Religion is any human system of beliefs and practices that binds together into a moral community those who share its values. Religion is also commonly conceived as consisting of a set of tenets, beliefs, and observances related to human beings’ relations with that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or worthy of especial reverence. Its ultimate concerns are often about the afterlife and human life’s meaning. In more traditional religious traditions, these may be expressed in terms of one’s relationship with gods or spirits; in more humanistic or naturalistic forms, they may involve a sense of awe and respect for the broader world or for natural phenomena.
Because of the wide range of practices that might fall under the rubric of “religion,” scholars have a variety of approaches for studying it. The simplest approach, influenced by the work of Emile Durkheim, seeks to define religion functionally as that which creates solidarity among its followers. This approach is often allied with the view that the observances and attitudes of religion are universal, although some scholars have tried to limit the concept to those aspects which are more essential to a particular culture.
Attempts to create a univocal definition for religion risk creating an abstract concept without any practical utility. One can see this danger in the search for a “social taxon” concept of religion, which would try to sort the various forms of belief and practice into a single family-resemblance category.