Religion has had a significant impact on individuals’ lives throughout history; it can give people the feeling of hope and peace, but it can also urge them to protect their religious ideals through war. Studying religion is important because it is a universal human experience that engages all people regardless of their demographic differences, such as culture, socioeconomic status, education level, and other factors. However, in order to explore this social construction, one should define it in specific terms to make the object of the study clear. Based on Green’s (2010) article, religion can be defined as a human-made construct that refers to an institution involving individuals’ culturally specific interaction with superhuman beings. Further, each part of this definition will be explained in detail.
First, one should understand why religion is considered human-made. As Green (2010) points out, if religion is assumed to be the construction unrelated to the human world, which cannot be seen and observed, then it will be unearthly and unintelligible. Thus, it will not be an appropriate subject for studies. Therefore, for investigation purposes, it is important to regard religion as something developed and maintained by humans.
Second, it is necessary to figure out why religion is an institution. Social institutions include such areas of life as education, family, economics, politics, and others. Their common feature is that they consist of a group of individuals possessing similar goals and conforming to the established behavior standards. In this sense, religion may be regarded as an institution because it is collective rather than personal, and its adherents have a common purpose of worshipping God (or other superhuman beings) and following certain rules of conduct.
According to Green (2010), religious behavior and speech are not random but have a specific meaning for a particular community. Thus, religion can be considered an institution because it has set practices and standards of conduct, which are followed by certain groups of individuals.
Further, superhuman beings are mentioned as a distinctive feature of religion. Green (2010) states that superhuman beings are the attribute that differs religion from other social institutions, and it can be observed by examining individuals’ beliefs regarding how much power superhuman beings have compared to humans. Superhuman beings can take many forms depending on a particular religion. For example, people may believe in a single God, multiple gods, the Higher Power, the Great Spirit, deceased ancestors, and others.
Another component of religion is individuals’ interaction with superhuman beings. It includes two types of behavior: the first one reflects the will of superhuman beings, and the second one encourages superhuman beings to respond to individuals’ requests (Green, 2010). There are many forms of human interaction with higher powers, for example, prayer, textual study, meditation, exorcism, and others (Green, 2010). Scholars can observe these ways of worshipping, which makes them a proper object of research.
Finally, the definition mentions the cultural specificity of human interactions with superhuman beings. It means that people’s ways of worshipping differ from culture to culture, and the same ritual may have different meanings in various religions. For example, Green (2010) argues that, in Judaism, men have to cover their heads, while in Christianity, this action would be considered shameful. This example demonstrates how varied specific religious rituals can be. However, despite these differences, interactions between humans and superhuman beings are an essential feature of religion in various cultures.
In conclusion, the definition of religion incorporates the elements that are characteristic of the majority of world religions. These components include the belief in superhuman beings and people’s interaction with these superhuman beings, which can vary from culture to culture. Furthermore, religion is a social institution because it is practiced collectively and involves a set of behavior standards. Finally, religion should be regarded as a human-made construct because, otherwise, it would be inconceivable and could not be studied.
Reference
Green, W. S. (2010). A “humanly relevant” cosmos: What we study when we study religion. In J. Neusner (Ed.), Introduction to world religions (pp. vii-xxiii). Abingdon Press.