Difference between revisions of "Religion"

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== Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology <ref name="term_18181" /> ==
<p> [[Due]] to the wide range of its usage, the English word "religion" (from Lat. <i> religio </i> ) is not easily defined. Most commonly, however, it refers to ways in which humans relate to the divine (a presence [or plurality of such] or force [sometimes construed as plural] behind, beyond, or pervading sensible reality that conditions but is not conditioned by that reality). All such "ways" include a system of beliefs about the divine and how it is related to the world. Most also involve an attitude of awe toward the divine, and a pattern of actions (rituals and an ethical code). By extension, "religion" is often used to refer to systems of belief and related practices that play an analogous role in people's lives (e.g., Buddhism, Confucianism, and even humanism). The word is, thus, an abstract term adaptable to a great variety of referents. </p> <p> Neither the [[Hebrew]] nor the [[Aramaic]] languages of the Old [[Testament]] have a word with a corresponding semantic field. For that reason, one does not find "religion" or "religious" in most English versions of these Scriptures. English translators of the New Testament do use these words at times to render various forms of three Greek terms: <i> deisidaimonia </i> [Δεισιδαιμονία], <i> threskeia </i> [Θρησκεία], and <i> eusebeia </i> [Εὐσέβεια]. Yet all three words also fail to fully capture the import of the more abstract English "religion." </p> <p> Both Old and New Testaments speak pervasively about matters "religious." Every word in these writings is in one way or another focused on the Creator-creature relationship. Every line revolves around that thematic center of gravity: how the [[Creator]] relates to his creation, especially humanity, and how humanity does and/or ought to relate to the Creator. In fact, every line of [[Scripture]] seeks to evoke from the reader right ways of relating to the Creator. In that sense, "religion" is pervasively the theme of Scripture. </p> <p> To be sure, the Bible speaks of all creatures, resounding to God: they do his bidding (angels, &nbsp;Psalm 103:20; &nbsp;Hebrews 1:14; storm winds, &nbsp;Psalm 104:4; &nbsp;148:8 ) and they rejoice before him with songs of joy and praise (&nbsp;Job 38:7; &nbsp;Psalm 89:12; &nbsp;96:11-13; &nbsp;98:7-9; &nbsp;Isaiah 44:23; &nbsp;49:13; &nbsp;55:12; see especially &nbsp;Psalm 103:22; &nbsp;145:10; &nbsp;148 ). But the concern of the biblical texts is to promote among humankind right beliefs about God, right attitudes toward God, and right conduct before the face of God. Biblically, religion has to do with <i> human </i> responses to the Creator. </p> <p> That religion has a place in human life springs from two fundamental realities: (1) humans have been created in the image of God (&nbsp;Genesis 1:26-27; &nbsp;9:6; &nbsp;Psalm 8:5; &nbsp;1 Corinthians 11:7; &nbsp;Colossians 3:10; &nbsp;James 3:9 ), and so are both addressable by God and capable of responses appropriate to persons (beliefs, attitudes, and conduct that is consciously chosen); and (2) the Creator has disclosed himself to humankind and continues to address them. The whole visible world proclaims that its Creator has been and still is at work. It reflects his power, wisdom, righteousness, glory, and goodness (&nbsp;Psalm 19:1-4; &nbsp;29:3-9; &nbsp;97:6; &nbsp;Isaiah 40:12-14,21-22,26 , &nbsp;28; &nbsp;Acts 14:17; &nbsp;17:24-29; &nbsp;Romans 1:19-20 ). What &nbsp;Psalm 104 makes its central theme is elsewhere many times assumed or hinted: that the secure order of creation, sustaining as it does a profusion of life, is the visible glory-robe of the invisible Creator (see esp. vv. 1-2). So the creation itself is theophanous—and not just here and there in special "holy" places. The visible creation is itself the primal temple of God not built by human hands, where his "power and glory" are ever on display (&nbsp; Psalm 29:3-9; &nbsp;63:2 ). </p> <p> Nor are the effects of the Creator's actions in and on the creation discernible only in what is commonly referred to as "nature." God is equally engaged in the arena of human affairs. So, for example, he knows both the external Acts of all human beings and the secrets of every human heart. And he deals with persons accordingly. He even intersects the flow of human affairs at their fountainhead, as the teachers of Yahwistic wisdom summed it up for ancient Israel: "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps" (&nbsp;Proverbs 16:9 ); "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases" (&nbsp;Proverbs 21:1 ); "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (&nbsp;Proverbs 19:21; cf. &nbsp;Isaiah 10:6-7 ). </p> <p> The arenas of such divine intersection extend from individual lives to the rise and fall of empires. God appoints nations their place and establishes their boundaries (&nbsp;Deuteronomy 32:8; &nbsp;Amos 9:7 ). He makes them great, and destroys them (&nbsp;Job 12:23 ). He summons international armies to be "the weapons of his wrath" against an arrogant empire (&nbsp;Isaiah 13:4-5; &nbsp;Jeremiah 50-51 Ezek 50-5&nbsp;30:25 ). To serve his historical purposes, God calls [[Assyria]] "the rod of my anger , the club of my wrath" (&nbsp;Isaiah 10:5 ), [[Nebuchadnezzar]] "my servant" (&nbsp;Jeremiah 25:9 ), and [[Cyrus]] "my shepherd" to "accomplish all that I plan" (&nbsp;Isaiah 44:28 ). </p> <p> [[Ancient]] peoples believed that the gods intersected human affairs, determining the outcome of battles and the fortunes of kingdoms. Hence, in the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires the peoples of ancient Israel's world assumed that they experienced the workings of the gods. In that environment, Yahweh's sovereign control over the fortunes of nations, kings, and peoples (especially their downfall) humbled human arrogance (&nbsp;Genesis 11:1-9; &nbsp;Psalm 9:20; &nbsp;Isaiah 31:3; &nbsp;Ezekiel 28:2 ), exposed the powerlessness of the gods that humans made to fill the void left by their "forgetting" the Creator (&nbsp;Psalm 96:5; &nbsp;115:4-7; &nbsp;135:15-18; &nbsp;Isaiah 44:9-20; &nbsp;46:1-7 ), and testified to the sole rule of [[Yahweh]] (&nbsp;Exodus 9:16; &nbsp;14:17-18; &nbsp;Psalm 106:8; &nbsp;Ezekiel 25:11,17; &nbsp;26:6; &nbsp;28:22-24; &nbsp;29:6,9 , &nbsp;21; &nbsp;30:8,19 , &nbsp;25-26; &nbsp;32:15; &nbsp;35:15 ). Paul pointed to this divine disclosure in history when he said to the Greek intelligentsia, "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being" (&nbsp;Acts 17:26-28 ). </p> <p> So, according to the Bible, humankind is addressed by God through every component, process, and event in so-called nature and through every event, big and small, that makes up human history. Human beings live and move and have their being within the arena of God's creation. And through God's pervasive engagement with his creation as he sustains and governs it, they are always and everywhere confronted with the display of his power and glory. Wherever humans turn and by whatever means they experience the creation, the Creator calls to them for recognition and response. From this perspective, <i> all </i> human life is inherently "religious." </p> <p> In two other ways "religion" (humankind's ways of relating to the divine) encompasses the whole of human life. First, humans are created in God's image to be his stewards of the creationas vocation, not avocation (&nbsp;Genesis 1:26-27; &nbsp;2:15; &nbsp;Psalm 8:6-8 ). In <i> whatever ways </i> they act on the creation they do so as faithful or unfaithful stewards of God's handiwork. Second, humans live and prosper in all they undertake only by God's gifts and blessings (&nbsp; [[Genesis]] 1:28-29; &nbsp;9:1-3; &nbsp;Deuteronomy 7:13; &nbsp;Psalm 34:8-10; &nbsp;127; &nbsp;Hosea 2:8-9 ). Thus in <i> everything </i> humans have to do with God. </p> <p> But a breach has brought alienation between the Creator and humankind. [[Humanity]] has claimed autonomy as the implication of human freedom to make moral choices (&nbsp;Genesis 3:5-6 ) and self-sufficiency as the implication of humankind's power to "rule" and "subdue" God's earthly creatures (&nbsp;Genesis 4:19-24; &nbsp;11:3-4 ). As Job said of the "wicked": "They say to God, [[Leave]] us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?'" (21:14-15). They lean on their own understanding (&nbsp;Proverbs 3:5 ), being wise in their own eyes (&nbsp;Proverbs 3:7; &nbsp;26:5,12; &nbsp;Isaiah 5:21 ). In a very real sense, as Habakkuk (1:11) wrote of the Babylonians, they have become people whose own strength is their god. </p> <p> Still, this alienation from the Creator has left a void at the centerand there are obviously powers in the world not subject to human control that impinge on human existence and radically relativize humanity's self-sufficiency. So people have conceived of many gods, composed mythologies expressing what is believed about them, and devised ways to worship and appeal to them. [[Religion]] has broken up into many religions. Yet these have all been responses to the inescapable manifestations of the Creator's glory in the creation and the pervasive experience of humanity's existence being conditioned by a power or powers other than its own (&nbsp;Romans 1:21-23 ). </p> <p> This radical breach and its massive consequences have occasioned a second work of God, a work that rivals the first in its disclosure of the Creator's glory. Not willing to let the alienation stand or to yield his glory to other gods (&nbsp;Isaiah 42:8; &nbsp;48:11 ), the Creator has undertaken to effect reconciliation. It is with this mission of God to his world that the Bible is centrally concerned. It bears witness to God's "mighty Acts" of redemption in the history of Israel, and to the culmination of those Acts in the earthly ministry and heavenly reign of Jesus Christ. By this invasion of the alienated world with its many gods (&nbsp;2 Kings 17:29-33; &nbsp;Jeremiah 2:28; &nbsp;1 Corinthians 8:5 ), the Creator calls all peoples of the world to turn from the sham gods they have made and return to him. Only as people rightly relate to him, "the true God" (&nbsp;Jeremiah 10:10; cf. &nbsp;1 John 5:20 ), can their religion be "true." </p> <p> What, then, constitutes the religion that God accepts as pure and faultless? </p> <p> First, it believes the testimony of the spirit of God contained in the [[Scriptures]] of the Old and New Testaments that arose in conjunction with God's saving Acts in Israel's history and culminated in Jesus Christ. </p> <p> Second, it is filled with reverent awe before the majesty of the One who discloses himself in creation, history, and redemption. It bows in humble repentance before the [[Holy]] One for the alienation that turned to other gods and corrupted the "heart" from which springs every belief, attitude, and action. It receives in faith the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ. And in gratitude it dedicates the whole of self to the service of the Creator-Redeemer. </p> <p> Third, certain activities or life expressions fall within its sphere: worship, prayer, and praise, both private and communal, and proclamationtelling the story of what the one true God has done (&nbsp;Isaiah 43:10,12; &nbsp;44:8; &nbsp;Matthew 28:18-20; &nbsp;Acts 1:8 ). But to [[Israel]] God gave directives for more than cultic worship. <i> All </i> of Israel's life was to be brought into accordance with the will of the Creator, whose concern about his whole creation remained undiminished. And because no listing of do's and don'ts could be adequate in themselves, an all-encompassing commandment had to be appended: "Hear, [[O]] Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength [power and resources] [and] love your neighbor as yourself" (&nbsp; Mark 12:29-31; and parallels cf. &nbsp;Leviticus 19:18,34; &nbsp;Deuteronomy 6:4-5; &nbsp;John 13:34; &nbsp;Romans 13:9; &nbsp;Galatians 5:14; &nbsp;James 2:8 ). </p> <p> In biblical perspective, no human activity is any less "religious" (how humans relate to God) than worship, prayer, and praise. For that reason the apostle Paul instructed the church at Corinth, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (&nbsp;1 Corinthians 10:31 ). And for that reason James wrote, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (1:27). </p> <p> John H. Stek </p> <p> <i> See also </i> [[God]]; [[Providence Of God]]; [[Worship]] </p> <p> <i> Bibliography </i> . R. A. Clouse, <i> The [[Myth]] of [[Religious]] Neutrality: An [[Essay]] on the [[Hidden]] Role of Religious Belief in Theories </i> ; R. Otto, <i> The Idea of the Holy </i> ; J. Wach, <i> The Comparative Study of Religion </i> . </p>
       
== Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament <ref name="term_57171" /> ==
<p> The uses of the word ‘religion’ in the apostolic writings may be classified under three heads. </p> <p> <b> 1. </b> In &nbsp;Galatians 1:13 f. Ἰουδαϊσμός is twice translated ‘the Jews’ religion.’ St. Paul reminds the Galatians that they had heard of his manner of life aforetime when he followed Judaism, and that they knew his proficiency in Judaism. In this context the literal rendering ‘Judaism’ is to be preferred, for the factious rather than the religious aspect of [[Judaism]] is prominent. The English Version‘Jews’ religion ‘is an unfortunate’ translation, because ‘it implies a definite separation between the two religions which did not then exist, … and it puts this view into the mouth of Paul, who steadfastly persisted in identifying the faith of Christ with the national religion.… Here Ἰουδαϊσμός denotes [[Jewish]] partisanship, and accurately describes the bitter party spirit which prompted Saul to take the lead in the martyrdom of [[Stephen]] and the persecution of the Church, … He advanced beyond his fellows in sectarian prejudice and persecuting zeal’ (F. Rendall, in Expositor’s Greek Testament, ‘Galatians,’ London, 1903, p. 153 f.). </p> <p> <b> 2. </b> The Greek adjective δεισιδαίμων is rendered in &nbsp;Acts 17:22 ‘superstitious’ (Revised Version) and ‘religious’ (Revised Version margin). The derivative noun δεισιδαιμονία is rendered in &nbsp;Acts 25:19 ‘religion’ (Revised Version) and ‘superstition’ (Revised Version margin). The dominant meaning of the words in classical Greek is ‘due reverence of the gods,’ but in the 1st cent. a.d. they had a depreciatory sense and signified ‘excessive fear of the gods’ (cf. E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, Oxford, 1889, p. 45). It does not, however, follow that ‘religion’ is an impossible rendering in the address of [[Festus]] to the Jewish king, Agrippa, who paid outward deference to the Jewish religion. But although [[Felix]] is not likely to ‘have used the term offensively … he may well have chosen the word because it was a neutral word (verbum μέσον, Bengel) and did not commit him to anything definite’ (R. J. Knowling, in Expositor’s Greek Testament, ‘Acts,’ London, 1901, p. 497). ‘Superstitious’ is more probably, though not certainly, the correct translation in &nbsp;Acts 17:22. St. Paul was addressing Athenians, and they ‘would instinctively recall the literary associations of the word.… In point of fruit, the words ὡς δεισιδαιμονεστέρους give, in a form as little offensive as possible, St. Paul’s view of [[Athenian]] idolatry already noticed by the historian (v. 18), The ὡς brings out the fact that the word δεισιδαιμονεστέρους expresses the speaker’s own impression’ (F. H. Chase, The Credibility of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, London, 1902, p. 213). </p> <p> <b> 3. </b> In &nbsp;Acts 26:5 and &nbsp;James 1:26 f. ‘religion’ is the rendering of θρησκεία which in &nbsp;Colossians 2:18 is translated ‘worshipping.’ The contemporary meaning of the word is religion in its external aspect-‘cultus religiosus, potissimum externus’ (Wilke-Grimm, Clavis Novi Test., 1868). It is appropriately used by St. Paul in his address to [[Agrippa]] (&nbsp;Acts 26:5). [[Calling]] to remembrance his life as a Pharisee, the [[Apostle]] claims to have been ‘a zealous and diligent performer … of the outward service of God’ (R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the NT11, London, 1890, p. 175). In &nbsp;James 1:6 f., when the word is rightly understood, there is no support for those who disparage inward and spiritual religion, nor for those who so exalt its outward aspects as practically to identify it with morality and works of benevolence. What St. James asserts of such works is that they are ‘the body, the θρησκεία, of which godliness, or the love of God, is the informing soul.… The apostle claims for the new dispensation a superiority over the old, in that its very θρησκεία consists in acts of mercy, of love, of holiness, in that it has light for its garment, its very robe being righteousness; herein how much nobler than that old, whose θρησκεία was at best merely ceremonial and formal, whatever inner truth it might embody’ (R. C. Trench, op. cit. p. 176, who says, ‘these observations are made by Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, 1825, p. 15’). </p> <p> J. G. Tasker. </p>
       
== Charles Buck Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_20422" /> ==
<p> Is a Latin word, derived, according to Cicero, from rilegere, "to re-consider;" but according to Servius and most modern grammarians, from religare, "to bind fast." If the Ciceronian etymology be the true one, the word religion will denote the diligent study whatever pertains to the worship of God; but, according to the other derivation, it denotes that obligation which we feel on our minds from the relation in which we stand to some superior power. The word is sometimes used as synonymous with sect; but, in a practical sense, it is generally considered as the same with godliness, or a life devoted to the worship and fear of God. Dr. Doddridge thus defines it: "Religion consists in the resolution of the will for God, and in a constant care to avoid whatever we are persuaded he would disapprove, to despatch the work he has assigned us in life, and to promote his glory in the happiness of mankind." </p> <p> See GODLINESS.) The foundation of all religion rests on the belief of the existence of God. As we have, however, already considered the evidences of the divine existence, they need not be enumerated again in this place; the reader will find them under the article EXISTENCE OF GOD. Religion has been divided into natural and revealed. By natural religion is meant that knowledge, veneration, and love of God, and the practice of those duties to him, our fellow-creatures, and ourselves, which are discoverable by the right exercise of our rational faculties, from considering the nature and perfections of God, and our relation to him and to one another. </p> <p> By revealed religion is understood that discovery which he has made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Scriptures. As it respects natural religion, some doubt whether, properly speaking, there can be any such thing; since, through the fall, reason is so depraved, that man without revelation is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may be easily seen by considering the history of those nations who are destitute of it, and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So far as this, however, may be observed, that the light of nature can give us no proper ideas of God, nor inform us what worship will be acceptable to him. It does not tell us how man became a fallen sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recovered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery. The apostle, indeed, observes, that the [[Gentiles]] have the law written on their hearts, and are a law unto themselves; yet the greatest moralists among them were so blinded as to be guilty of, and actually to countenance the greatest vices. Such a system, therefore, it is supposed, can hardly be said to be religious which leaves man in such uncertainty, ignorance, and impiety. ( </p> <p> See REVELATION.) </p> <p> On the other side it is observed, "that, though it is in the highest degree probable that the parents of mankind received all their theological knowledge by supernatural means, it is yet obvious that some parts of that knowledge must have been capable of a proof purely rational, otherwise not a single religious truth could have been conveyed through the succeeding generations of the human race but by the immediate inspiration of each individual. We, indeed, admit may propositions as certainly true, upon the sole authority of the Jewish and [[Christian]] Scriptures, and we receive these Scriptures with gratitude as the lively oracles of God; but it is self-evident that we could not do either the one or the other, were we not convinced by natural means that God exists; that he is a being of goodness, justice, and power; and that he inspired with divine wisdom the penmen of these sacred volumes. </p> <p> Now, though it is very possible that no man, or body of men, left to themselves from infancy in a desert world, would ever have made a theological discovery, yet, whatever propositions relating to the being and attributes of the First Cause and duty of man, can be demonstrated by human reason, independent of written revelation, may be called natural theology, and are of the utmost importance, as being to us the first principles of all religion. Natural theology, in this sense of the word, is the foundation of the Christian revelation; for, without a previous knowledge of it, we could have no evidence that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are indeed the word of God." The religions which exist in the world have been generally divided into four, the Pagan, the Jewish, the Mahometan, and the Christian; to which articles the reader is referred. The various duties of the Christian religion also are stated in their different places. </p> <p> See also, as connected with this article, the articles INSPIRATION, REVELATION, and THEOLOGY, and books there recommended. </p>
       
== Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words <ref name="term_79024" /> ==
<div> '''1: θρησκεία ''' (Strong'S #2356 — Noun [[Feminine]] — threseia — thrace-ki'-ah ) </div> <p> signifies "religion" in its external aspect (akin to threskos, see below), "religious worship," especially the ceremonial service of "religion;" it is used of the "religion" of the Jews, &nbsp;Acts 26:5; of the "worshiping" of angels, &nbsp;Colossians 2:18 , which they themselves repudiate (&nbsp;Revelation 22:8,9 ); "there was an officious parade of humility in selecting these lower beings as intercessors rather than appealing directly to the [[Throne]] of Grace" (Lightfoot); in &nbsp;James 1:26,27 the writer purposely uses the word to set in contrast that which is unreal and deceptive, and the "pure religion" which consists in visiting "the fatherless and widows in their affliction," and in keeping oneself "unspotted from the world." He is "not herein affirming. ... these offices to be the sum total, nor yet the great essentials, of true religion, but declares them to be the body, the threskeia, of which godliness, or the love of God, is the informing soul" (Trench). </p> <div> '''2: δεισιδαιμονία ''' (Strong'S #1175 — Noun Feminine — deisidaimonia — dice-ee-dahee-mon-ee'-ah ) </div> <p> primarily denotes "fear of the gods" (from deido, "to fear," daimon, "a pagan deity," Eng., "demon"), regarded whether as a religious attitude, or, in its usual meaning, with a condemnatory or contemptuous significance, "superstition." That is how Festus regarded the Jews' "religion," &nbsp;Acts 25:19 , AV and RV marg., "superstition" (RV, "religion"). See Religious , Note (1), and under SUPERSTITIOUS. </p> &nbsp;Galatians 1:13,14[[Jews]]
       
== King James Dictionary <ref name="term_62709" /> ==
<p> 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. </p> 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. &nbsp;James 1 . 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. <p> Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. </p> 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, &c. as well as of the christian religion. We speak of false religion, as well as of true religion. 5. The rites of religion in the plural.
       
== Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_37277" /> ==
<p> RELIGIOUS. &nbsp;James 1:26-27, threeskos , threeskeia; distinct from eulabees ''("Reverent"; From The Old Testament Standpoint; "Cautious Fear Toward God")'' , "devout" (&nbsp;Luke 2:25); theosebees , "godly"; eusebees , "pious." "If any man seem a diligent observer of the offices of religion (threeskos ) ... pure and undefiled religion ''(Not The [[Sum]] Total Or [[Inner]] Essentials Of Religion, But Its [[Outer]] Manifestations)'' is to visit the fatherless," etc. The Old Testament cult or "religious service" (threeskeia ) was ceremony and ritual; the New Testament religious service consists in acts of mercy, love, and holiness. "Religion" refers to the external service, "godliness" being the soul. James as president of the [[Jerusalem]] council (&nbsp;Acts 15:13-21) had decided against ritualism; so he teaches, instead of Judaic ceremonialism, true religious service is (1) active, (2) passive (&nbsp;Micah 6:7-8; &nbsp;Matthew 23:23); compare &nbsp;Acts 26:5, "our religion"; &nbsp;Colossians 2:18, "worshipping," threeskeia . </p>
       
== Holman Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_43410" /> ==
&nbsp;Acts 17:22&nbsp;Acts 25:19&nbsp;Acts 17:22&nbsp;Acts 25:19&nbsp;2&nbsp;Acts 26:5&nbsp; James 1:26-27&nbsp; Acts 26:5&nbsp; James 1:26-27 <i> sebomai </i> &nbsp; Acts 13:43&nbsp; 1 Timothy 2:10&nbsp; John 9:31&nbsp;1 Timothy 3:16&nbsp;2 Timothy 3:5&nbsp;1 Timothy 5:4&nbsp; Colossians 2:23 <i> thelo </i> <i> Ioudaismo </i> &nbsp; Galatians 1:13-14&nbsp;6&nbsp;Amos 5:21&nbsp;Amos 8:10&nbsp;Colossians 2:16&nbsp;Hebrews 10:11 <p> Chris Church </p>
       
== Webster's Dictionary <ref name="term_166426" /> ==
<p> '''(1):''' ''' (''' n.) The outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having power over their destiny, to whom obedience, service, and honor are due; the feeling or expression of human love, fear, or awe of some superhuman and overruling power, whether by profession of belief, by observance of rites and ceremonies, or by the conduct of life; a system of faith and worship; a manifestation of piety; as, ethical religions; monotheistic religions; natural religion; revealed religion; the religion of the Jews; the religion of idol worshipers. </p> <p> '''(2):''' ''' (''' n.) Strictness of fidelity in conforming to any practice, as if it were an enjoined rule of conduct. </p> <p> '''(3):''' ''' (''' n.) Specifically, conformity in faith and life to the precepts inculcated in the Bible, respecting the conduct of life and duty toward God and man; the Christian faith and practice. </p> <p> '''(4):''' ''' (''' n.) A monastic or religious order subject to a regulated mode of life; the religious state; as, to enter religion. </p>
       
== Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_53589" /> ==
<p> <strong> RELIGION </strong> . The word ‘religion,’ wherever it occurs in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , signifies not the inner spirit of the religious life, but its outward expression. It is thus used of one form of religion as distinguished from another; as in 2Ma 14:36 , where the same word is translated in the middle of the verse ‘Judaism,’ and in the end of it ‘the religion of the Jews.’ It is also used by St. James (&nbsp; James 1:26-27 ) to contrast moral acts with ritual forms. </p>
       
== Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_81360" /> ==
<p> See [[Christianity]] . </p>
       
== Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature <ref name="term_57674" /> ==
<p> (Lat. relego, religo). This word, according to Cicero (Div. Instit. 4), is derived from, or rather compounded of, re and legere, to read over again, to reflect upon or to study the sacred books in which religion is delivered. According to [[Lactantius]] (De Civit. Dei, lib. 10:c. 3), it comes from re- ligare, to bind back, because religion is that which furnishes the true ground of obligation. </p> <p> Religion has been divided into natural and revealed. By natural religion is meant that knowledge, veneration, and love of God, and the practice of those duties to him, our fellow-creatures, and ourselves, which are discoverable by the right exercise of our rational faculties, from considering the nature and perfections of God, and our relation to him and to one another. By revealed religion is understood that discovery which he has made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Scriptures. As respects natural religion, some doubt whether, properly speaking, there can be any such thing; since, through the fall. reason is so depraved that man, without revelation, is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may be easily seen by considering the history of those nations who are destitute of it, and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So far as this, however, may be observed, the light of nature can give us no proper ideas of God, nor inform us what worship will be acceptable to him. It does not tell us how man became a fallen, sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recovered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery. The apostle, indeed, observes that the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts, and are a law unto themselves; yet the greatest moralists among them were so blinded as to be guilty of, and actually to countenance, the greatest vices. Such a system, therefore, it is supposed, can hardly be said to be religious which leaves man in such uncertainty, ignorance, and impiety. (See [[Natural Theology]]). </p> <p> [[Revealed]] religion forms the correlate of natural religion, or the religion of reason. It is not the result of human investigation, but being the result of an extraordinary communication from God, is therefore infallible; whereas, on the contrary, all processes of human thought are more or less subjected to error. Hence we can explain why it is that religion gives itself out to be, not a product of the reason merely, not anything which originated from human inquiry and study, but a result of a divine revelation. The religious feeling is undoubtedly a propension of human nature; yet without a divine revelation the mind would sink in dark and perpetual disorder. Of the whole family of man, existing in all ages, and scattered over every quarter of the globe, there is not one well-authenticated exception to the fact that, moved by an inward impulse, and guided by revelation or tradition, man worships something which he believes to be endowed with the attributes of a superior being. Even the occasional gleamings of truth found in the various idolatrous systems are but the traditions of ancient revelations, more or less corrupted, which have descended from the first worshippers. Revealed religion comprehends, besides the doctrines of natural religion, many truths which were beyond the reach of human reason, though not contradictory thereto, and for a knowledge of which we are indebted directly to the Old and New Testaments. While other religions had been variously accommodated to the peculiar countries in which they flourished, Christianity was so framed as to be adapted to the whole human family. It is the one thing needful for the elevation of our race, and is destined alike to universality and perpetuity. </p> <p> In all forms of religion there is one part, which may be called the doctrine or dogma, which is to be received by faith; and the cultus, or worship, which is the outward expression of the religious sentiment. By religion is also meant that homage to the [[Deity]] in all the forms which pertain to the spiritual life, in contrast with theology, the theory of the divine nature and government. (See [[Theology]]). </p>
       
== International Standard Bible Encyclopedia <ref name="term_7764" /> ==
<p> ''''' rḗ ''''' - ''''' lij´un ''''' : "Religion" and "religious" in Elizabethan English were used frequently to denote the outward expression of worship. This is the force of φρησκεία , <i> ''''' thrēskeia ''''' </i> , translated "religion" in &nbsp; Acts 26:5; &nbsp;James 1:26 , &nbsp;James 1:27 (with adjective <i> '''''thrḗskos''''' </i> , "religious"), while the same noun in &nbsp;Colossians 2:18 is rendered "worshipping" ("cult" would give the exact meaning). And in the same external sense "religion" is used by the King James Version for λατρεία , <i> '''''latreı́a''''' </i> , "worship" (so the Revised Version (British and American)), in 1 Macc 1:43; 2:19, 22. [[Otherwise]] "Jews' religion" (or "religion of the Jews") appears in 2 Macc 8:1; 14:38 (the Revised Version (British and American) bis); &nbsp;Galatians 1:13 , &nbsp;Galatians 1:14 ( Ἰουδαΐσμός , <i> '''''Ioudaismós''''' </i> , "Judaism"); and "an alien religion" in 2 Macc 6:24 (ἀλλοφυλισμός , <i> '''''allophulismós''''' </i> , "that belonging to another tribe"). The neglect of the external force of "religion" has led to much reckless misquoting of &nbsp;James 1:26 , &nbsp;James 1:27 . Compare &nbsp;Acts 17:22 . See [[Superstition]] . </p>
       
