Modern science has already helped us greatly to eliminate certain ambiguities in our thinking. Here are a few essentials again, if needed!

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🕊️ 1. Concepts of “Faith” in Religious Studies

Religious studies often avoid the term faith (due to its Christian-theological roots) and instead use more neutral or analytical terms:

Concept	Description	Key Thinkers / Contexts
Religious practice	Focus on ritual, action, and symbols instead of belief content.	Talal Asad, Catherine Bell
Religious experience	Subjective encounter with the sacred or transcendent.	William James, Rudolf Otto
Worldview / Cosmology	Cognitive structure that explains the world and existence.	Clifford Geertz
Myth / Symbolic system	Narratives and symbols that give meaning.	Mircea Eliade, Paul Ricoeur
Belief system	Network of meanings and values.	Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann
Trust / Fides	Original Latin meaning of faith as trust or fidelity.	Classical theology, sociology
Religious semantics	Linguistic-symbolic forms of religious communication.	Niklas Luhmann, Hans Joas

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🧠 2. Psychological Concepts

In psychology and religious psychology, faith is viewed as a cognitive, emotional, or meaning-making process:

Concept	Description	Thinkers
Belief	Cognitive structure guiding perception and behavior.	General psychology
Religious attitude	Stable evaluation of religious content or practice.	Gordon Allport
Religious trust (faith as trust)	Emotional attachment to the transcendent.	James Fowler
Archetypal faith	Expression of collective unconscious patterns.	C. G. Jung
Spiritual / Peak experience	Intense experience of unity or transcendence.	Abraham Maslow
Meaning-making	Process of constructing significance in life.	Kenneth Pargament

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🌍 3. Cultural and Social-Theoretical Concepts

Here, faith is seen as part of cultural systems and social practices of meaning:

Concept	Description	Thinkers
Habitus / Disposition	Embodied attitude or religious style of life.	Pierre Bourdieu
Discourse / Dispositif	Cultural systems defining what counts as “faith.”	Michel Foucault
Symbolic order / Meaning world	Shared cultural system of significance.	Clifford Geertz, Peter Berger
Affective community	Shared emotional resonance around religious symbols.	Sara Ahmed
Social imaginary	Collective imagination of transcendence.	Charles Taylor, Cornelius Castoriadis
World relation	Mode of experiencing and relating to the world.	Hartmut Rosa, Hans Joas
Religious performativity	Faith as enacted through language and practice.	Birgit Meyer, Judith Butler (indirectly)

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🧩 4. Summary Table

Discipline	Focus	Typical Concepts
Theology	Truth and content of faith	Fides, Dogma, Revelation
Religious Studies	Symbolic and social practice	Ritual, Myth, Worldview
Psychology	Experience, trust, and meaning	Belief, Faith, Meaning-making
Cultural Theory	Collective meaning-making	Habitus, Discourse, Imaginary

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💬 Summary

Faith is a multidimensional phenomenon that can be understood as:

• social (practice, symbol system),
• psychological (trust, meaning), and
• cultural (discourse, imaginary).