German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer formulated the concept of “religionless Christianity.” He believed that “to be a Christian does not mean to be religious in some sense . . . but means to be Human” (to realize the human vocation).
An influential Protestant theologian Karl Barth has also denied that Christianity is a religion. In his thesis “Christ—the end of religion” by religion is meant any attempt to reach God “from below”. Ontological chasm between God and a human can overcome only God, and precisely in this sense the event of Christ (as action of God). Through the Incarnation God overcomes this abyss (in Christ God does for the people something that they are fundamentally incapable), because all human efforts are not enough. Similar ideas were close and to Thomas Merton—an influential American Catholic theologian, poet and Trappist monk. He was very impressed by the Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and by books of Fr. Alexander Schmemann.
Throughout the twentieth century, many theologians discussed that “Christianity—is not a religion,” “Christianity—the end of religion,” “Christianity—is the trial of religion” and other theses with the same meaning. In fact, even in the Old Testament, there was a very ambiguous attitude towards religion. The Old Testament righteous (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others) did not belong to any religion. Moses spoke as a messenger of God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 3:15), and not as a representative of any religion.
The first affair of Moses was a struggle with the Egyptian religion, the isolation of the Jews from any influence of religious cults of other nations. For the same purpose served and all the laws of Moses and his precepts about the liturgical rites, and so on and etc. Externally, it was very similar to the cults of other nations, but the purpose was different.
The fire can be stopped with help of an oncoming fire. The best (and sometimes the only) means of combating with forest fires is ignition on the opposite side. [57] Moses established religious rules in order to the Jews as soon as possible moved away from the Egyptian paganism. Over four hundred years of living in Egypt they are firmly assimilate the local religious paradigms. If Moses had acted in any other way, for example, would be talk about non-religious relationships with God following the example of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then no one would understood him. In the New Testament, the apostles abolished the entire complex religious ritualism of the Mosaic Law as unnecessary (Acts 15:19–20). However, people, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament history, still often in practice tended to magic and pagan rites.
The struggle against religion in the Old Testament sometimes took very harsh (“inhumane”, as we would say today) forms, but this was due to the exigencies of the situation. During an epidemic of plague or cholera, they do not always act humanely, and at that time, apparently, the situation was even worse. This is evidenced by the fact that despite all the strict measures, ten of the twelve tribes of Israel nevertheless separated and became half-pagans, and the rest of the house of David two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) are often inclined in idolatry.
The Bible repeatedly states that God opposes religion. Deities of any religion will not reject prayers, feasts, sacrifices, burn incense and other religious rituals in their honor. And through the prophet Isaiah, a completely different thing is proclaimed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Is. 1:11–17).
Likewise, no deity of any religion will condone the destruction of its only temple (even by the hands of the Gentiles). The Jerusalem temple was the center and heart of the entire religious life of the Jews. Despite this, God twice allowed the Gentiles to destroy it. God was not worried so much about the destruction of the temple as about the hypocrisy of its servants. There is no such thing in any religion.
On the other hand, the Bible shows that religion opposes to God: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:37; Luke 13:34). All the hatred and all the anger that people are only capable of in relation to God was focused in the decision of the Jewish religious leaders to crucify God incarnate. This is evidenced by the parable of the evil winegrowers (Mark 12:1–12; Luke 20:9–19) and many other similar passages in the Bible.
To this we can add that in no religion does God say to people: “You are my friends” (John 15:14). And in the Bible this is the main idea, and the main priorities in it are “clean heart” (Ps. 51:10) and sincere love for God and neighbor (Matt. 22:37–40), and not at all religious rituals. Abel and Cain were brothers and made the same (in a religious sense) sacrifice. However, God’s attitude to one and the other was opposite. “The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem . . . But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21,23–24). This is no longer religious worship, but something more. The main question that God asks man (all of humanity) is, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15–17). And where there is love, there is liberty (including liberty from religion).
It is also important to note another aspect of non-religious Christianity, correctly noted by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: the Christian’s task is to be a real human, that is, to embody God’s plan for a human, to find and realize his true self. It often becomes possible to do this only if a man not looks back at the opinions of others, at cultural, social and even religious stereotypes. The Bible encourages a person to be himself, and not to play a false role (albeit an honorable one) imposed by social or religious paradigms.
For example, King David rode and danced while bringing the ark of God into Jerusalem, like a boy, like a commoner. His wife, Michal, told him that this was a “violation of protocol”, a degradation of the king’s dignity. But David answered her:
“It was before the LORD, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD, that I have danced before the LORD. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes; but by the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor” (2 Sam. 6:21–22).
Likewise, Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector and a rich man, climbed a sycamore tree like a boy to see Jesus (Luke 19:2–4). The head of the tax department is a fairly high rank, and even in that era, such behavior would have caused ridicule of the people. But Zacchaeus, like David, did not think about it, since all his attention was drawn to the Lord.