== The Nuttall Encyclopedia <ref name="term_78916" /> ==
<p> A sense, affecting the whole character and life, of dependence on, reverence for, and responsibility to a [[Higher]] Power; or a mode of thinking, feeling, and acting which respects, trusts in, and strives after God, and determines a man's duty and destiny in this universe, or "the manner in which a man feels himself to be spiritually related to the unseen world." </p>
       
==References ==
<references>


Religion <ref name="term_57166" />
<ref name="term_18181"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/baker-s-evangelical-dictionary-of-biblical-theology/religion Religion from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology]</ref>
<p> <b> [[Religion.]] </b> —The Lat. word <i> religio </i> did not come into [[Christian]] usage until in the 4th cent. Lactantins ( <i> Instit </i> . iv. 28) wrote, ‘Religion is the link which unites man to God.’ The reason was that the implications of the word were altogether external, and, in accordance with the Roman genius, almost administrative. But the [[Greeks]] were equally unable to supply a word which would correspond with the Christian faith and its fruits. θρησκεία, translation ‘religion’ in &nbsp;Acts 26:5 and &nbsp;James 1:26 f., was also spiritually threadbare, and suggested nothing more than the ceremonial side of public worship. With this history behind the word, religion has come to be a complex conception; but for the present purpose it may perhaps be defined as the soul’s response to the spiritual revelation by which it is illumined, kindled, and moved. With some the revelation does not pass beyond the mind, with others it calls for little more than an indulgence of feeling, with others, again, it brings out only a discipline of obedience. But in true religion all three elements are present. ‘It includes the whole energy of man as reasonable spirit’ (Fairbairn, <i> Phil. </i> [Note: Philistine.] <i> of [[Religion]] </i> , p. 201). The key-words of religion then are: (1) revelation, (2) response. </p> <p> <b> 1. Religion as revelation. </b> —The quality of the response depends on the character of the <i> revelation </i> . Religion must always mean something different from what it was before the revelation of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. Of what that consisted will appear later. Meantime it might be noted that the factor of revelation has been minimized in the workings of thought during the last two centuries, in reaction, no doubt, from the emphasis on external authority, not only in the [[Catholic]] Church, but in older theology generally. On the one hand, in the 18th cent. there was, if one may say so, an artificial construction of ‘natural’ religion, in which Christ was put out of court. On the other hand, in the 19th cent. the rise of psychological and humanitarian interests has created a tendency to lose the revelation in the response. Thus Schleiermacher in his <i> Reden über die Religion </i> has nothing to say on religious authority, and in a chapter on the nature of religion practically identifies revelation with intuition and original feeling (p. 89). Ritschl, again, in his theory of value-judgments, throws the weight of authority on the soul’s response; while Sabatier, in his beautiful study of the genesis of religion, speaks of the spirit attaching itself to its principle, and seems also liable to the dangers of subjectivity ( <i> Outlines of Phil. </i> [Note: Philistine.] <i> of Rel. </i> p. 28). The alteration of standpoint is thus expressed by [[F.]] [[D.]] [[Maurice]] ( <i> Life </i> , i. p. 340): </p> <p> ‘ <i> The </i> difficulty in our day is to believe in a revelation as our fathers did.… Our mind’s bear a stronger witness than the minds of our forefathers did to the idea of a revelation: so strong a witness, that we think it must have originated in them. We cannot think it possible that God has actually manifested Himself to us, <i> because </i> the sense of a manifestation is so near to us that we think it is only our sense, and has no reality corresponding to it.’ </p> <p> But no good end is served by minimizing that side of religion that is ‘not ourselves.’ For although, as [[Oman]] so well shows ( <i> Vision and [[Authority]] </i> , p. 81), ‘the supreme religious fact is the individual whose capacity of vision is the channel of authority,’ yet if truth is ultimately one, it must proceed by way of revelation from some objective source. ‘Faith,’ says Dorner ( <i> Syst. of Chr. [[Doctrine]] </i> , i. p. 133), ‘does not wish to become a mere relation to itself, or to its representation and thought. That would be simply a monologue: faith desires a dialogue.’ See, further, art. Fact and Theory. </p> <p> Now, revelation finds its way to the soul both mediately and immediately. And it is essential to give due consideration to both these channels of religious authority. Jesus Christ, who is the norm of religion as well as the focus of revelation, made use of both. It must not be overlooked that He took over without hesitation the general conception of God’s nature, kingdom, and law which He inherited from the teaching of home (&nbsp;Luke 2:51), synagogue (&nbsp;Luke 4:16), and Scriptures. The [[Ot]] provided Him not only with illustrations of His own original thought (&nbsp;Matthew 12:39-42, &nbsp;Luke 4:25-27), but with canons of judgment and standards of authority (&nbsp;Matthew 5:18), and even with personal assurance in the time of moral temptation (&nbsp;Matthew 4:4; &nbsp;Matthew 4:7; &nbsp;Matthew 4:10) and of mortal weakness (&nbsp;Matthew 27:46, &nbsp;Luke 23:46). But this attitude of our Lord must not be misunderstood. In leaning on the Word of God in the [[Scriptures]] of His people, He was not compromising the Church on critical questions. Moreover, it cannot be affirmed that He gave any guarantee of an infallible book. On the contrary, He handled it with perfect freedom, treating it as a guide but not as a goal (&nbsp;Matthew 5:21 ff.). Its validity for Him, as for us, lay in its being the chosen testimony of those who gave the best response that was in them to the revelation they received, and so became witnesses of the truth.* [Note: The communication of religion, says Schleiermacher (op. cit. p. 150), is not to be sought in books. In this medium, too, much of the pure impression of the original production is lost.] </p> <p> So far our Lord behaved Himself as the ‘root and offspring of David.’ But He was also ‘the bright and morning star.’ And religion was His by a revelation that was immediate, as well as by that which was mediated. Into the secrets of His sublime self-consciousness as the beloved Son of God and one with the Father we cannot penetrate. But His words are before us, with all their august claim: ‘It was said by them of old, … but <i> [[I]] </i> say unto you’ (&nbsp;Matthew 5:21 f. etc.); ‘Ye search the Scriptures, … but ye will not come to <i> me </i> ,’ etc. (&nbsp;John 5:39 f). The immediacy of revelation to Him is fully declared in &nbsp;Matthew 11:27 ‘All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no one knoweth the Son save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.’ None has ever challenged that solitary claim. Yet it is notable that our Lord did not shut up His followers to a revelation that is mediated even through His own blessed words. </p> <p> ‘Christ found men everywhere ready to receive Him as a Rabbi. On the authority of other people they would accept anything. But He insisted on basing what He taught on the authority of their own hearts and consciences. To this end He spoke in parables that they might not understand on any other conditions’ (Oman, <i> Vision and Authority </i> , p. 104). </p> <p> And it is for us to remember that Christ has not left us His revelation, as it were, on deposit. The partial records of His life, first in the flesh and then in the spirit, which are ours through the [[Nt,]] are certainly means whereby the [[Divine]] grace and truth are mediated to us, providing, indeed, our canon of spiritual judgment. But we are to trust also to the immediacy of Divine access to our minds, knowing that there is a Spirit to lead us into all the truth, enabling us to judge all things and approve those that are excellent (&nbsp;John 16:13, &nbsp;1 Corinthians 2:15, &nbsp;Philippians 1:10).* [Note: ‘Not every person has religion who believes in a sacred writing, but only the man who has a lively and immdiate understanding of it, and who therefore, so far as he himself is concerned, could most easily do without it’ (Schleiermacher, op. cit. p. 91).] Thus [[Christianity]] is like an ever new commandment, being true in Him and in us (&nbsp;1 John 2:8). See, further, art. Revelation. </p> <p> <b> 2. Religion as response. </b> —The primary <i> response </i> to the revelation of God may be said to run on three lines, the sense of ( <i> a </i> ) dependence, ( <i> b </i> ) estrangement, ( <i> c </i> ) obligation. </p> <p> ( <i> a </i> ) The soul’s response in a sense of <i> dependence </i> . The soul, when it comes to itself, finds itself solitary and orphaned. The issues of life run up into eternity, and the soul first proves it is awakened by crying out for the living God. The fact that man is a spiritual being soon asserts itself in the life that is not wholly preoccupied with things temporal. In the words of St. [[Augustine]] ( <i> [[Confess]] </i> .), ‘Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it find its rest in Thee.’ Thus begins a ‘commerce, a conscious and willed relation, into which the soul in distress enters with the mysterious power on which it feels that it and its destiny depend’ (Sabatier, <i> Outlines </i> , p. 27). This need of security and rest is perfectly met by Christ. He satisfies the soul’s sense of dependence by drawing it to Himself. In His Divine Personality men find their long-sought God. To the soul once awakened there is no resting-place except in the eternal Christ, ‘the same yesterday and to-day and for ever.’ </p> <p> ‘Holding His hand, my steadied feet </p> <p> May walk the air, the seas; </p> <p> On life and death His smile falls sweet, </p> <p> [[Lights]] up all mysteries. </p> <p> [[Stranger]] nor exile can [[I]] be </p> <p> In new worlds where He leadeth me.’ </p> <p> ( <i> b </i> ) [[A]] second primary response of the soul in religion is a sense of sin, or <i> separation </i> . Religion has found expression in sacrifices on account of the well-nigh universal instinct that something must be offered in order to avert the wrath or unkindness of the Deity, or at least to restore happy relations between the worshipper and the world that is beyond his control. Whether they were originally offered in fear of malevolent deities, or in commemoration of the ghosts of the departed, or to renew the covenant of a tribe with its proper deity, does not greatly matter. [[Suffice]] it that the sacrifice is intended to restore communion with God in such a way that in the place of guilt and fear there may come a sense of favour through prosperity and peace. </p> <p> This strong sense of a separateness that may be bridged is more or less efficient in all human response to the Unseen, and is the basis on which the higher religions rest. The danger is that the interest may run out towards the material sacrifice and its attendant rites in such a way that the end is forgotten in the means. But here Christ meets the supreme need of reconciliation in the only worthy way conceivable. On the cross the soul’s reliance can be securely planted. It so suffices that all other sacrifices can only be put aside as mistaken, superfluous, and vain (&nbsp;Hebrews 13:15), unless they are the sacrifices of empty hands and a full heart. </p> <p> ( <i> c </i> ) There is a third primary strand of religion in the sense of <i> obligation </i> , by which the soul is brought under a supreme law and purpose. There is a constraining influence in all religion, in addition to the feeling of dependence and the sense of estrangement. Religion really begins for us, says Lotze, ‘with a feeling of duty’ ( <i> Phil. </i> [Note: Philistine.] <i> of Religion </i> , p. 150). It involves a committal of the life, the framing of its career on lines that often lie athwart the obvious advantages of life. The Indian fakir or Buddhist monk is moved strongly by this sense of obligation, and observes conditions of consecration even to the crippling of his life. But here, again, the faith of Jesus Christ fulfils this need of the soul in a way that liberates and enlarges it. He made that absolute claim on the soul’s affection and the life’s service to which so many have thankfully responded. He knew human nature too well to ask for a partial surrender, and an obedience in outward things which is hard and toilsome. But His yoke is easy, because it brings the whole life, love, and strength under contribution to a reasonable service; so that [[‘I]] ought’ is transmuted into [[‘I]] must,’ and the struggling life of division becomes the soaring life of dedication. And as <i> prayer </i> is the expression of the sense of dependence, and <i> sacrifice </i> of the consciousness of estrangement, so the <i> sacrament </i> is the symbol of the sense of obligation. </p> <p> <b> 3. True religion embodied in Jesus Christ. </b> —It is evident from this brief analysis of religion on its responsive side, that Christ has the key to all its intimacies, because the meanings of religion are consummated in Himself. The religion which we believe to be universal and everlasting in its character is just the fuller knowledge and obedience of Christ. He is His own religion, and therefore He not only harmonizes the various <i> feelings </i> of religion, as we have just seen, by satisfying the desire for security, for reconciliation, and for authority, but He also brings into unity its various <i> forms </i> . There are three chief forms which religion has taken, corresponding to the emotional, intellectual, and volitional elements in human nature: ( <i> a </i> ) the <i> ritual </i> side of religion, presided over by the priests, ( <i> b </i> ) the <i> speculative </i> side, represented by the theologians and philosophers, and ( <i> c </i> ) the <i> legal </i> or customary side, typified by the office of the scribes. All these departments are resolved in the [[Nt]] into the headship and hegemony of Christ. He did not incorporate His religion in a hierarchic order (as with the Buddhists), or in philosophical books (as with the Brahmans), or in codes and customs (as with the Confucians and Muhammadans). He is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life (&nbsp;John 14:6) for all humanity. </p> <p> ( <i> a </i> ) Christ is the perfect expression of the [[Temple]] symbolism (&nbsp;Hebrews 9:11 f.). His name is the shrine (&nbsp;Matthew 18:20, cf. &nbsp;2 Corinthians 5:17); His will is the altar (&nbsp;Matthew 25:40, cf. &nbsp;2 Corinthians 8:5). In His self-surrender He is the sacrifice (&nbsp;Matthew 26:36 ff., cf. &nbsp;Hebrews 10:10); in His self-manifestation He is the priest (&nbsp;Matthew 11:27, &nbsp;John 14:6). ‘Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession … let us draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace’ (&nbsp;Hebrews 4:14; &nbsp;Hebrews 4:16). ( <i> b </i> ) Christ is also the final secret of revelation. The Spirit’s work was to be focussed on Himself (&nbsp;John 16:14 f.), for to know Him is to know the Father (&nbsp;John 14:9), and that is life eternal (&nbsp;John 17:3). This is a wisdom that the rulers of this world never knew (&nbsp;1 Corinthians 2:6 ff.), though prophets and kings have desired to look into it (&nbsp;Luke 10:24). For the mystery of God is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (&nbsp;Colossians 2:3). ( <i> c </i> ) Christ is, moreover, ‘the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth’ (&nbsp;Romans 10:4). His spirit of love is a law of liberty to His disciples (&nbsp;John 13:17; &nbsp;John 15:14, cf. &nbsp;James 1:23). [[Keeping]] the commandments is consummated in following Him (&nbsp;Mark 10:21), <i> i.e. </i> walking in love (&nbsp;Ephesians 5:1 f.); for love is the fulfilling of law (&nbsp;Romans 13:10) and solves the complicated problems of social life (&nbsp;Romans 14:18). </p> <p> The three provinces of religious manifestation correspond with the three primary sensibilities of the religious life. The religious philosopher seeks to rationalize the consciousness of dependence on some theistic basis. The priest comes into being through the urgent need of reconciliation. The scribe meets the desire for some authority amid the tangled questions of practical life. Thus Christianity, which is essentially a life hid with Christ in God, is always in danger of being drawn down to the level of those who would reduce religion to a ritual of worship, a system of thought, or a fashion of life. But the fact that Jesus Christ is His own religion is the one guarantee of religion arriving at perfection. For it may truly be said that religion is in its essence the consciousness of personal being under the eye of the eternal Personality. It is surely too vague to define it, with Max Müller, as a ‘perception of the infinite,’ or, with Schleiermacher, as the ‘immediate consciousness of the eternal in the temporal.’ Lotze gives the following propositions as the characteristic convictions of the religious mind: (1) [[Moral]] laws embody the will of God; (2) individual finite spirits are not products of nature, but are children of God; (3) reality is more and other than the mere course of nature, it is a [[Kingdom]] of God. In each of these propositions the note of <i> personality </i> is sounded, both subjectively and objectively. And Ritschl states one side of this truth strongly when he explains religion out of ‘the necessity which man feels of maintaining his personality and spiritual independence against the limitations of Nature.’ But surely the religious man is at equal pains to assure himself of an all-embracing Personality at the heart of things, to which his own soul can return and be at rest (&nbsp;Psalms 116:7). That being so, we can see that only through Christ, the God-man, can this twofold consciousness be securely maintained, and the balance kept true between the objective and subjective elements in religion. </p> <p> In Christ is perfected both the revelation and the response. He is the focus of revelation and the norm of religion. In fact, ‘He reveals most because He awakens most’ (Matheson, <i> [[Growth]] of Spirit of Christianity </i> , p. 8). He enables us to see in God our Father, because He quickens in us a filial consciousness and behaviour. As for His revelation of Godhead, men have seen in Him that interwoven authority of love and law, of truth and grace, which gives fulness of meaning to the conceptions of a Father in heaven, free will and human immortality. As for the response which He has awakened in men, they have been won to His ideal through His fulfilment of filial and fraternal obligations in His sacrificial life. The authority and the obedience were alike pre-eminent in the Cross. [[Thence]] came the kindling spark which made the Person of Christ a vital religious fact for humanity. Man had thought of himself as being in some sense on a cross because of the presence of suffering, sin, and death; and, so far as he was religious, tried by ritual to propitiate the Almighty, by philosophy to vindicate His ways, by methods of conduct to reduce the mischief of evil. But in Christ crucified man has found God Himself on the cross; and with Him there, there can be no injustice in suffering, no victory for sin, no sting in death. </p> <p> <b> 4. Characteristics of Christ’s religion. </b> —Having set this corner-stone, it only remains to mention seven characteristics of the religion which is derived from Jesus Christ and lives upon Him still. </p> <p> (1) Christ has made religion <i> personal in its authority </i> . He is the only and absolute Lord. His spirit has broken and broken again the bands of ecclesiastical systems which multiply the scruples of conscience. The authority which is <i> not </i> as that of the scribes has been in more or less effectual operation through all the history of Christendom. [[Unlearned]] men, the weak and foolish of this world, have more than held their own in the name of Jesus of [[Nazareth]] (Acts 4, cf. &nbsp;1 Corinthians 1:26 ff.). His people have gone forth, indifferent to praise or blame, favour or persecution, and even suspending their judgment of one another on the ground that to their own [[Master]] they stand or fall, before whose judgment-seat all must appear (&nbsp;Romans 14:4; &nbsp;Romans 14:10 f.). Heroic exploits have been undertaken and meanest duties performed by those whose one desire is to be well-pleasing unto Him (&nbsp;Hebrews 13:21) whom not having seen they love (&nbsp;1 Peter 1:8). Christianity loses its secret when it forgets the glorious egotism of the Master, who not only made Himself a law to the disciples who accompanied His ministry (&nbsp;Matthew 23:10), but gave Himself back to them as more than ever theirs after death (&nbsp;Matthew 28:20, John 20, 21). Christian mysticism is not only in place, it is imperative for the believer. Though he may not rise to the full height of St. Paul’s ‘Not [[I,]] but Christ’ (&nbsp;Galatians 2:20), he must be in conscious touch with his Lord. </p> <p> (2) Christ made religion <i> human in its sympathy </i> . It was stamped upon the remembrance of His disciples that He went about doing good. Jesus presented to a world much given to religiosity the problem of One who reserved His devotions for the solitude of night, and filled His days, including the Sabbaths, with helping the needy and the outcast. True, He went up to the national [[Feasts]] (&nbsp;John 2:13 etc.), but He was most Himself when He provided a miraculous meal of His own (&nbsp;Mark 6:35 ff. ||). True, He revered the Temple; but the occasions of His triumphs, and the moment of His transfiguration, were in secular places (&nbsp;Matthew 17:1 ff. ||). True, He was subject unto the Law; but He made its requirements a secondary consideration when the cause of humanity was at stake (&nbsp;Mark 2:23 ff; &nbsp;Mark 3:1 ff.). These incidents are typical of the attitude of Jesus towards religious duty. He denounced the advocates of ‘Corban,’ and those who ‘devoured widows’ houses and for a pretence made long prayers’; demanded ‘mercy instead of sacrifice, and reconciliation rather than ritual’ (&nbsp;Matthew 9:13; &nbsp;Matthew 5:23 f.); and declared that the service of the ‘little ones,’ the least of His brethren, was the true way of honouring the Father in heaven (&nbsp;Matthew 10:40; &nbsp;Matthew 25:40, &nbsp;John 13:14). Slowly the disciples were weaned from their contempt for the multitude, their disparagement of women and children (&nbsp;Mark 10:13 ff.), their vexation with men like [[Bartimaeus]] and [[Zacchaeus]] who interfered with their religious plans (&nbsp;Mark 10:48, &nbsp;Luke 19:7). At last they deserved the name of ‘League of Pity.’ Their first social experiment was to have all things in common (&nbsp;Acts 4:34). Their first economic problem was how to distribute alms most wisely to the widows (&nbsp;Acts 6:1). They invented a new virtue called ‘brotherly love,’ in which all shared who were of the faith, whatever their status or nationality. The revolution which Christ effected in humanizing the conception of religion may be clearly seen in a study of words. There were three Greek words for service: διακονία, which was used for service from man to man, chiefly reserved for slaves; λειτουργία, which was used for the service of a man to the commonwealth; and λατρεία, for the service rendered to the gods. </p> <p> The Christian consciousness rejected the last word; but adopted and hallowed the other two, which stood for human, not Divine service. They appear in ‘deacon’ and ‘liturgy’ respectively: the third word is left embedded in idolatry.—See, further, below, § 5. </p> <p> (3) Christ has made religion <i> moral in its character </i> , because He is pre-eminently the [[Saviour]] from sin. Religion under other auspices may mean almost anything but a moral conflict and victory. It may even, as in various Asiatic beliefs, spread its sanction over immorality. And even where there is a high ethical standard, as in Confucianism, goodness is rather a codified substitute for religion than the vital substance of it. Nowhere but in Christianity is love for God identified with a passion for real righteousness and inmost cleansing. Not that there is no teaching to this end in the [[Ot.]] On the contrary, it is the main burden of the prophets. And John the [[Baptist]] stood in the true succession when he turned religion into the terms of a repentant and reconstructed life. But it too easily became a means to an end, so that personal righteousness became subsidiary to national rights. And goodness became so degenerate in the chair of the scribes that their ideal was not so much rectitude as correctitude. </p> <p> But the religion of the [[Sermon]] on the Mount breathes out a holiness which consumes every lesser thing, and carries the moral imperative into the inmost recesses of the soul. It is a remarkable thing that Jesus brought so few charges of sin against the irreligious people. If one might venture on a reason, it is that sin itself, <i> i.e. </i> the enthronement of self against God, meant so much to Him that He let other things pass in order to strike at the Prince of this world (&nbsp;John 12:31; &nbsp;John 16:11). His life and spiritual presence have made men conscious of sin without the aid of any catalogue of transgressions. On the other hand, Christ’s conception of morality was always warm and positive, on the ground that ‘no virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic’ (Seeley, <i> Ecce Homo </i> , ch. i.). Every token of self-abandonment in humility, faith, and love drew forth His admiration, whether it was the quiet confidence of the centurion (&nbsp;Matthew 8:5 ff., &nbsp;Luke 17:2 ff.), the moral enthusiasm of the young ruler (&nbsp;Mark 10:17 ff. ||), the sacrificial giving of the poor widow (&nbsp;Mark 12:42 ff. ||), or the overflowing repentance of the woman who wept at His feet (&nbsp;Luke 7:36 ff.). Every human trait that escaped the imprisonment of self was in the eyes of Jesus the material of true religion. And it was a radiant goodness, unconscious and unlaboured, in the early [[Christians]] that chiefly arrested the attention of the world. </p> <p> (4) Christ has made religion <i> individual in its responsibility </i> , because He is the Lord of all. Religion always tends to congeal into a system. There is, of course, a solidarity of mankind, of which religion must take note, of which indeed it is an expression. [[Sin]] is a common inheritance, and redemption, too, is a universal fact. It is on this truth that the gospel of Jesus rests. But starting from this truth the gospel lays a test and an obligation on individuals as such. There is no safeguard in being a son of [[Abraham]] or a disciple of Moses without giving personal credence, allegiance, and service, μόνον πίστευε is the keyword by which the individual escapes from ‘an evil and adulterous generation,’ and all that threatens the full exercise of personality. From the beginning Jesus kept the multitude at the distance of a strait gate and a narrow way, which can be traversed only by one at a time, by the giving of the will, and the crucifying of the self. And what is true of entrance to the Kingdom holds good of its final appointments. [[Punishment]] will be proportioned to knowledge and reward to fidelity. With all that He Himself brought, Jesus did not allow men to take anything for granted, but bade them ‘watch, as if on that alone hung the issue of the day.’ </p> <p> (5) Christ has made religion <i> spiritual in its essence </i> , because ‘the Lord is the Spirit’ (&nbsp;2 Corinthians 3:17) as God is Spirit (&nbsp;John 4:24). Religion is apt to become a mere sediment of observance, a shell from which the life has departed. It certainly was so in the days of our Lord; it threatens to be so still. The words in vogue among the Greeks were λατρεία and θρησκεία, the latter word being translated ‘religion’ in &nbsp;Acts 26:5 and &nbsp;James 1:26 f., the former ‘service’ in &nbsp;John 16:2, &nbsp;Romans 9:4; &nbsp;Romans 12:1, &nbsp;Hebrews 9:1; &nbsp;Hebrews 9:6. But they only connoted rites of worship and sacrifice: they were old bottles which could not be entrusted with the new spirit of Christianity. St. James uses θρησκεία almost ironically when he says that ‘pure religion and undefiled is visiting widows in their affliction and keeping one’s self uspotted from the world.’ St. Paul (&nbsp;Romans 12:1) takes up λατρεία and θυσία with equal scorn, qualifying the former word with λογική and the latter with ζῶσα, before allowing them to be applicable to Christianity. </p> <p> It was in this way that Christ Himself had dealt with the prayers and almsgiving of pious [[Jews]] (&nbsp;Matthew 6:1-8); and the whole tendency of professional separatism among the [[Pharisees]] (cf. <i> Pro Christo et [[Ecclesia]] </i> ). His Father ‘sees in secret,’ and ‘seeks those to be his worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth’ (&nbsp;Matthew 6:4, &nbsp;John 4:24). By resting religion on spirituality, and giving free access by the Spirit to the Father (&nbsp;Romans 5:5, &nbsp;Ephesians 2:18), the whole basis of the sacrificial system was undermined and sacerdotalism became an anachronism. </p> <p> ‘The society as founded by Christ has in its collective being a priestly character, but is without an official priesthood. It has no temple save the living man; no sacrifices save those of the spirit and the life’ (Fairbairn, <i> Christ in Modern [[Theology]] </i> , p. 49). </p> <p> (6) Christ made religion <i> independent in its action </i> , because, as He once said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ (&nbsp;John 18:36). Being the expression of His eternal Spirit, Christianity has never been stamped or cramped by the language of a given period or the fashion of a particular people. His gospel, being a secret of personal experience, has received a most varied witness even within the [[Nt.]] It has continually broken through language and escaped. And while the Christian religion in its purity has always been able to shake itself free from the encumbrance of a theological system, it has been no less an independent spirit in regard to other departments of human activity. It has been free to enter and often able to renew them without being itself captured in the process. Political movements, new departures in art, and even advances in science, have as often as not received guidance and support from the Christian spirit. But to none of them has it remained captive, because it moves by right in a higher realm. Thus ‘age cannot stale its infinite variety.’ It exercises the royal prerogative of lending to all, but borrowing nothing in return, and so is free for every emergency which history unfolds in the whole compass of humanity. </p> <p> (7) Christ has made religion <i> missionary in its outlook </i> , because He is the Saviour of the world. Christianity is not equipped like, <i> e.g. </i> , Muhammadanism, for capturing whole tribes at once, for it is not, properly speaking, nationalist in its range. But it stands alone among all other religions in its power to emancipate individuals, and ultimately to regenerate society in every race under the sun. It takes secure root in the universal soil of human needs and possibilities, and with such a grip it is in command of the future. All it waits for is that its professors should realize that it increases in proportion as it is given away, and is truly known only by those who try to make it known. </p> <p> Christ always believed in small beginnings, but His hope was ever set on great and triumphant conclusions. That He was alone, with nowhere to lay His head, did not trouble Him, for He knew that when He was lifted up from the earth He would draw all men unto Him (&nbsp;John 12:32). That His disciples were not wise and learned satisfied Him perfectly, because He saw them (metaphorically speaking) seated on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. That none of the rulers believed on Him did not perturb Him greatly; for He foresaw the time when they would come from the east and the west, the north and the south, to sit down in the Kingdom of God (&nbsp;Luke 13:29). His parables suggested His confidence in the irresistible contagion of the lives of men who had once been won for the Kingdom. He likened His word to a fire (&nbsp;Luke 12:49), to leaven (&nbsp;Matthew 13:33), to a seed (v. 19), so potent is its influence on life and on society. And because the needs of the world are so great and deep, and the fields white unto harvest, He gave Himself up wholly to the ingathering work of the Father, and, more than that, He laid it as a last charge and responsibility upon His disciples that they should go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (&nbsp;Matthew 28:19). </p> <p> Literature.—Bruce, <i> Chief End of Rev. </i> ; Herrmann, <i> Com. with God </i> , and his art. ‘Religion’ in <i> [[Pre]] </i> [Note: [[Re]] Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ; Illingworth, <i> Div. [[Immanence]] </i> , and <i> Personality Hum. and Div. </i> ; Gore, <i> [[Bl]] </i> [Note: [[L]] Bampton Lecture.] ; Newman Smyth, <i> The Rel. [[Feeling]] </i> ; Coleridge, <i> Aids to Reflection </i> (esp. Introd. Aphor. xxiii); Menzies, <i> Hist. of Rel. </i> ; Schleiermacher, <i> Reden übér die Rel </i> . [English translation by Oman]; Orr, <i> Chr. View of God and the World </i> ; Caird, <i> Fundamental Ideas of Christianity </i> ; Harnack, <i> What is Christianity? </i> ; Martineau, <i> Studies in Christianity </i> ; Seeley, <i> Ecce Homo </i> ; Oman, <i> Vision and Authority </i> ; Forrest, <i> Authority of Christ </i> . </p> <p> [[A.]] [[N.]] Rowland. </p>
       
