Some Definitions of Religion
1. "[Religion is] the belief in Spiritual Beings" (Edward B Tylor, Primitive Culture)
2. "By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man
which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life" (James
George Frazer, The Golden Bough).
3. "[Religion is] the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far
as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the
divine." (William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience)
4. "A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to
say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single
moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." (b) [Religion is] "the
self-validation of a society by means of myth and ritual." (Émile Durkeim, The
Elementary Forms of the Religious Life)
5. "[Religion is] "the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which
qualifies all other concerns as preliminary, and a concern that in itself provides the
answer to the question of the meaning of our existence." (Paul Tillich)
6. "[Religion is] a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, persuasive, and long-
lasting moods and motivations.... by formulating conceptions of a general order of
existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods
and motivations seem uniquely realistic." (Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural
System")
7. "Religion, like culture, is a symbolic transformation of experience." (Thomas F. O'Dea,
The Sociology of Religion)
8. "[Religion is] a system of symbols (creed, code, cultus) by means of which people (a
community) orient themselves in the world with reference to both ordinary and
extraordinary powers, meanings, and values." (Catherine L. Albanese, America:
Religions and Religion)
9. "Religion is a means to ultimate transformation." (Frederick Streng, Understanding
Religious Life)
10. [Religion is] a means of ultimate transformation and/or orientation." (Joseph Adler,
"Varieties of Spiritual Experience: Shen in Neo-Confucian Discourse")
