Topic 1 - Theories of Religion - What is religion?

Focus on content or substance of religious belief. Weber (1905) defines religion as belief in a superior/supernatural power that's above nature + cannot be explained scientifically. 

Exclusive - they draw a clear line between religious + non-religious beliefs. Set of beliefs must include belief in God/supernatural

Conform to widespread view of religion as belief in God. 

Defining religion in this way leaves no room for beliefs + practices that perform similar functions to religion but don't involve belief in God 

Accused of Western bias b/c exclude eg Buddhism, which don't have Western ideas of God

Define religion in terms of social/psychological functions it performs for individuals in society.

Durkheim (1915) defines religion in terms of the contribution it makes to social integration, rather than any specific belief in God/supernatural.

Yinger (1970) identifies functions that religion performs for individuals, eg ansering 'ultimate questions' about the meaning of life + what happens when we die. 

Adv - inclusive + don't specify belief in God/supernatural - no bias against non-Western religions.

Disadv - just because an institution helps integrate individuals, this does not make it a religion - eg collective chanting at football matches

Social constructivists - interpretivist approach. Focuses on how members of society themselves define religion. Argue not possible to produce a single universal definition of religion to cover all cases, since in reality, different individuals and groups mean very different things by 'religion'.

SC's interested in how definitions of religion constructued, challenged + fought over. 

Don not assume that relgion always involves a belief in God/supernatural, or that it performs similar functions for everyone in all societies. Their approach allows them to get close to meanings people give to religion.

However, makes it impossible to generalise about the nature of religion, since people may have widely differing views about what counts as a religion.