Abstract

Theology as a confessional discipline is challenged to prove its academic character. Only the distanced view to religion, as it is significant for non-confessional religious studies, seems to be in a position to deal with the cultural phenomenon called ‘religion’ in a serious academic manner. Theology should to live up to the challenge by proposing itselfs specific concept of ‘religion’. It is in this field, that we find the topic of an fruitful and dialectical encounter between both disciplines, theology and religious studies. On the one hand, theories of religion, as they arose in the context of modern protestantism, can show, that ‘religion’ embodies the concept, by which this confessional tradition transcends its own particularity towards the universality of the human. On the other hand, modern religous studies have evidenced, that we have ‘religion’ only in the particular diversity of practised religions. Against this background, the paper argues for a specific protestant concept of religion, which works out the dialectic between particularity and universality in terms of the relation of the divine absolute and the human individual – focussing on the transparent constitution of the freedom of individuals. The paper concludes with reflections on a concept of modern culture, which allows for realisation of this freedom.