The word religion derives from the Latin religio (respect for what is sacred) and religare (to bind, in the sense of an obligation). Throughout history, religious narratives, symbols, and traditions have served as a way to give meaning to life, offer guidance on how to live, and provide a framework for understanding the universe. Some form of religion has been found in every known culture. Religious ideas and beliefs have been an important part of the human experience, influencing art, literature, and science as well as political structures and economics. The idea of God has been a driving force in the evolution of civilizations and cultures, as has the concept of heaven, hell, and other afterlives.
Despite this widespread influence, the nature of religion is not easily defined. One important feature is that it involves a valuation of the world, with people willing to live according to and even die for the values that they believe in. Religion is also an organized system of beliefs, practices, and symbols that facilitates the experience of transcendence, or communion with the divine.
Religious people recognize their dependence on the Divine, and are persuaded that in friendly communion with the Deity or gods they can obtain help, guidance, peace, and happiness, or at least a prospect of these. The virtue of religion consists in man’s acknowledgment of his helplessness, the perception of his need of Divine assistance, the conviction that in friendly communion with the Deity he can find these things and, therefore, a willingness to perform certain acts of homage in order to attain them.
The idea of the supernatural and a transcendent, mystical quality to life is present in all religions. Some religions, such as Islam and Hinduism, focus on a personal God who is involved in everyday lives, while others, like Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism, have more of an emphasis on ethics, community, and a spiritual life. The nature of the Divine is also different between religions, with some believing in a single all-powerful God and others believing in multiple gods.
In addition, there are many different ideas about the origins of religion. Anthropologists who study the development of human societies often see religion as a response to a biological or cultural need. Biologically, they suggest that humans created spirituality as a reaction to their realization that they would eventually die and that this required a belief in an afterlife. Culturally, they say that religion was a response to the fear of death and a search for ways to avoid it or to gain a better place in the next world.
In spite of this difficulty in defining the term, social scientists have developed functional models of religion to guide their studies. These include Ross’s (1901:197) concept of religion as a mechanism for social control, Weber’s (1922:17) concept of charisma, and Parsons’ early work on the Verstehen school of functional analysis. The latter favored the use of substantive definitions while retaining a functional model of religion, and this has been the approach used in this article.