Religions describe a vast spectrum of practices and beliefs. From the swearing-in of a witness in a courtroom to the Pledge of Allegiance, religions play a vital role in our global society. Many studies of religion emphasize the diversity of these belief systems and their impact on people around the world. Yet a great deal of religious illiteracy persists in our country, fueling prejudice and antagonism. NCSS urges school leaders, textbook publishers, online content creators, and teachers to promote the study of religion in ways that meet high academic standards and respect First Amendment rights.

The broad semantic range of the concept “religion” has led to some critiques of its usefulness as a term. Anthropologists might point out that the invention of the concept “religion” as an abstract category went hand in hand with European imperialist and neo-colonialist projects. But it would be hard to argue that the concept of religion should be dismissed because of its origins in Western colonialism.

Sociologists like Emile Durkheim and Paul Tillich argued that we should define religion by its social functions. Their definitions have the advantage of capturing our fundamental dependence on something larger than ourselves. But it is possible to take a more open polythetic approach to the study of religion that, for example, allows scholars to focus on beliefs as necessary and sufficient properties while also recognizing that these beliefs are often shaped by cultural contexts. This kind of approach is likely to have the same value for this contested concept that it does for other abstract terms used to sort cultural types such as literature, democracy, or culture itself.