Religious belief in a higher power or gods, and the practices, such as prayer, devotion to a holy text, or celebrations, that go with it. The concept of religion has a long and complex history. Traditionally, scholars have sought to identify its essential properties. However, more recently there has been a shift towards polythetic definitions of the term. This avoids the classical assumption that an evolving social category will have an ahistorical essence, but it may still recognize many properties that are common to all religions.
The emergence of these new approaches to religion has been accompanied by a reflexive turn in the social sciences and humanities. Scholars have pulled the camera back to reveal the constructed nature of the objects previously treated as unproblematically “there”.
For example, some studies suggest that the practice of religion improves people’s ability to cope with stress. Such effects may be attributed to the structure and traditions that religions provide, or to their psychological benefits, such as feelings of connectedness with something larger than themselves.
Moreover, the study of religion has also revealed that it is important to consider how different people define the term. This is because different definitions affect the way people use the concept. For example, those who believe that only beliefs and practices related to a supernatural power can be called religion are more likely to exclude from the concept people with different views about the universe and their place in it.