A religion is a set of beliefs and practices generally held by a community, involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience. Religion has been defined in a wide variety of ways.

Most definitions attempt to find a balance somewhere between overly sharp definition and meaningless generalities. Some sources have tried to use formalistic, doctrinal definitions while others have emphasized experiential, emotive, intuitive, valuational and ethical factors.There are a number of models regarding the ways in which religions come into being and develop.

Broadly speaking, these models fall into three categories:

* Models which see religions as social constructions;
* Models which see religions as progressing toward higher, objective truth;
* Models which see a particular religion as absolutely true.