 
<ref name="term_57171"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-new-testament/religion Religion from Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament]</ref>
== References ==
       
<references>
<ref name="term_20422"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/charles-buck-theological-dictionary/religion Religion from Charles Buck Theological Dictionary]</ref>
<ref name="term_57166"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-new-testament/religion+(2) Religion from Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_79024"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/vine-s-expository-dictionary-of-nt-words/religion Religion from Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_62709"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/king-james-dictionary/religion Religion from King James Dictionary]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_37277"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/fausset-s-bible-dictionary/religion Religion from Fausset's Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_43410"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/holman-bible-dictionary/religion Religion from Holman Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_166426"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/webster-s-dictionary/religion Religion from Webster's Dictionary]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_53589"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-bible/religion Religion from Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_81360"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/watson-s-biblical-theological-dictionary/religion Religion from Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_57674"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/cyclopedia-of-biblical-theological-and-ecclesiastical-literature/religion Religion from Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_7764"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/international-standard-bible-encyclopedia/religion Religion from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_78916"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/the-nuttall-encyclopedia/religion Religion from The Nuttall Encyclopedia]</ref>
       
</references>
</references>

Revision as of 10:06, 13 October 2021

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology [1]

Due to the wide range of its usage, the English word "religion" (from Lat. religio ) is not easily defined. Most commonly, however, it refers to ways in which humans relate to the divine (a presence [or plurality of such] or force [sometimes construed as plural] behind, beyond, or pervading sensible reality that conditions but is not conditioned by that reality). All such "ways" include a system of beliefs about the divine and how it is related to the world. Most also involve an attitude of awe toward the divine, and a pattern of actions (rituals and an ethical code). By extension, "religion" is often used to refer to systems of belief and related practices that play an analogous role in people's lives (e.g., Buddhism, Confucianism, and even humanism). The word is, thus, an abstract term adaptable to a great variety of referents.

Neither the Hebrew nor the Aramaic languages of the Old Testament have a word with a corresponding semantic field. For that reason, one does not find "religion" or "religious" in most English versions of these Scriptures. English translators of the New Testament do use these words at times to render various forms of three Greek terms: deisidaimonia [Δεισιδαιμονία], threskeia [Θρησκεία], and eusebeia [Εὐσέβεια]. Yet all three words also fail to fully capture the import of the more abstract English "religion."

Both Old and New Testaments speak pervasively about matters "religious." Every word in these writings is in one way or another focused on the Creator-creature relationship. Every line revolves around that thematic center of gravity: how the Creator relates to his creation, especially humanity, and how humanity does and/or ought to relate to the Creator. In fact, every line of Scripture seeks to evoke from the reader right ways of relating to the Creator. In that sense, "religion" is pervasively the theme of Scripture.

To be sure, the Bible speaks of all creatures, resounding to God: they do his bidding (angels,  Psalm 103:20;  Hebrews 1:14; storm winds,  Psalm 104:4;  148:8 ) and they rejoice before him with songs of joy and praise ( Job 38:7;  Psalm 89:12;  96:11-13;  98:7-9;  Isaiah 44:23;  49:13;  55:12; see especially  Psalm 103:22;  145:10;  148 ). But the concern of the biblical texts is to promote among humankind right beliefs about God, right attitudes toward God, and right conduct before the face of God. Biblically, religion has to do with human responses to the Creator.

That religion has a place in human life springs from two fundamental realities: (1) humans have been created in the image of God ( Genesis 1:26-27;  9:6;  Psalm 8:5;  1 Corinthians 11:7;  Colossians 3:10;  James 3:9 ), and so are both addressable by God and capable of responses appropriate to persons (beliefs, attitudes, and conduct that is consciously chosen); and (2) the Creator has disclosed himself to humankind and continues to address them. The whole visible world proclaims that its Creator has been and still is at work. It reflects his power, wisdom, righteousness, glory, and goodness ( Psalm 19:1-4;  29:3-9;  97:6;  Isaiah 40:12-14,21-22,26 ,  28;  Acts 14:17;  17:24-29;  Romans 1:19-20 ). What  Psalm 104 makes its central theme is elsewhere many times assumed or hinted: that the secure order of creation, sustaining as it does a profusion of life, is the visible glory-robe of the invisible Creator (see esp. vv. 1-2). So the creation itself is theophanous—and not just here and there in special "holy" places. The visible creation is itself the primal temple of God not built by human hands, where his "power and glory" are ever on display (  Psalm 29:3-9;  63:2 ).

Nor are the effects of the Creator's actions in and on the creation discernible only in what is commonly referred to as "nature." God is equally engaged in the arena of human affairs. So, for example, he knows both the external Acts of all human beings and the secrets of every human heart. And he deals with persons accordingly. He even intersects the flow of human affairs at their fountainhead, as the teachers of Yahwistic wisdom summed it up for ancient Israel: "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps" ( Proverbs 16:9 ); "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases" ( Proverbs 21:1 ); "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" ( Proverbs 19:21; cf.  Isaiah 10:6-7 ).

The arenas of such divine intersection extend from individual lives to the rise and fall of empires. God appoints nations their place and establishes their boundaries ( Deuteronomy 32:8;  Amos 9:7 ). He makes them great, and destroys them ( Job 12:23 ). He summons international armies to be "the weapons of his wrath" against an arrogant empire ( Isaiah 13:4-5;  Jeremiah 50-51 Ezek 50-5 30:25 ). To serve his historical purposes, God calls Assyria "the rod of my anger , the club of my wrath" ( Isaiah 10:5 ), Nebuchadnezzar "my servant" ( Jeremiah 25:9 ), and Cyrus "my shepherd" to "accomplish all that I plan" ( Isaiah 44:28 ).

Ancient peoples believed that the gods intersected human affairs, determining the outcome of battles and the fortunes of kingdoms. Hence, in the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires the peoples of ancient Israel's world assumed that they experienced the workings of the gods. In that environment, Yahweh's sovereign control over the fortunes of nations, kings, and peoples (especially their downfall) humbled human arrogance ( Genesis 11:1-9;  Psalm 9:20;  Isaiah 31:3;  Ezekiel 28:2 ), exposed the powerlessness of the gods that humans made to fill the void left by their "forgetting" the Creator ( Psalm 96:5;  115:4-7;  135:15-18;  Isaiah 44:9-20;  46:1-7 ), and testified to the sole rule of Yahweh ( Exodus 9:16;  14:17-18;  Psalm 106:8;  Ezekiel 25:11,17;  26:6;  28:22-24;  29:6,9 ,  21;  30:8,19 ,  25-26;  32:15;  35:15 ). Paul pointed to this divine disclosure in history when he said to the Greek intelligentsia, "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being" ( Acts 17:26-28 ).

So, according to the Bible, humankind is addressed by God through every component, process, and event in so-called nature and through every event, big and small, that makes up human history. Human beings live and move and have their being within the arena of God's creation. And through God's pervasive engagement with his creation as he sustains and governs it, they are always and everywhere confronted with the display of his power and glory. Wherever humans turn and by whatever means they experience the creation, the Creator calls to them for recognition and response. From this perspective, all human life is inherently "religious."

In two other ways "religion" (humankind's ways of relating to the divine) encompasses the whole of human life. First, humans are created in God's image to be his stewards of the creationas vocation, not avocation ( Genesis 1:26-27;  2:15;  Psalm 8:6-8 ). In whatever ways they act on the creation they do so as faithful or unfaithful stewards of God's handiwork. Second, humans live and prosper in all they undertake only by God's gifts and blessings (  Genesis 1:28-29;  9:1-3;  Deuteronomy 7:13;  Psalm 34:8-10;  127;  Hosea 2:8-9 ). Thus in everything humans have to do with God.

But a breach has brought alienation between the Creator and humankind. Humanity has claimed autonomy as the implication of human freedom to make moral choices ( Genesis 3:5-6 ) and self-sufficiency as the implication of humankind's power to "rule" and "subdue" God's earthly creatures ( Genesis 4:19-24;  11:3-4 ). As Job said of the "wicked": "They say to God, Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?'" (21:14-15). They lean on their own understanding ( Proverbs 3:5 ), being wise in their own eyes ( Proverbs 3:7;  26:5,12;  Isaiah 5:21 ). In a very real sense, as Habakkuk (1:11) wrote of the Babylonians, they have become people whose own strength is their god.

Still, this alienation from the Creator has left a void at the centerand there are obviously powers in the world not subject to human control that impinge on human existence and radically relativize humanity's self-sufficiency. So people have conceived of many gods, composed mythologies expressing what is believed about them, and devised ways to worship and appeal to them. Religion has broken up into many religions. Yet these have all been responses to the inescapable manifestations of the Creator's glory in the creation and the pervasive experience of humanity's existence being conditioned by a power or powers other than its own ( Romans 1:21-23 ).

This radical breach and its massive consequences have occasioned a second work of God, a work that rivals the first in its disclosure of the Creator's glory. Not willing to let the alienation stand or to yield his glory to other gods ( Isaiah 42:8;  48:11 ), the Creator has undertaken to effect reconciliation. It is with this mission of God to his world that the Bible is centrally concerned. It bears witness to God's "mighty Acts" of redemption in the history of Israel, and to the culmination of those Acts in the earthly ministry and heavenly reign of Jesus Christ. By this invasion of the alienated world with its many gods ( 2 Kings 17:29-33;  Jeremiah 2:28;  1 Corinthians 8:5 ), the Creator calls all peoples of the world to turn from the sham gods they have made and return to him. Only as people rightly relate to him, "the true God" ( Jeremiah 10:10; cf.  1 John 5:20 ), can their religion be "true."

