A Theology, Not a Religion

The late Pastor RC Sproul taught that the disappearance of theology from the life of the church, and the orchestration of that disappearance by some of its leaders, is hard to miss today, but oddly enough, not easy to prove. It is hard to miss in the evangelical world—in the vacuous empty worship that is so prevalent in many churches, for example, in the shift from God to the self and interpersonal relationships as the central focus of faith, in the psychologized preaching that follows this shift, in the erosion of its conviction of sin, in its strident noisy pragmatism, in its inability to think incisively about the hedonistic material culture, and in its reveling in the irrational. 

There is a profound difference between the study of religion and the study of theology.

For those who are reading this presentation, I have put on my blackboard a brief diagram where I distinguish between two approaches to the question of faith. One I call “God-centered,” and the other I call “man-centered.” The illustration that I use here has a circle with the word theology in it and a line coming underneath it to a sub-circle, which says anthropology. The purpose of my diagram is to show that in a God-centered approach to faith, the study of humanity, or the science of anthropology, is subsumed under the science of theology.

This reflects something of the way in which university courses were structured in the Middle Ages when it was said that theology was “the queen of the sciences.” The idea was that all other disciplines in education are subsumed under the search for ultimate truth, which is found in the study of the nature and character of God. It assumed that the study of humanity was always to be pursued in light of our understanding of God. Since man is created by God and we are the image-bearers of God, in order to have a proper understanding of what it means to be human, we have to first study the prototype rather than looking at the reflection.

The other diagram I have illustrates the man-centered approach to faith. It is indicated by a circle that reads anthropology, then under that is a smaller circle that says religion. If we go to secular universities today and study religion, usually that study will take place in the context of the Department of Sociology or Anthropology (The Study of Human Behavior). The difference is this: the study of theology is the study of God Himself first and foremost, while the study of religion is the study of a particular type of human behavior. In this difference, Christianity is based on a Theology, not a Religion.

Noah Webster wrote in his first American Dictionary in 1828 : RELIGION, n. relij'on. [L. religio, from religo, to bind anew; re and ligo, to bind. This word seems originally to have signified an oath or vow to the gods, or the obligation of such an oath or vow, which was held very sacred by the Romans.]

1. Religion, in its most comprehensive sense, includes a belief in the being and perfections of God, in the revelation of His will to man, in man's obligation to obey His commands, in a state of reward and punishment, and in man's accountableness to God; and also true godliness or piety of life, with the practice of all moral duties. It therefore comprehends theology, as a system of doctrines or principles, as well as practical piety; for the practice of moral duties without a belief in a divine lawgiver, and without reference to His will or commands, is not religion.

2. Religion, as distinct from theology, is godliness or real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to God and our fellow men, in obedience to divine command, or from love to God and His law.

3. Religion, as distinct from virtue, or morality, consists in the performance of the duties we owe directly to God, from a principle of obedience to his will. Hence we often speak of religion and virtue, as different branches of one system, or the duties of the first and second tables of the law. Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion.

4. Any system of faith and worship. In this sense, religion comprehends the belief and worship of pagans and Mohammedans, as well as of Christians; any religion consisting in the belief of a superior power or powers governing the world, and in the worship of such power or powers. Thus, we speak of the religion of the Turks, of the Hindoos, of the Indians, etc. as well as of the Christian religion. We speak of false religion, as well as of true religion.

We notice that there are all kinds of religions in the world, and when people are involved in religion, they’re involved in certain characteristic things like prayer, worship, sacrifice, singing, devotions, and so on, all of which belong to the trappings of human religions. When we study religion from a human perspective, we are examining how people who have certain beliefs about the supernatural behave in their personal lives and in their cultic lives. But when I say at the outset Christianity is theology, not a religion, I mean that it is not simply a way of behaving that we can determine by studying the affairs of men. Rather, it is a belief system that is an entire life and worldview with God at the center. It’s not what we do, it’s who and whose we are.

We live in a culture that has certain axioms and adages that are popular in the nomenclature of the day. For example, you’ve heard it said, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.” This idea communicates that God is really concerned that we be religious. It doesn’t matter what the religion is, as long as we’re sincerely religious. That idea is on a collision course with biblical Christianity because the Bible acknowledges that man is incurably religious, he’s homo-religiosus. It also acknowledges that wherever we look in the world, we find all kinds of manifestations of religion.

When the Jewish people were called by God, consecrated, and set apart to be a holy nation, they were not the only religious people in the world. All the nations around them had their peculiar religions. But when Creator God made His covenant with His people and called them to be holy and different, He made certain things absolutely clear at the beginning of His law. The first thing was, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3). The second was, “Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image” (Ex. 20:4).

At the very beginning of the Old Testament covenant at Sinai was an emphasis on faith that was to be different from other religions, a faith that would be focused on the character of God Himself, a Theology, not a Religion.