This interactive activity is designed for AQA A Level Sociology: Beliefs in Society and focuses on the specification area covering science, religion and ideology. It helps students think carefully about a core issue in this topic: what counts as religion. Rather than simply matching definitions to labels, students build their own definition first and then see whether it is best classified as substantive, functional or constructionist. This fits AQA’s Beliefs in Society content, which expects students to engage with sociological explanations of religion and ideology.
The activity is especially useful for revising Durkheim and functional definitions, and for contrasting these with substantive definitions that focus on belief in the sacred or supernatural, and constructionist definitions that argue religion is socially defined rather than fixed. It also helps students see why sociologists disagree over whether some modern beliefs and practices should count as religion at all.
Definition Generator: What counts as religion?
Select the components you think belong in a definition of religion, then see how your definition would be classified.
Step 1: Build your definition
Quick reference
Your generated definition
Choose some components, then generate your definition.
Your classification will appear here.
The explanation will appear here.
An evaluation point will appear here after you generate your definition.
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