ABSTRACT
Religious models provide an understanding of the meaning or significance of our lives and of the world in which we live and in relation to which we act. In this way they determine our actions and attitudes. The fact that religious or ideological beliefs entail moral principles does not exclude the possibility that one might subscribe to the moral principles and at the same time take leave of the religious beliefs. If the relation between religious belief and morality is an external one, it becomes difficult to maintain that the moral principles of believers are distinctive to their religious tradition. Different religions and views of life provide their adherents with different metaphors and models in terms of which life and the world can be understood, and these are definitive for the religions and views of life in question.
