Religion

What Is "Religion"?—Well, It’s Hard to "Say Exactly"

By Gerald A. Larue
Emeritus Professor of Biblical History and Archaeology
University of Southern California

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Like the elephant in the oriental parable, religion is a large
and complex phenomenon. Definers tend to take hold of
a part of the beast and define the whole in terms of the part.

Educators who teach about religion immediately face the problem of defining the subject. Is a "religion" to be regarded as another form of human thought or opinion covered by guarantees of freedom, as is speech, assembly, press and so on? Or, does religion always imply supernaturalism?

There are further questions. Should the definition simply refer to those who feel that they are in a particular relationship to God (however defined) with an obligation to fulfill divinely revealed law? For example, Judaism is always listed as a "religion," but what about Humanistic Judaism, which focuses on persons and humanity without reference to a deity? In addition, many Secular Humanists tend to eschew the term "religion" because, in its popular interpretation, it carries with it overtones of a supernaturalism that they reject.

What does the word "religion" mean, and what is religion and what is nonreligion?