Beyond Institutional Religion

From reading chapters 4-6 of Hull House, I gained a better sense of who Addams is and what her concerns and goals in life are. These chapters are written after Addams is finished with her first years of college. Already she seems like the type of person who is more “hands-on” rather than strictly academic. She chastises the student who has more and more schooling and only plans to save the world rather than going out into the world, seeing the reality of it and actually doing humanitarian work.
I noticed that, at this point in Addams’s life, humanitarianism is firmly established as her religion, yet it is based in Christianity. I wonder then…it is my belief that religion does not have to be considered truly as institutional, that it goes beyond going to a place of worship, fellowshipping, and reading from a holy book…but does religion have to have some sort of base/root in an institutional religion? For example, social service acts as a religion to Addams because it gives her an identity and a motivation in life, but she reminds readers of her Christian humanitarian goals through Hull House, for example she writes sentences such as “I believe that there is a distinct turning among many young men and women toward this simple acceptance of Christ’s message,” “renaissance of the early Christian humanitarianism,” and “express in social service and in terms of action the spirit of Christ.” So I wonder if her goal was not rooted in Christianity, would social service still be considered a religion in her case and would her goals be the same? For an abstract thing to be considered a religion for someone, does it have to be rooted in a belief in a higher power?