DEFINITION OF

RELIGION
ITS ETYMOLOGICAL AND REAL DEFINITION OF RELIGION
Where does the word Religion originate?

1. Etymological Definition
Religion is deived from Latin word “religio” (what
attaches or retains, moral bond, anxiety of self-
consciousness, scruple) used by Romans, before Jesus
Christ, to indicate the worship of the demons.
The origin of “religio” is debated since antiquity.
Cicero
> It said that the word religion is
derived from the word “ relegere”
which means; to read again,to re-
examine carefully,to gather.
> it also means “to carefully consider
the things related to the worship of
gods”.
Another possible origin of the
word religion, is “religiens”
means “careful”, opposite of
negligens.
Lucretius, Lactancius and
Tertullianus
>They said that the origin of the
word religion, is originated from
the word, “religare” (to connect) to
refer “the bond of piety that binds
to God”.
REAL DEFINITION OF
RELIGION
Religion
Any specific system of
belief, worship,
conduct, etc., involving
a code of ethics and a
philosophy.
Religion is a cultural system of
behaviors and practices, world
views, sacred texts, holy places,
ethics and societal organization
that relate humanity to what an
anthropologist has called “an
order of existence”.
Religion
Is the set of beliefs, feelings,
dogmas and practices that
define the relations between
human being and sacred or
divinity.
 A given religion is defined by
specific elements of a
community of believers: dogmas,
sacred books, rites, worship,
sacraments, moral prescription,
interdicts and organization.
 The majority of religions have
developed starting from a
revelation based on the
exemplary history of a nation,
of a prophet or a wise man who
taught an ideal of life.
2 ways of defining religion as social
reality

1. Substantive - which is concerned with

the constitutes religion.

2. Functional- which is concerned with

the social consequences of religion.
SUBSTANTIVE

Religion involves belief and

practices which assume the

existence of Supernatural
beings.
FUNCTIONAL

Unified system of beliefs and

practices relative to sacred things,
that is to say, things set a part and
forbidden-beliefs and practices which
unite into one single moral community.
From the point of view of the social
science.

Religion is a system of beliefs and

practices by which a group of people
interprets and responds to what they
feel is sacred and usually supernatural
as well.
THANK YOU AND
GOD BLESS !