This paper outlines tensions between religion and the liberal script, arguing that contemporary political science and liberal political theory fail to address this question on the basic level – the level of religion as such (as different from the level of particular religions or religious organizations). It questions „critical religion“ for considering religion as a social construct restricting deeper analysis. Drawing on approaches to the liberal script that distinguish individual and collective self-determination as its core principles, the paper focuses on the unity and tension between two similar poles in religion – the collective (logic of the sacred) and the individual (logic of salvation). The paper examines each pole through the lens of key theorists of religion and discusses how these dimensions conflict with the liberal script. Four spaces of tension between religion and the liberal script (as an ideal type) are singled out and analysed: non-liberal religion, illiberal religion (collective pole), illiberal religion (individual pole) and “beyond liberal” religion (pole of transformed collectivity).