Religions are all around us, and are deeply woven into the fabric of human society. They are also a powerful force for change and transformation, as well as an object of intense study in the academic world. The modern field of Religious Studies, as we know it, grew from the recognition that the diverse and powerful practices of religions were worthy of academic inquiry.
The definition of religion varies considerably, but many scholars have worked on the functional approach of Durkheim, or the axiological one of Paul Tillich. This definition focuses on the ways in which religions organize values that people find important, and gives them an orientation for their lives. In this sense, religion is whatever concerns the mind and heart of an individual, whether or not those concerns involve belief in unusual realities.
Another way to think about religion is the way in which it is a system for monitoring, coding, protecting, and transmitting information that has proven valuable to humans over time. This information can range from sex and love, to cosmological orders and philosophies, to the meaning of life and what happens after death. Religions protect and transmit this information in ways that are unique to them, which is why they deserve a special name, and also why they have an important role to play in the human experience.
In light of these two approaches, it is no wonder that there are so many different things that have been described as a religion. And it may also explain why there is so much skepticism of the concept. Some of this skepticism is grounded in the idea that it is a modern invention, a Western notion that doesn’t make much sense of non-Western traditions.
Other critics have pushed the argument further, and claim that there is no such thing as a religion at all, or that it is a concept whose semantic expansion went hand in hand with European colonialism. This claim, however, is a denial that there are real things in the world that correspond to the idea of religion.
The term religiosity, for example, describes a broad pattern of behaviour that is common to many religions. So does being a sports fanatic. The fact that you’re a die-hard fan and never miss the game could well be a religion if it’s something you’re really into, and if you go out of your way to watch every single broadcast. This is why it is useful to think about the way in which we use the word, rather than to try and define it as a concept with a precise content. This kind of discussion is part of what makes religion so interesting. It’s an intellectual and emotional journey that is, at its core, an exploration of human possibility.