Is Christianity a 'religion'?

[Mina Mounir]

hello,
I was wondering , I've read some different comments of fathers that christianity cannot be defined or classified as a religion ...
is christianity a religion ?

[Olga]

hello,
I was wondering , I've read some different comments of fathers that christianity cannot be defined or classified as a religion ...
is christianity a religion ?

My understanding is that Orthodox Christianity is nothing less than the revelation of God and all truth, to the world, and to humanity.

[Owen Jones]

I would be interested in seeing your sources for this, Mina. As far as I know, the term religion is a Stoic concept (religio in the Latin, I believe). Also, when the word appears in English Bible translations, I believe the original Greek is more like the term cult. The term religion has a kind of sociological bent to it. I think it literally means something (anything?) that binds people together. Today, if a sociologist were to visit Orthodox parishes he would say that Orthodoxy is a religion that functions just like any other religion, giving people a sense of belonging and a sense of meaning to their lives.

IMHO, this means the death of true faith. Fr. John Romanides was notorious for saying that religion is a neuro-biological illness of which Orthodoxy is the cure. But I think most Orthodox would be shocked by this statement and would naturally assume that they are a member of a religion.

The question is begged, did Jesus set out to found a new religion? I don't think so. I think to get at what Romanides was talking about, we look at the New Testament in essence as an extended argument against religion.

[Andreas Moran]

The point I think is that by 'religion' is usually meant a belief system of man's devising (and so not true) whereas the Christian faith is a revelation by God to man (and so true). The following words of Christ bear on this:


Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Matthew15:7-9

St Paul also referred to this when he wrote of the 'commandments and doctrines of men' (Colossians 2:22).

[Ryan]

I've seen works by people like Met. Hierotheos Vlachos asserting that Christianity is not a religion, and that religion is a "sickness". On the other hand, there are many fine Orthodox works that use just this word to describe Christianity. I think it's really a matter of semantics and I really don't think there's much point to making an issue out of it. I personally have no problem saying that Christianity is a religion, if we just understand religion as a system of spiritual beliefs and practices, whether revealed or not. Is religion by definition "man-made"? Then practically all the religions in the world would deny being religions, and the word would be basically useless except as a term of reproach.

[Andreas Moran]

I think the distinction can matter as when religions are spoken about generically including Christianity because then there is a suggestion of relativity. If the context requires us to distinguish the Christian faith from any belief or beliefs then we ought to avoid describing it as a religion.


I personally have no problem saying that Christianity is a religion, if we just understand religion as a system of spiritual beliefs and practices, whether revealed or not.

I wonder if you really meant to say this, Ryan. If we understand 'religion' to mean a 'system' 'revealed or not' how can we call the revelation of God to man and God's saving providence through Christ a religion? That doesn't work for me.

[Ryan]

I wonder if you really meant to say this, Ryan. If we understand 'religion' to mean a 'system' 'revealed or not' how can we call the revelation of God to man and God's saving providence through Christ a religion? That doesn't work for me.

It certainly wouldn't work as a specific descriptor of Christianity, but it is a general category that includes Christianity. Again, if we define religion as "man-made", then it quickly becomes a useless term, except as a term of reproach against others. We can see that Christianity has a place in the lives of its adherents comparable to a degree with that of Islam or Buddhism in the lives of their adherents. This field of comparison is what we call religion. Religion is not an adequate word for describing the content of any particular religion, but it does serve as a convenient reference in beginning to describe it.

God revealed to man the Truth, as well as the means of attaining to this Truth, which the Church preserves as dogmas and generally as Tradition. On a surface level, this is a system of beliefs and practices, a religion. The difference from other religions is that these beliefs and practices are founded on revealed Truth, namely, Christ.

[Mourad Mankarios]

I think if we were to define a religion as a set of beliefs, delineating the mystical and supernatural, which an individual or group of individuals subscribe to then under such a definition I think we would have to conclude that Christianity is a religion.

St James also seems to have no qualms about referring to Christianity as a religion when he states:

"If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." (James 1:26 & 27)

St Paul also praised the Athenians for their religion when he stood to address them in the midst of their Areopagus (Acts 17:22).

From a Biblical perspective therefore it appears that to claim to subscribe to religion or be religious was a praiseworthy characteristic and was a foundation upon which to build the Christian faith. However, if relgion is the expression of truth then Christianity as religion is the greatest and truest expression of this truth as much as it is truth. And as much as other religions are only able to present truths in mere shadows and veils Christianity is the revelation of ultimate truth.

I suppose we can understand religion on so many different levels. On a superficial level we can define religion as a set of beliefs, however, more importantly from a Biblical perspecitive religion and the religious is a dynamic and experiential truth which is lived.

[Mina Mounir]

I've seen works by people like Met. Hierotheos Vlachos asserting that Christianity is not a religion, and that religion is a "sickness"..
I'd like to add fr. Alexander Schmemann ( for the life of the world) , and fr. Romanides ( Sickness of religion and its cure) and some else.what I understood from them is that all religions share the idea of the prophet (man) who tells people about God and asks people to live and practice some practices according to a book.
Christianity in contrary , was preached by God himself ( Jesus ) , and that we can see the scripture not as a parallel source like Torah in Judaism or Quraan in islam or ... etc. but it is just revelation , and a life according to this revelation . and that we can see Jesus left to us just one commandment . that is, Love.


romanides - i think - referred to the sickness of religion that we " religionized " christianity.i dont know and I'm pretty sure that I didn;t understand the idea well, however it is interesting and important.

