Abstract

In the Western context, the understanding of religion is strongly influenced by the religious conceptions of the Greeks and Romans and, in particular, by the monotheistic religions. Since 1700, a stronger difference between concrete religio, in the sense of cultic worship, and religion in general has been made. A general concept of religion, which might also be employed in opposition to revealed religion, garnered significance in the course of the Enlightenment. Formerly, the prevalent terminology for non-Christian religion was fides, lex, or secta. Usually, non-Christian religions have not developed a general concept of religion. Despite the initial global turn in topics of religion in the nineteenth century, due to the academic interest in non-Christian religions, even in the present the application of a concept of religion oriented on Western standards is indispensable. Yet the openness of this descriptive concept is crucial. Notwithstanding the critique of a substantial and functional concept of religion, the efforts to define a systematic concept of religion remain relevant.