Religion is a class of human cultural forms, distinguished by the belief in supernatural powers and the use of rituals to propitiate them. A religion is also a system of values that informs morality and ethics. A religious tradition also has a history and capacity for development in the future (it is not “dead”). These dimensions of religion are sorted by scholars from a variety of disciplines: psychology views spiritual experience and feelings; sociology and social anthropology view institutions of religion; and literary and other studies try to elicit meanings from myths and symbols. While many different types of religions exist, it is often useful to compare them as a group in order to find common features and themes. This helps explain why, as a discipline, religion has been the subject of so many theories.
One of the first and most influential theories was developed by the British folklorist Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) in his major work, The Golden Bough. His theory, which owed much to Tylor and others, was that early humans began with magic, moved to religion, and then to science. He also argued that most religions have a mystical element.
A more recent approach focuses on the social construction of religion. The idea here is that a person’s definition of religion determines the characteristics that are seen in a particular religious tradition. This has led to a number of ideas in the social sciences and humanities that attempt to pull the camera back on religion and look at how it was constructed.
For example, some have argued that the three-sided model of the good, the true, and the beautiful is too narrow and should be expanded to include a fourth dimension: community. This would acknowledge that the socially integrating, community-building role of religion is partly what makes it so important in some societies.
Other theorists have emphasized the economic role of religion. For example, the French socialist economists and social anthropologists, Émile Durkheim and Rodney Needham, saw that the religious beliefs of some people are the result of their class position in society. Others have looked at the ways in which a religion organizes society, such as the ways in which it develops and distributes wealth.
Still other theorists have based their theories on more basic psychological and neurological observations. Sigmund Freud was a prominent example. He viewed religion as a result of an unresolved Oedipus complex in which a father is replaced by a son. This is thought to be a key reason why some religions have taboos against incest. Lastly, some theorists have used evolutionary models to examine the origin of religion. These models suggest that religions are a form of successful protective systems, developed early and for millennia, tied to the potentialities of the brain and body and to the needs of survival. This is known as the sociobiological argument. It is a controversial proposition, and it has been widely disputed. However, the argument has influenced some religious communities to adopt policies to help their members in difficult situations.