Religion is a system of beliefs and practices that people regard as sacred. It includes not only what a person thinks and feels about God, but also his or her observance of ritual, the performance of vows such as poverty, chastity, and obedience, and a set of moral rules. It also includes the belief that a person can attain a state of eternal bliss, or at least avoid Hell and its punishments. The term is used to refer to the beliefs and observances of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism as well as the traditional folk religions of indigenous peoples.
In the strictest sense of the word, however, religion is a recognition on the part of man of his dependence on the Divine, and a voluntarily acknowledged acknowledgment of that dependency through acts of homage. Such a recognition involves not only the will, but the intellect, imagination, and emotions. It provokes gratitude for the blessings received; fear of having offended or estranged the Divine, with the consequent need to seek forgiveness; and the joy of a friendship acquired with a protector so good and powerful.
The recognition of the need for Divine help engenders hope, and the persuasion that one can bring himself into friendly communion with a God or deities who can supply that need evokes a feeling of hopefulness. It is this feeling that constitutes the core of religion, and it is what distinguishes it from nonreligious attitudes.
For many scholars, including Emile Durkheim, the social function of religion is its ability to create solidarity among its members. Durkheim’s approach to religion continues to influence sociological thinking, and it focuses on the importance of the subjective perception of the sacred in the process of creating a religious experience.
Alternatively, some people have taken a functionalist approach to the concept of religion, focusing on the ways that religious beliefs and observances organize a person’s values. Paul Tillich adopted this approach, and he defined religion as whatever dominant concern serves to integrate a person’s values.
Others have criticized the functionalist perspective, noting that it neglects to consider whether or not the religion itself is true or even logically sound. They argue that the focus on the invisible mental states of believers distorts the picture and ignores the fact that what makes something a religion is not just its ideas but also its institutions, observances, and practices. Moreover, they argue that a definition of religion must include the notion of community. This last point has been emphasized by recent reflexive work, which has pulled the camera back, so to speak, and revealed the constructed nature of objects that have previously been taken for granted as unproblematically “there”. This reflexive turn in scholarship has led some scholars to question the relevance of a term that has evolved from an originally etymologically neutral taxon of sets of social practices, to a concept that now entails a range of ideological claims and assumptions.