Chapter 1 — What Is Religion? — The Problem of Definition

Estimated reading time: 12–15 minutes

Religion is one of the most familiar features of human civilization and one of the most difficult to define.

We recognize churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, shrines, sacred books, priests, monks, prayers, pilgrimages, sacrifices, festivals, and rituals as religious. Yet the more widely we compare human traditions, the harder it becomes to identify one characteristic shared by everything ordinarily called religion.

Does religion require belief in God?

If so, some forms of Buddhism and Jainism would be excluded.

Does religion require worship?

Confucianism contains ritual traditions and reverence for ancestors, but many adherents understand it primarily as a moral and social philosophy.

Does religion require sacred writings?

Many indigenous religious traditions existed for centuries without written scriptures.

Does religion concern supernatural beings?

Some traditions concentrate more upon ultimate reality, cosmic order, enlightenment, or liberation than upon gods.

The difficulty of defining religion is therefore not merely academic. The definition we choose can determine which traditions we include and how we understand them.

The Word “Religion”

The English word religion comes through Latin religio.

Ancient Roman writers did not use the term in exactly the modern sense. It could refer to reverence, conscientious observance, sacred obligation, or proper attention to divine matters.

The modern idea of “religions” as distinct systems—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and others—developed gradually.

This reminds us that even the category religion has a history.

People in ancient societies did not necessarily separate religion from politics, family, law, agriculture, warfare, or culture in the way modern Western societies often do.

For many peoples, religion was not one compartment of life.

It was part of the structure of life itself.

Definitions Based on Belief in God

A simple definition might be:

Religion is belief in and worship of God or gods.

This works reasonably well for many traditions.

Christianity teaches belief in the one God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Judaism proclaims:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
— Deuteronomy 6:4

Islam likewise insists upon the absolute oneness of God.

Sikhism strongly affirms one God.

Many ancient religions worshiped multiple gods.

But the definition breaks down when applied universally.

Classical Jainism does not require a Creator God.

Buddhism generally does not make belief in a Creator central to liberation.

Some philosophical forms of Hinduism speak of ultimate reality in ways that differ considerably from ordinary Western ideas of a personal God.

A definition restricted to belief in deity is therefore too narrow.

Religion as Relationship With the Sacred

Another influential approach defines religion in relation to the sacred.

The sacred refers to things understood as set apart from ordinary existence and possessing special religious significance.

Sacred things can include:

Persons
Places
Times
Objects
Texts
Rituals
Foods
Mountains
Rivers
Buildings
Symbols

A temple may be sacred.

A particular day may be sacred.

A scripture may be sacred.

A river may be sacred.

A meal may become sacred through ritual use.

This approach allows us to compare traditions without assuming that all religions believe in the same kind of deity.

Yet it raises another question:

What makes something sacred?

The answer differs dramatically among religions.

In biblical thought, holiness ultimately belongs to God:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.”
— Isaiah 6:3

Things become holy because they are related to the holy God.

Other traditions may understand sacredness through cosmic power, ancestral presence, purity, tradition, or divine manifestation.

Religion as a System of Meaning

Another approach defines religion as a system that gives people an interpretation of reality.

Religion answers questions such as:

Where did the world come from?
What is a human being?
What is wrong with the world?
How should we live?
What happens when we die?
What ultimately matters?

In this sense, religion functions as a worldview.

A worldview is a comprehensive framework through which people understand existence.

This approach explains why religious convictions influence much more than worship.

Religious beliefs can shape:

Marriage
Family
Law
Government
Economics
Diet
Clothing
Education
Burial
Warfare
Charity
Sexual ethics
Treatment of outsiders

Religion frequently provides an entire framework for life.

Religion as Practice

Western observers sometimes concentrate heavily upon religious beliefs.

But many traditions emphasize what people do at least as strongly as what they intellectually affirm.

Religion may involve:

Lighting incense
Washing before prayer
Reciting sacred words
Bowing
Fasting
Giving alms
Going on pilgrimage
Observing dietary laws
Receiving sacraments
Meditating
Chanting
Offering sacrifices
Celebrating festivals

This has led scholars to emphasize lived religion.

Lived religion asks not merely:

What does this religion officially teach?

It also asks:

What do ordinary adherents actually do?

The distinction can be substantial.

A formal theological system may describe one thing, while popular religious practice contains customs, local traditions, family rituals, folk beliefs, and practices inherited through culture.

Religion as Community

Religion is also social.

Religious communities create shared identities.

A person may identify as:

Christian
Jewish
Muslim
Hindu
Buddhist
Sikh
Jain
Shinto
Taoist

Such identities can involve beliefs, but they can also involve ancestry, family, history, language, festivals, foods, customs, and collective memory.

Someone may therefore identify culturally with a religious tradition while personally holding few of its theological beliefs.

Religion cannot always be reduced to private conviction.

It often creates a people.

Religion as Experience

Another approach emphasizes religious experience.

People throughout history have reported experiences interpreted as encounters with the divine or transcendent.