[Owen Jones]

Question for our Greek scholars on board. When the term religion is used in the above quoted passages, what is the original Greek word? It could not be religio, which is a Latin term.

I think Romanides was trying to get at something deeper. I'll try to put it in my own terms. That the presence of God engenders in man a range of experiences, but this experience is mistranslated, so to speak, because of the short-circuiting of the proper flow of energy between the heart and the rest of the body. This is due to the corruption of the body as a result of the Fall. And so the mind, cut off as it is from the heart due to this short-circuiting of the mind-body complex, deforms the experience into something the mind thinks that it understands and controls. It is then used to control others. This then becomes a cold, intellectual abstraction that leads to death, not life, to domination and control, not freedom. In short, it leads to religion, not salvation, which is the healing of the disruption between mind and heart.

There is an enormous body of speculation on this by the Church Fathers, in which the seat of the intellect is perceived to reside in the organ of the heart, in which the noetic faculty (that which is closest to God) resides. This body of speculation is key to understanding Orthodoxy, understanding true faith. It is the proper development of the noetic faculty in a properly functioning body. Sin is the corruption of the right functioning of the neurobiological functioning of the body. Salvation requires the right functioning of this system. Orthodoxy is all about restoring the created function of the human body so that it can rightly perceive God's presence in things and respond accordingly. It is not a system of anything but the right response of the body to God's presence.

[M.C. Steenberg]

In the above, Seraphim wrote:


Question for our Greek scholars on board. When the term religion is used in the above quoted passages, what is the original Greek word? It could not be religio, which is a Latin term.

The two passages mentioned (James 1.26-27 and Acts 17.22) both use different terms.

James 1.26-27 reads:
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Here the word 'religious' is the Greek thrêskeia (and its adjective, thrêskos), which is an old classical word whose basic meaning is 'religious worship, cult, ritual'. That is, it is a term that strongly connotes the ritualistic acts of the veneration of the gods - and it is surely in this sense that St James is using it. His words speak of actions.

The term is also used at Acts 26.5, where St Paul is bearing testimony of his acts and works to Agrippa. Here he states, referring to the Jews of Jerusalem:
They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion (kata tên akrivestatên airesin tês êmeteras thrêskeias; lit. 'according to the stricts portion of our threskeias), I lived as a Pharisee.
Here he has used the same word found in James, though in this case St Paul is clearly speaking of the whole Jewish system of belief, action, revelation, etc., as thrêskeia, 'religion'. So here it refers to the whole collection reality of what makes practicing Jews Jews: belief, faith, revelation, Law, sacrifice, etc. It does not seem to have any pejorative implication as St Paul uses it here.

We also find this same word used in the Old Testament: for example, at Wisdom 14.18 (Then the ambition of the craftsman encouraged even thosewho did not know the king to increase their worship); and is used elsewhere in ancient literature, most often to refer to the Jews (and so often in Josephus).

In Acts 17.22 - the other passage mentioned earlier in the thread - a different term is used. The text (and I give the subsequent two verses as well, for context) reads:
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.'
Here the phrase 'very religious' is in Greek ôs deisidaimonesterous - the comparative form of a word found as both a noun (deisidaimonia) and a verb (deisidaimoneô), both of which have classical histories meaning 'superstitious fears', 'fear of the gods'. The verb is, in classical Greek, generally rather negative in tone (i.e., 'to have superstitious fears'), though occasionally (rarely) it is used in a positive sense to mean 'to be religious'. The noun has a classical history of referring to 'religious feeling', as well as a more general 'fear of the gods', together with superstitions. It is worth noting that, to the best of my recollection, all forms of this word are, generally speaking, fairly rare in classical literature.

In Acts, St Paul seems to be using it in a sense that mixes both its positive and negative connotations. He is speaking to those whose craft religious idols and images, and so he describes them as 'very religious' with a term - different from that he uses of himself in Acts 26 - that implies both devotion to the gods, but also fearful and silly superstition.

I think it safe to say that, exploring solely the vocabulary, the term 'religion' does have a place in scriptural language; though in English we render multiple words this way, which causes us to lose some of the nuance of the original expressions. Yet even though the term does appear, it is far from common; and in all cases seems to suggest the actions of a fear of God - i.e. the ritualistic elements involved in being a follower of God.

That said, I am one of those people who regularly says we should not speak of Christianity as 'a religion'; but this is not on grounds that the term cannot work (clearly, it can), but, rather, that deliberately electing not to use the term helps disassociate Christianity from other religious systems in the modern world. I feel similarly about referring to Christianity as 'a faith', which I feel overly-intelletualises it; but here too, there is a long history of this term being used in the Church.

In the end, it is not that these terms are wrong, but that they are inadequate. Christianity definitely involves faith, and much of it is about faith; but faith alone is not the whole of Christianity. Similarly with 'religion'. I do not think it fair or quite accurate to suggest that 'religion' means a construct of actions and beliefs devised by man (i.e. so as to be pitted against a revelation given by God); clearly St Paul uses the term to refer to the Law of divine revelation. But it does emphasise ritualistic acts, behaviours, etc. These, too, are part of Christianity; but they are not the whole of it. The term is not 'wrong': it simply isn't ample.

Christianity is a life. It is the joining of man to the life of his Creator. It involves faith, it involves 'religion'; but it is beyond these.

INXC, Dcn Matthew

[Owen Jones]

a rational sacrifice, perhaps?

[Mina Mounir]

hi again
I found this nice article
http://www.christinyou.net/pages/Xnotrel.html
the author has a book :
http://www.christinyou.net/pdfs/Christiantynotrel.pdf