Is Christianity a religion?
The Creation of Adam is a fresco painting by Michelangelo, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, painted c. 1508–1512
On the one hand, this is an easy question. Yes, Christianity is one of the biggest religions in the world with over a billion professed adherents. It has practices and beliefs and all the other characteristics that are associated with what we normally call religion. But there are a couple reasons to pause for a moment and wonder if religion is really the best word to describe what it means to be a Christian. First, due to the fact that the word religion includes Christianity, religion gets stretched to make sure Christianity fits under its umbrella. Christianity skews the definition a bit. In other words, if we removed Christianity from the definition of religion, what would be the common factors left. For instance, Christians focus a lot on theology, the what and the who of God. But most other religions focus more on practice, that is, a good Muslim does these things and a good Jew these and so on. A good Christian absolutely does certain things (I hope), but Christians spend far more time thinking about God than most other religions. Theology is a peculiarly Christian phenomenon. Which brings me to my second point, does the Bible consider Christianity a religion? Maybe not, or if so, it’s complicated.
Biblically speaking there is no such thing as Christianity: there are Christians and then there is the Way. The New Testament makes three references to the word Christian; Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and 1 Peter 4:16. This word seems to have been a label that those outside the Church put on the followers of Jesus. I don’t think it was supposed to be particularly flattering, but Jesus’ followers seemed to have accepted the term and perhaps started to happily use it for themselves. The term that Christians seemed to use most often to refer to themselves, at least in the Book of Acts, was the Way. There are at least six times where this term is used to stand for what believers themselves called this new faith. What appeared odd to outsiders though, was that this new Way didn’t look particularly religious at all. Christians didn’t have sacrifices, holy places, even a designated priesthood early on. Pagans called Christians atheists because they didn’t have physical representations of their God and they didn’t keep the religious practices of their neighbors. From early on Christians seemed pretty irreligious. In other words, if Christianity eventually got lumped in with other religions over the course of time, by contrast its earliest adherents and onlookers would probably not have put it in that category.
So, if Christianity skews the contemporary definition of religion and if early Christians looked as irreligious as you could get by ancient standards, how can we define what Christianity is? My attempt to define Christianity would be this: Christianity is revelation that leads to restored relationship. Let’s break that down into its two essential components, revelation and restored relationship.
First, Christianity starts with God, more specifically a revelation of who God is. Scripture tells the story of God and his creation, with the emphasis on God coming toward a creation in revolt against him. New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham in his book Jesus and the God of Israel, makes the case that the Bible isn’t interested so much in what God is, that is abstractly defining his attributes like an area of scientific study, but rather who God is, his person and his actions. God defines himself over and against the gods of the nations as the true creator, the God of Abraham, the God who brought Israel out of Egypt and appeared to Moses on mount Sinai. The God of Israel shows up and he does things, unlike the gods of the nations. He wants to be known and reveals himself to that end. The New Testament sees this desire of God to reveal himself and be known brought to its climax in the coming of Jesus. He is the Son of God who reveals God to the fullest. In the Gospel of John when Phillip says to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answers, "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:8,9). Jesus is the image of God and the one in whom God’s fullness is expressed (Col 1). Christianity majors in theology, the study of God, because of this central and mind-blowing tenet: God not only wants to be known, but has made himself known in the life, death, and resurrection of a man named Jesus, the unlikely but true Jewish Messiah.
Everything else flows from this revelation, which brings us to the second half of the definition: it’s a revelation that leads to restored relationship. Once we know who God is, then we are invited to enter into relationship with him. The Bible is replete with relationship metaphors between God and humans; creator and creature, king and subjects, father and children, teacher and students, friends, and husband and wife. The logic of Scripture is that once we properly understand God, that is who God is, we can live in proper relation to him as these various metaphors help us imagine. If God is the creator, we can respond as worshipful creatures. If he is the king, we are obedient subjects. If he is the father, then we are his loving children. If Jesus is our teacher, then we are his eager students. If God is our friend, then we honor, respect and relate to him as one who wants to be known. If God is our husband, then we respond to him as the lover of our souls. All these relationships are pieces that fill out the image of this restored relationship we have with God, once we see him revealed in Jesus. We’re taught how to live not so much through law and rules but through seeing ourselves in relationship with God and living out the various roles of creature, subject, student, lover, etc.
When looked at in this way, Christianity is less of a religion and more like a child being brought into a new family, or finding yourself under the rule of a new and benevolent king, or falling in love. There are elements of religion with teaching, customs, worship, and a way of life that are deeply important, but religion is almost too small a word to capture what is going on when the God of the universe shows up to woo you to himself.
From time to time I think we need to re-ask the question of what Christianity is in order to recalibrate. While there are certainly religious elements in Christianity, and it might be right to see it in this light from time to time, if our view of revelation and restored relationship starts to get hazy, we’ll drift. We’ll forget what makes our faith true and worth believing in; God coming to make himself known to us.
What do you think? What is the best way to define what Christianity is?