Religion is a powerful and effective answer to many of the problems that have plagued our society. It can help to strengthen family life, increase productivity, and reduce crime. It can also promote mental and physical health. Studies show that people who attend religious services regularly are less prone to depression and anxiety, more likely to live longer, and more satisfied with their lives. Despite these positive benefits, America is increasingly secular, and regular religious practice is often ignored by public policymakers, psychotherapists, and educators. This is a shame, because Americans desperately need religion.
In its earliest use, the concept religion was a synonym for scrupulous devotion or the feeling of obligation. Its sense has shifted over time, as anthropologists and sociologists have sought to understand it more clearly. Some scholars use a “substantive” definition of religion that requires a belief in a distinctive kind of reality. Others prefer a “functional” definition, one that distinguishes religion by what it does for its adherents. Still others, like Talal Asad, adopt Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach to the concept and seek to conceive it as a cultural type that emerges from the disciplined techniques of power.
A third approach, popularized by Emile Durkheim, is a combination of the substantive and functional. This entails identifying the beliefs and practices that unite people into a moral community, whether or not they believe in any unusual realities. These characteristics are then used to compare different forms of life and generate explanatory theories. This is called a polythetic approach, because it allows for the co-occurrence of several properties that identify a class as religious.