Religion is a term used to describe the set of beliefs, practices, and moral codes that guide a group’s life. Religions can have positive or negative social consequences for their adherents. Sociological perspectives on the topic expand upon this notion and explore how religion can bring people together or be a source of conflict, with examples like the religious persecution that occurred in medieval Europe or the wars that have been fought over religious differences throughout history.
The word itself derives from a Greek adjective meaning “to worship.” In the most general sense, the concept of religion encompasses human beings’ relations with that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or worthy of special reverence. It may also include the way humans deal with their ultimate concerns about death and their fate after death.
In some traditions, such as Buddhism or some forms of Christianity, this is done through the concept of reincarnation. In other traditions, such as Islam or Hinduism, this is done through the concept of gods or a supreme being.
The study of religion can be distorted when a monothetic approach is employed. The eminent anthropologist E. Evans-Pritchard feared that theory was being abused and warned that a univocal definition of religion was in danger of being developed, a sort of lowest common denominator that could be defined in any culture without distortion. Yet this sort of distrust of theory is unwarranted. An adequate conception of religion can be found by combining a lexical definition with a hermeneutical approach (such as Hans Jonas’ intelligent application of the concept of Geworfenheit or Rudolf Otto’s category of the holy) and with a pragmatic view of the nature of empirical research.