A religious group is a collection of individuals who share common religious beliefs, practices, and values centered around spiritual or religious ideas. It can refer broadly to any group of people united by religion or religious purposes
. Religious groups include various forms such as:
- Confessional communities : groups with similar religious beliefs
- Ethnoreligious groups : groups unified by both common religious and ethnic backgrounds
- Religious denominations : subgroups within a religion that share a common name, tradition, and identity, like Lutheranism within Christianity
- Religious organizations : structured or unstructured groups that support the practice of a religion, including churches, sects, cults, and volunteer groups
Legally, a religious group can be defined as a set of individuals whose identity is distinctive due to shared religious creed, beliefs, doctrines, practices, or rituals
. In summary, a religious group is any community or organization of people connected by shared religious faith and practices, ranging from informal gatherings to large, institutionalized bodies.