Why (and when) Should We Speak of Implicit Religion?

Abstract

In contrast to an understanding of religion which centres on phenomena we associate explicitly with religious traditions, we can, and have to, think of religion as it presents itself implicitly in the formation of these and other phenomena. In terms of their formation, they belong to the field of religious developments, regardless of whether or not we happen to associate them with the explicit understanding of religion. The paper is an attempt to explain the meaning of implicit religion as a symbol which directs the mind to the formation of religious phenomena and to forms of actual religiosity which either precede the stage in which they present themselves in terms of a specific tradition, or are not explicitly identified as religion.