a small quotation of the revival tune "The Shining Shore."

This is perhaps not one of the more memorable songs by Ives, but it is pretty and evocative.

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