These include:

Visions
Dreams
Mystical experiences
Conversion
Prophetic experiences
Ecstasy
Awe
A sense of divine presence
Enlightenment
Inner peace
Experiences during prayer or meditation

Such experiences may be psychologically powerful.

But an important distinction must be maintained:

The reality of an experience does not automatically prove the truth of the interpretation placed upon it.

People belonging to contradictory religious traditions may all report profound experiences.

The Berean approach therefore takes religious experience seriously while testing its interpretation.

Scripture itself commands discernment:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”
— 1 John 4:1

Religion as Ultimate Concern

Some modern thinkers have defined religion broadly as whatever gives a person an ultimate commitment or concern.

This has the advantage of explaining why apparently secular ideologies sometimes function in ways resembling religion.

People may devote themselves absolutely to:

Nationalism
Political ideology
Wealth
Race
Revolution
Technology
Personal identity
Human progress

Such commitments can generate rituals, sacred symbols, martyrs, taboos, communities, and moral visions.

However, if religion becomes simply “whatever matters most,” the category can become so broad that almost everything becomes religious.

A definition must therefore be broad enough to include genuine religious diversity without becoming meaningless.

Seven Dimensions of Religion

One useful comparative approach is to recognize that religions contain several dimensions rather than one defining feature.

These commonly include:

Doctrinal or philosophical beliefs
Sacred stories
Ritual practices
Religious experiences
Ethical teachings
Communities and institutions
Material expressions, such as sacred buildings, objects, clothing, and art

Not every religion emphasizes each dimension equally.

Christianity strongly emphasizes historical claims concerning Jesus Christ.

Judaism combines covenant identity, Torah, worship, history, and peoplehood.

Islam strongly integrates belief, revelation, law, prayer, and communal identity.

Buddhist traditions often emphasize practice and liberation from suffering.

Confucianism gives extraordinary importance to moral cultivation, ritual, and social order.

Shinto concentrates heavily upon ritual relationship with the kami and purity.

This multidimensional approach allows comparison without forcing every religion into the same mold.

Is Christianity a Religion?

Christians sometimes say:

“Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship.”

There is an important truth behind this statement.

Christian faith is not merely ritual observance or human effort to reach God. The gospel proclaims reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus describes eternal life as knowing God:

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
— John 17:3

Nevertheless, historically and academically, Christianity clearly qualifies as a religion.

Christianity contains:

Beliefs
Scriptures
Worship
Sacraments
Moral teachings
Communities
Clergy
Sacred history
Religious institutions

The statement “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion” can therefore be spiritually meaningful but should not be used as a precise academic definition.

The New Testament itself can use language translated as “religion.”

James writes:

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
— James 1:27

The issue is not whether Christianity can be called religion.

The deeper question is whether religious practice reflects genuine faith in God.

The Biblical Critique of Religion

The Bible does not automatically approve religious activity.

Cain brought an offering.

The prophets of Baal conducted elaborate rituals.

Israel sometimes maintained sacrifices while practicing injustice.

The prophets repeatedly condemned worship that had become detached from obedience.

God declares through Isaiah:

“This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.”
— Isaiah 29:13

Jesus later applies this principle to religious hypocrisy.

The biblical question is therefore not simply:

Are people religious?

It is:

Whom are they worshiping, and are they responding faithfully to God’s revelation?

A Working Definition

For this study we will use a broad working definition:

Religion is an organized or inherited pattern of beliefs, practices, stories, experiences, ethical commitments, symbols, and communal traditions through which people relate themselves to what they understand as sacred, transcendent, or ultimately real.

This definition is not perfect.

No definition is.

But it allows us to study widely different traditions without assuming beforehand that all religions contain the same beliefs.

Berean Reflection

The difficulty of defining religion reveals something important.

Human beings do not merely ask practical questions about food, shelter, survival, and reproduction.

We ask ultimate questions.

We bury our dead.

We remember our ancestors.

We wonder about eternity.

We seek forgiveness.

We confront suffering.

We ask whether existence has meaning.

Scripture explains this impulse partly through humanity’s relationship to its Creator:

“He has put eternity into man’s heart.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:11

Yet Scripture also warns that humanity can direct its religious longing toward false objects.

Religion can express genuine searching.

It can also become idolatry.

It can produce compassion.

It can also justify oppression.

It can preserve truth.

It can also preserve error.

For the Berean student, religion must therefore be understood carefully and tested faithfully.

Scripture as Our Final Authority

Academic definitions help us describe religion.

They cannot determine which religious claims are true.

For that, the Berean Bible Study Project returns to Scripture.

The Bible presents humanity as created by God, accountable to God, estranged through sin, and called back to God through his revelation.

Religious diversity is therefore not itself proof that all religious paths are equally valid.

Jesus makes a particular claim:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
— John 14:6

That claim must itself be investigated rather than merely assumed.

But if it is true, the study of religion ultimately becomes a search not only for what human beings believe about God, but for what God has revealed about himself.

Next Chapter → Chapter 2 — The Origins of Religion — What Can History Tell Us?