Defining Religion: Activity for AQA A Level Sociology: Beliefs in Society

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.

Close-up of a dictionary page highlighting the word 'Definition' and its explanation.

AQA A Level Sociology • Beliefs in Society

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.

How to use it: choose the features you think are essential in a definition of religion. Then click Generate definition to see whether your definition is mainly substantive, functional or constructionist.

Step 1: Build your definition

Quick reference

Substantive definitions

Focus on what religion is, especially belief in gods, the sacred or the supernatural.

Useful for clear boundaries, but may exclude belief systems without gods.

Functional definitions

Focus on what religion does, such as creating solidarity, meaning or a moral community.

Useful for showing religion’s social role, but may define too many things as religion.

Constructionist definitions

Focus on how religion is socially defined and labelled rather than fixed once and for all.

Useful for flexibility, but can seem less precise.

Definition builder output

Your generated definition

Definition

Choose some components, then generate your definition.

Classification

Your classification will appear here.

Why this classification?

The explanation will appear here.

Evaluation tip

An evaluation point will appear here after you generate your definition.

Thinkers to connect

Durkheim

Useful for functional definitions: religion as beliefs and practices relating to the sacred that unite people into a moral community.

Aldridge

Useful for questioning fixed definitions and for recognising how religion can be socially constructed and debated.

Good exam move

Show that different definitions include different examples and exclude different examples. That is why sociologists disagree over what counts as religion.

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The Sociology Guy is a pseudonym originally used by Craig Gelling when he was working in an FE College to provide an outlet for his frustrations with how he was expected to teach and strict rules around intellectual property in his former employer. The Sociology Guy name came from his early years as a supply teacher, where students would often not know his name and ask for ‘the sociology guy’ when coming to the staff room. Initially set up in 2018 as an anonymous You Tube channel, Craig has since written, recorded and presented for many different organisations and education providers. His purpose is to try and make sociology both accessible and understandable for all students and support teachers to inspire the next generation of sociologists.

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