Only Option is True vs. False Religion

"…the ineradicable religious structure of human selfhood, when marred by sin, does not lead to irreligion or to no religion but to a distorted religion – in short, idolatry."

"… Even the democratic Sunday Times reader –committed to justice as some kind of end in itself – is committed to false gods."


James K.A. Smith, Introducing Radical Orthodoxy, p.115

No Virtue in Being Religious

"Unlike for Caputo, for Augustine there is no virtue in being religious. This is because, for Augustine (and earlier St. Paul and later John Calvin), being religious is constitutive of being human. Human beings – as created in the image of God – cannot help but be religious. Hence, being religious is not a notable achievement. We might describe this as Augustine’s account of formal or structural religion."


James K.A. Smith, Introducing Radical Orthodoxy, p.113

Religious Experience is not Religion

"That the word religion points to a kind of experience that is widely diffused throughout human history is an obvious fact. But that what is called religion is the only or the primary form of contact between the human race and its Creator is a mere assertion that has no logical foundation."


Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks, p.88

Separability of Morality & Religion

"We desire n0thing less than to see that Law whose naked authority is already unsupportable armed with the incalculable claims of the Numinous. Of all the jumps that humanity takes in its religious history this is certainly the most surprising. It is not unnatural that many sections of the human race refused it; non-moral religion, and non-religious morality, existed and still exist. Perhaps only a single people, as a people, took the new step with perfect decision - I mean the Jews: but great individuals in all times and places have taken it also, and only those who take it are safe from the obscenities and barbarities of unmoralised worship or the cold, sad self-righteousness of sheer moralism."

C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain p. 20