Defining religion: towards an interdisciplinary approach

Questions of whether, how and why religion may be defined has captured much academic attention. However, the scholars who have addressed these questions have largely been constrained to the confines of their own respective disciplines. This seems regrettable given the often lauded virtues of an interdisciplinary approach to law. This article seeks to redress this balance by applying an interdisciplinary approach to the definition of religion. It questions whether a definition is necessary in relation to law and sociological studies of religion and examines how legal definitions of religion have sociological effects. More broadly, it contends that the relationship between religion, law and society may be better understood by means of an interdisciplinary approach: a ‘sociology of law and religion’