Religion between Last Judgement, law and faith: Koranic dīn and its rendering in Latin translations of the Koran

Abstract

In this article, the meaning of the Latin term religio and its equivalents in European languages is considered in a diachronical perspective, with a special focus on the history of the Koranic term dīn and its rendering in Latin translations. It is shown that the Koranic concept of religion goes back to late-antique Middle East sources, responsible for the different meanings of dīn in Koranic usage. As can be seen, there is a development from an older meaning of ‘law, judgement’ to a younger one, ‘religion’. Looking at the Latin translations of dīn from the 12th century onwards, there seems to be a similar development from lex (‘law’) to religio. This reflects, however, not only the etymology of Arabic dīn but also the influence of St Paul's theology of law picked up by Augustine and others. In the 15th century, then, Nicholas of Cusa was the first to use the term religio to denote Islam. This way, new light is shed on a (not exclusively) European Begriffsgeschichte of ‘religion ’.