Religion is an important part of many people’s lives. It gives meaning and purpose to life, reinforces social unity and stability, promotes psychological and physical well-being, and may motivate people to work for positive social change. But it can also be a source of stress, especially when members believe that God punishes those who do not follow religious teachings.

A central problem with the study of religion is determining what exactly is meant by the term. The different religions differ widely in their understanding of truth, Scripture, behavior, and even God. It is therefore important to distinguish between the different religious beliefs, phenomena, and practices. This article focuses on religious belief and activity, but includes articles on the concepts of God, heaven, hell, prayer, sacraments, miracles, and theology.

This article uses a broad definition of religion that goes beyond the narrow view espoused by Edward Burnett Tylor, who defined religion as “the belief in spiritual beings”. It focuses on those aspects of religious experience and practice which are common to all cultures. These include ritual, emotional and mystical experiences (crying, laughing, screams, trancelike conditions, feelings of oneness with those around you), symbolic interactionist approaches to the interpretation of mythological and historical events and stories, and the importance of community and the house of worship.

Religious experiences vary from highly intense and transformative to mundane and unimportant. But a crucial aspect of the experience is that it takes place within a context which is sacred. The definition of religion as a set of experiences is rooted in the work of Emile Durkheim, who emphasized that a religious phenomenon becomes meaningful and significant when it becomes a focus for collective emotion. This emotional significance, in turn, reinforces and sustains the phenomenon.

It is for this reason that religious experiences are so powerful, and why they often have such a profound influence on people’s lives. In addition, as a social phenomenon religions play both a liberating and a coercive role.

This article argues that the best way to understand religion is as a dynamic, historically creative whole. This approach aims to grasp religion not at the level of univocal theory but as a category which continually interacts with specific historical data, producing a richer and more complex map of the actual religious terrain than any existing today in the media or public discourse. In doing so, it will show how the various religions share certain features and also how they function differently in different historical contexts. This is an original and exciting work that will have a wide impact on future scholarship in this area. It will also encourage a fresh look at the many questions which still puzzle and interest us about religion. The answers to those questions will be as varied as the societies which produce them. This article will be of interest to students and teachers of sociology, history, cultural studies, and religious studies. It will also be of interest to those who are curious about the ways in which religions have influenced human history.