The volume brings together contributions that presents perspectives on the topic from different academic disciplines (protestant and catholic theology, Jewish studies, Islamic and Arabic studies, religious studies, philosophy, classical philology). The debate about whether there can be development in religion and theology can be traced from antiquity through the middle ages to modern times: Can we speak of "old" and "new" religions in relation to Greco-Roman cults, Judaism, Christianity and Islam? How are the terms "old"/"new", "progress" and "modernity" asserted within one and the same religion and its theology? These old questions are becoming urgently topical in the present - often completely unreflected - for example when looking for answers to the much-discussed crisis of faith in the Christian churches or when calling for a "modern" Islam.