Religious faith is built upon over time, apparently until it means something dear to the practitioner. This pratitioner's faith is dear to himself, not to others.

But this idealized description is not neccessarily the case for all those who embrace faith. For example, some religiously minded people are so enamoured of their faith and its personal meaning, that they cannot understand that others might reject it. They sometimes think atheists hate god. This very personal faith is thought by some theists as objectively demonstrable, as obvious. This is overreaching faith's meaning. Further, faith is sometimes replaced by fear.

Perhaps awe, it might be argued, is a term for a common element in spiritual systems. Faith or fear may be universals. But, this awe, too, is felt by an individual, or his soul, of his god. This indicates the commonality of spirits and superspirits in spiritual systems, however, and is not evidence of additional base common elements.