Religions are a powerful force in human life. They can shape beliefs, morality and behavior, create a sense of community, and promote traditions. They can also help people cope with life’s challenges. They provide a spiritual framework and the promise of an afterlife, among other things. In many cases, they are the source of some of the most beautiful and emotionally moving art and architecture in human history. They are the source of music, dance, theater, literature, and even some of the explorations of nature that eventually issued into the natural sciences.
They may be large-scale and coherently organized with a clear hierarchy (as in Roman Catholicism, with its pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, laity, etc.), or they may have almost no structure at all (as in Buddhism). They may be centered on one person or group, like Judaism, or they may be based on an idea or system of ideas like Christianity or Islam.
Scholars have long debated the question of whether a given social category has a defining essence that is shared by all members of the category. While some of the debates have focused on substantive definitions, others have looked at functions. These functional approaches have emphasized the importance of recognizing that a religion is something that would operate in the world, and would operate differently in different cultures, even if it had not been named. As such, these approaches avoid the pitfalls of monothetic definitions that fasten on just one property or that seek to identify a prototype of religion.