Ways of defining religion
Substantive definitions
- It focus on the content or substance of religious belief, such as belief in God or the supernatural.
- Weber defines religion as belief in a superior supernatural power that is above nature and cannot be explained scientifically.
- Substantive definitions are exclusive. They draw a clear line between religious and non-religious beliefs.
- Defining religion in this way leaves no room for beliefs and practices that perform similar functions to religion but do not involve belief in God.
Functional definitions
- Define it in terms of the social or psychological functions it performs for individuals or society.
- Durkheim defines religion in terms of the contribution it makes to social integration, rather than any specific belief in God or the supernatural
- Functional definitions is that they are inclusive, allowing people to include a wide range of beliefs and practices that perform functions such as integration.
- They do not specify belief in god or the supernatural, there is no bias against non-Western religions such as Buddhism.
Social constructionist definitions
- Focuses on how members of society themselves define religion.
- It is not possible to produce a single universal definition of religion to cover all cases, since in reality different individuals and groups mean very different things by ‘religion’
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