The word “religion” refers to a wide variety of beliefs and practices, with different approaches to Scripture, truth, behavior, morality, and deity. Most religions are also organized into a community of believers who are expected to follow the rules and norms established by the religious community.

Religion is one of the oldest social institutions in the world, dating back to ancient human species. Like other institutions, it evolves over time and across cultures, adapting to people’s changing realities. However, unlike some other institutions that change rapidly over an era, religion tends to change at a slower rate and keeps older features while adding new ones.

Anthropologists who study religion usually take an evolutionary model of its development, and they look at how the practices of a particular religion shape its beliefs over time. They also examine the relationships between a religion and its members, its culture, and society.

In the past forty years or so, there has been a shift in how scholars study religion. Many have begun to use a reflexive lens, pulling the camera back from objects that were previously taken for granted as unproblematically “there.” In other words, they have looked at how the concept of religion itself has been constructed in order to serve colonial and neo-colonial projects.

For example, some scholars have argued that focusing on how a religion is structured or institutionalized overlooks the role of mental states. Other scholars have countered that to focus on feelings or other noncognitive phenomena is to miss the point because these do not explain why some religions work while others fail.