{"id":21185,"date":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1999\/10\/01\/religion-less-spirituality\/"},"modified":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","slug":"religion-less-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/religion-less-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion-Less Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"

“G<\/strong>rowing numbers of Americans say they are spiritual but not religious,” says Robert\nWuthnow in After Heaven<\/em>, his assessment of American spiritual development\nsince 1950.<\/p>\n\n

It is a spirituality without truth or authority but filled with belief in\nthe supernatural. It is a trend born of the modern fears of religion.<\/p>\n\n

The powerful critiques of Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche have penetrated our\npopular psyche. Freud saw religious performance as a way that guilt-ridden\npeople cleanse themselves and force God to bless them. Marx saw religious\nprinciple used by one class of people to oppress another. Neitzsche asserted\nthat anyone<\/em> claiming to have the truth is making a power play. He\nasked the powerful: “Why<\/em> do you call for love? Is it not just a way\nto keep anyone from revolting against your authority?” He asked the powerless:\n“Why<\/em> do you call for justice? Is it not just a way for you to get\non top?”<\/p>\n\n

These critiques are powerful because they have the ring of truth. They’re\nthe reasons many who seek spirituality reject religion.<\/p>\n\n

What shall we do then? We must address the real issues of self-righteousness,\nexclusion, and power-plays. The church must echo Jesus’ own<\/em> powerful\ncritique of religion and visibly demonstrate the difference between religion\nand the gospel.<\/p>\n\n

Right word, right time<\/strong>\nFirst, we must do it in word—in our preaching and communication. Even more\nthan Freud, Jesus condemned self-justification through moral performance,\nat one point claiming that religion was more spiritually dangerous than overt\nimmorality.<\/p>\n\n

Jesus gives us the classic picture of the failure of both<\/em> religion\nand irreligion in his parable of the two sons in Luke 15. The elder brother\nrepresents the religious leaders; he never disobeys any of the father’s\nlaws. As a result, he tries to control his father and exclude his brother.\nIn the end, he is the one who misses the feast of salvation rather than his\nprofligate brother.<\/p>\n\n

There could not be a more powerful warning: The elder brother is not lost\ndespite<\/em> his obedience to the father but because<\/em> of it.<\/p>\n\n

Jesus shows us that the problem is self-justification, the belief that we\ncan win blessing through our virtue. In Luther’s terminology, religion\nis just another form of works-righteousness, which leads to profound internal\ninstability. We are never sure of our worthiness, yet we need to feel superior\nto those who do not conform in order to bolster our insecurity.<\/p>\n\n

Following Jesus, we must agree with our critics about the danger of religion,\nbut show them that they are wrong about their solution to it. Secular people\nsee religion as a body of fixed doctrine and ethics that one must adhere\nto in order to acquire rights to blessing and heaven<\/em>. They see how often\nreligion leads to self-righteousness, exclusion, and oppression. Modern culture,\nhowever, wrongly identifies fixed doctrine (the idea of absolute truth) as\nthe poisonous element.<\/p>\n\n

Both traditional religion and<\/em> the new spirituality are forms of\nself-salvation. The religious way of being our own savior leads us to keep\nGod’s laws, while the irreligious way of being our own savior leads\nus to break his laws. The solution is the gospel.<\/p>\n\n

The gospel shows us a God far more holy than a conservative moralist can\nimagine—for he can never be pleased by our moral performance. Yet it also\nshows us a God far more loving than the liberal relativist can imagine—for\nhis Son bore all the weight of eternal justice. His love for us cost him\ndearly.<\/p>\n\n

Practically speaking, this means in our preaching we must be extremely careful\nto distinguish between general moral virtue and the unique humility, confidence,\nand love that flow from the gospel. I’m convinced we must learn carefully\nfrom Jonathan Edwards: “An experience of God’s grace is the only basis\nfor ultimate and enduring … true virtue.”<\/p>\n\n

Religion is outside-in; \nthe gospel is inside-out.<\/p>\n\n

Edwards says that most virtue is secondary virtue, based on self-love, and\ntherefore on fear (of punishment) and pride (in our superior decency). Edwards\nappreciates that common morality makes the world a liveable place, but he\nessentially agrees with Neitzsche that it is really a power play. General\nmoral virtue does not come from a heart that has given up its need to feel\nsuperior to others.<\/p>\n\n

