Religion is an abstract term that has multiple interpretations. People use it to describe their relationships with gods, spirits or natural forces. They may also view their beliefs as a way to deal with ultimate concerns about their life and death. They may also believe that certain texts have scriptural status or that people are invested with spiritual or moral authority. Religion is an important part of many cultures around the world.
Some scholars have taken a broad view of religion and defined it as a genus that includes all human beliefs and practices. Others have tried to create a definition of religion that is more precise and can be used to distinguish different traditions. Neither approach is without its problems.
The problem with taking a broad view of religion is that it can be used to include ideas that most people do not regard as religious in the first place. Some definitions attempt to be more precise by defining religion as people’s relationship with the sacred, the spiritual or the divine.
Other scholars have attempted to define religion by identifying its functions or the ways that it organizes a society. Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist, viewed religion as a set of social practices that people organize around. His work is an important foundation for the discipline of sociology.
Durkheim’s views on religion are still widely held by sociologists and other scholars today. Some see his contribution as being the foundation of what is known as the “sociology of religion.”
It can be difficult to find a meaningful, useful definition of religion. Even scholars who spend a lifetime studying expressions of religion struggle to agree on what it is.
Most of the different definitions of religion that are available have a common feature. They identify a core set of beliefs that appear in all expressions of religion. These include the belief in a supreme being, the idea that one’s fate after death is determined by these gods and spirits, and the notion that people can acquire knowledge of their lives beyond this world through these texts, rituals, and other activities.
Some people have argued that these three dimensions of religion are all that one needs to understand it. Edward Tylor, for example, has proposed that the minimal definition of religion is belief in spiritual beings and a sense of ultimate concern. Paul Tillich has offered a functional criterion for what constitutes a religion, and Ninian Smart has suggested adding a fourth dimension of community to this list. These single criterion monothetic definitions all have their problems, however.