4 The concept of religion in the Early Christian Literature Georgios Gaitanos
Head of the Department of Theology & Culture, Lecturer of Religious Studies, University College Logos, Tirana
Corespondence:
e-mail: gaitanosg@yahoo.gr
Abstract
Father tried to study religion or religious interactions with any scientific approach.
The paper seeks to highlight how to understand and interpret the term “religion” during a period when “religion” was not a clear and distinct conceptual category, as it is now understood in the western world from the Enlightenment onwards. Through the study of the sources of Early Christian literature I seek to present more data that will help to understand the mentality of the people of the first three centuries AD to highlight the evolution of thought on the subject of “religion”. Analytical statistics will be presented on the different meanings of the term and how often it was used by the Christian authors. Another goal is to point out what practices or concepts are associated with “religion”, to decipher when the meaning of the term differs and for what purpose, to find out if in some texts or if any Church
Keywords: religion, definition, Early Christianity, study of religion.
Citation:
Gaitanos G. The concept of religion in the Early Christian Literature. Theology & Culture. 2021; 3: 35-80. Doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35768.26883
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