Only an experience of grace and free justification can create a heart that\ndoes good out of delight in God himself, out of delight in goodness itself,\nand out of love for our neighbors in themselves. Without the gospel, we can\nrestrain<\/em> the human heart, but not change<\/em> the human heart. The\ngospel calls for repentance over our self-righteousness. The true virtue\nthat results creates an attitude of acceptance toward the poor, the outsider,\nand the opponent that neither religion nor secularism can produce.<\/p>\n\n

Show me your faith<\/strong>\nSecond, we must demonstrate the difference between religion and the gospel\nin our deeds—how we embody the gospel in our community and service. Even\nmore than Marx, Jesus condemned religion as a pretext for oppression: “If\nyou only greet your brothers, what do ye more than others?”<\/em> (Matt. 5:47).<\/p>\n\n

Lesslie Newbigin makes the bold case that Christianity is a better basis\nfor true tolerance of opposing beliefs than any other religion or even\nsecularism. Saved only by grace, Christians true to the gospel will not feel\nsuperior to those with whom they differ.<\/p>\n\n

This must be more than rhetoric. Only when Christians non-condescendingly\nserve the poor, only when Christians are more firm yet open to their opponents\nwill the world understand the difference between religion and the gospel.<\/p>\n\n

What does this mean practically?<\/p>\n\n

We will be careful with the order<\/em> in which we communicate the parts\nof the faith.<\/p>\n\n

Pushing moral behaviors before we lift up Christ is religion. The church\ntoday is calling people to God with a tone of voice that seems to confirm\ntheir worst fears. Religion has always been outside-in—”if I behave out\nhere in all these ways, then I will have God’s blessing and love inside.”\nBut the gospel is inside-out—”if I know the blessing and grace of God inside,\nthen I can behave out here in all these ways.”<\/p>\n\n

A woman who had been attending our church for several months came to see\nme. “Do you think abortion is wrong?” she asked. I said that I did. “I’m\ncoming now to see that maybe there is<\/em> something wrong with it,” she\nreplied, “now that I have become a Christian here and have started studying\nthe faith in the classes.”<\/p>\n\n

As we spoke, I discovered that she was an Ivy League graduate, a lawyer,\na long-time Manhattan resident, and an active member of the ACLU. She volunteered\nthat she had experienced three abortions.<\/p>\n\n

“I want you to know,” she said, “that if I had seen any<\/em> literature\nor reference to the ‘pro-life’ movement, I would not have stayed\nthrough the first service. But I did stay, and I found faith in Christ. If\nabortion is wrong, you should certainly speak out against it, but I’m\nglad about the order<\/em> in which you do it.”<\/p>\n\n

This woman had had her faith incubated into birth our Sunday services. In\nworship, we center on the question “what is truth?” and the one who had the\naudacity to say, “I am<\/em> the truth.” That is the big issue for postmodern\npeople, and it’s hard to swallow. Nothing is more subversive and prophetic\nthan to say Truth has become a real<\/em> person!<\/p>\n\n

Jesus calls both<\/em> younger brothers and<\/em> elder brothers to come\ninto the Father’s arms. He calls the church to grasp the gospel for\nourselves and share it those who are desperately seeking true spirituality.<\/p>\n\n

We, of all people, ought to understand and agree with fears about religion,\nfor Jesus himself warned us to be wary of it, and not to mistake a call for\nmoral virtue for the good news of God’s salvation provided in Christ.<\/p>\n\n

Tim Keller<\/strong> is pastor of \nRedeemer Presbyterian Church\nNew York, New York\n<\/em>RPCNYC@aol.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal.\nClick here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Growing numbers of Americans say they are spiritual but not religious,” says Robert Wuthnow in After Heaven, his assessment of American spiritual development since 1950. It is a spirituality without truth or authority but filled with belief in the supernatural. It is a trend born of the modern fears of religion. The powerful critiques of Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[3174],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[663,664,156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3726,3933,4033,4662,4679,5065,5190],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-21185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-tim-keller","tax_publications-1999-leadership-journal","tax_publications-fall_1999-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-future","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-spirituality","tax_ctp_tags-trends"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nReligion-Less 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