Religion is a social sort that has a broad semantic range, so there are many ways of understanding it. Most of the attempts to analyze this taxon have been “monothetic” in that they operate under the classical view that a concept is accurate when it shares one or more defining properties with the practice or phenomenon that it’s trying to describe. But this raises philosophical issues, particularly with respect to the nature of a taxon such as religion.

Some have argued that to think of religion as beliefs is a Protestant bias and that scholars of religion should shift focus from hidden mental states to visible institutions and disciplinary practices (Schilbrack 2024). Others, however, argue that this move obscures the way in which religion is deeply, often implicitly, involved with people’s private experiences and relationships, and that to ignore these aspects of religion is to miss its significance.

The term’religion’ was derived from the Latin religio, meaning “scrupulousness” or “devotedness.” In early antiquity it may have been applied to a feeling of devotion to god or a religious system, and in this sense it was likely to be found in all cultures. As time went by, however, religion came to be understood in terms of its effect on society. Three of the most famous social theorists to explore this issue were Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. Marx argued that religion was a reflection of working-class economic stratification, maintaining inequality and perpetuating the unjust status quo. Durkheim, on the other hand, emphasized that religion was a source of consolation and offered practical advice for dealing with suffering.