What, then, constitutes the religion that God accepts as pure and faultless?

First, it believes the testimony of the spirit of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments that arose in conjunction with God's saving Acts in Israel's history and culminated in Jesus Christ.

Second, it is filled with reverent awe before the majesty of the One who discloses himself in creation, history, and redemption. It bows in humble repentance before the Holy One for the alienation that turned to other gods and corrupted the "heart" from which springs every belief, attitude, and action. It receives in faith the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ. And in gratitude it dedicates the whole of self to the service of the Creator-Redeemer.

Third, certain activities or life expressions fall within its sphere: worship, prayer, and praise, both private and communal, and proclamationtelling the story of what the one true God has done ( Isaiah 43:10,12;  44:8;  Matthew 28:18-20;  Acts 1:8 ). But to Israel God gave directives for more than cultic worship. All of Israel's life was to be brought into accordance with the will of the Creator, whose concern about his whole creation remained undiminished. And because no listing of do's and don'ts could be adequate in themselves, an all-encompassing commandment had to be appended: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength [power and resources] [and] love your neighbor as yourself" (  Mark 12:29-31; and parallels cf.  Leviticus 19:18,34;  Deuteronomy 6:4-5;  John 13:34;  Romans 13:9;  Galatians 5:14;  James 2:8 ).

In biblical perspective, no human activity is any less "religious" (how humans relate to God) than worship, prayer, and praise. For that reason the apostle Paul instructed the church at Corinth, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" ( 1 Corinthians 10:31 ). And for that reason James wrote, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (1:27).

John H. Stek

See also God; Providence Of God; Worship

Bibliography . R. A. Clouse, The Myth of Religious Neutrality: An Essay on the Hidden Role of Religious Belief in Theories  ; R. Otto, The Idea of the Holy  ; J. Wach, The Comparative Study of Religion .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [2]

The uses of the word ‘religion’ in the apostolic writings may be classified under three heads.

1. In  Galatians 1:13 f. Ἰουδαϊσμός is twice translated ‘the Jews’ religion.’ St. Paul reminds the Galatians that they had heard of his manner of life aforetime when he followed Judaism, and that they knew his proficiency in Judaism. In this context the literal rendering ‘Judaism’ is to be preferred, for the factious rather than the religious aspect of Judaism is prominent. The English Version‘Jews’ religion ‘is an unfortunate’ translation, because ‘it implies a definite separation between the two religions which did not then exist, … and it puts this view into the mouth of Paul, who steadfastly persisted in identifying the faith of Christ with the national religion.… Here Ἰουδαϊσμός denotes Jewish partisanship, and accurately describes the bitter party spirit which prompted Saul to take the lead in the martyrdom of Stephen and the persecution of the Church, … He advanced beyond his fellows in sectarian prejudice and persecuting zeal’ (F. Rendall, in Expositor’s Greek Testament, ‘Galatians,’ London, 1903, p. 153 f.).

2. The Greek adjective δεισιδαίμων is rendered in  Acts 17:22 ‘superstitious’ (Revised Version) and ‘religious’ (Revised Version margin). The derivative noun δεισιδαιμονία is rendered in  Acts 25:19 ‘religion’ (Revised Version) and ‘superstition’ (Revised Version margin). The dominant meaning of the words in classical Greek is ‘due reverence of the gods,’ but in the 1st cent. a.d. they had a depreciatory sense and signified ‘excessive fear of the gods’ (cf. E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, Oxford, 1889, p. 45). It does not, however, follow that ‘religion’ is an impossible rendering in the address of Festus to the Jewish king, Agrippa, who paid outward deference to the Jewish religion. But although Felix is not likely to ‘have used the term offensively … he may well have chosen the word because it was a neutral word (verbum μέσον, Bengel) and did not commit him to anything definite’ (R. J. Knowling, in Expositor’s Greek Testament, ‘Acts,’ London, 1901, p. 497). ‘Superstitious’ is more probably, though not certainly, the correct translation in  Acts 17:22. St. Paul was addressing Athenians, and they ‘would instinctively recall the literary associations of the word.… In point of fruit, the words ὡς δεισιδαιμονεστέρους give, in a form as little offensive as possible, St. Paul’s view of Athenian idolatry already noticed by the historian (v. 18), The ὡς brings out the fact that the word δεισιδαιμονεστέρους expresses the speaker’s own impression’ (F. H. Chase, The Credibility of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, London, 1902, p. 213).

3. In  Acts 26:5 and  James 1:26 f. ‘religion’ is the rendering of θρησκεία which in  Colossians 2:18 is translated ‘worshipping.’ The contemporary meaning of the word is religion in its external aspect-‘cultus religiosus, potissimum externus’ (Wilke-Grimm, Clavis Novi Test., 1868). It is appropriately used by St. Paul in his address to Agrippa ( Acts 26:5). Calling to remembrance his life as a Pharisee, the Apostle claims to have been ‘a zealous and diligent performer … of the outward service of God’ (R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the NT11, London, 1890, p. 175). In  James 1:6 f., when the word is rightly understood, there is no support for those who disparage inward and spiritual religion, nor for those who so exalt its outward aspects as practically to identify it with morality and works of benevolence. What St. James asserts of such works is that they are ‘the body, the θρησκεία, of which godliness, or the love of God, is the informing soul.… The apostle claims for the new dispensation a superiority over the old, in that its very θρησκεία consists in acts of mercy, of love, of holiness, in that it has light for its garment, its very robe being righteousness; herein how much nobler than that old, whose θρησκεία was at best merely ceremonial and formal, whatever inner truth it might embody’ (R. C. Trench, op. cit. p. 176, who says, ‘these observations are made by Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, 1825, p. 15’).

J. G. Tasker.

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [3]

Is a Latin word, derived, according to Cicero, from rilegere, "to re-consider;" but according to Servius and most modern grammarians, from religare, "to bind fast." If the Ciceronian etymology be the true one, the word religion will denote the diligent study whatever pertains to the worship of God; but, according to the other derivation, it denotes that obligation which we feel on our minds from the relation in which we stand to some superior power. The word is sometimes used as synonymous with sect; but, in a practical sense, it is generally considered as the same with godliness, or a life devoted to the worship and fear of God. Dr. Doddridge thus defines it: "Religion consists in the resolution of the will for God, and in a constant care to avoid whatever we are persuaded he would disapprove, to despatch the work he has assigned us in life, and to promote his glory in the happiness of mankind."

See GODLINESS.) The foundation of all religion rests on the belief of the existence of God. As we have, however, already considered the evidences of the divine existence, they need not be enumerated again in this place; the reader will find them under the article EXISTENCE OF GOD. Religion has been divided into natural and revealed. By natural religion is meant that knowledge, veneration, and love of God, and the practice of those duties to him, our fellow-creatures, and ourselves, which are discoverable by the right exercise of our rational faculties, from considering the nature and perfections of God, and our relation to him and to one another.

By revealed religion is understood that discovery which he has made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Scriptures. As it respects natural religion, some doubt whether, properly speaking, there can be any such thing; since, through the fall, reason is so depraved, that man without revelation is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may be easily seen by considering the history of those nations who are destitute of it, and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So far as this, however, may be observed, that the light of nature can give us no proper ideas of God, nor inform us what worship will be acceptable to him. It does not tell us how man became a fallen sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recovered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery. The apostle, indeed, observes, that the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts, and are a law unto themselves; yet the greatest moralists among them were so blinded as to be guilty of, and actually to countenance the greatest vices. Such a system, therefore, it is supposed, can hardly be said to be religious which leaves man in such uncertainty, ignorance, and impiety. (

See REVELATION.)

On the other side it is observed, "that, though it is in the highest degree probable that the parents of mankind received all their theological knowledge by supernatural means, it is yet obvious that some parts of that knowledge must have been capable of a proof purely rational, otherwise not a single religious truth could have been conveyed through the succeeding generations of the human race but by the immediate inspiration of each individual. We, indeed, admit may propositions as certainly true, upon the sole authority of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and we receive these Scriptures with gratitude as the lively oracles of God; but it is self-evident that we could not do either the one or the other, were we not convinced by natural means that God exists; that he is a being of goodness, justice, and power; and that he inspired with divine wisdom the penmen of these sacred volumes.

Now, though it is very possible that no man, or body of men, left to themselves from infancy in a desert world, would ever have made a theological discovery, yet, whatever propositions relating to the being and attributes of the First Cause and duty of man, can be demonstrated by human reason, independent of written revelation, may be called natural theology, and are of the utmost importance, as being to us the first principles of all religion. Natural theology, in this sense of the word, is the foundation of the Christian revelation; for, without a previous knowledge of it, we could have no evidence that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are indeed the word of God." The religions which exist in the world have been generally divided into four, the Pagan, the Jewish, the Mahometan, and the Christian; to which articles the reader is referred. The various duties of the Christian religion also are stated in their different places.

See also, as connected with this article, the articles INSPIRATION, REVELATION, and THEOLOGY, and books there recommended.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [4]

1: θρησκεία (Strong'S #2356 — Noun Feminine — threseia — thrace-ki'-ah )

signifies "religion" in its external aspect (akin to threskos, see below), "religious worship," especially the ceremonial service of "religion;" it is used of the "religion" of the Jews,  Acts 26:5; of the "worshiping" of angels,  Colossians 2:18 , which they themselves repudiate ( Revelation 22:8,9 ); "there was an officious parade of humility in selecting these lower beings as intercessors rather than appealing directly to the Throne of Grace" (Lightfoot); in  James 1:26,27 the writer purposely uses the word to set in contrast that which is unreal and deceptive, and the "pure religion" which consists in visiting "the fatherless and widows in their affliction," and in keeping oneself "unspotted from the world." He is "not herein affirming. ... these offices to be the sum total, nor yet the great essentials, of true religion, but declares them to be the body, the threskeia, of which godliness, or the love of God, is the informing soul" (Trench).

2: δεισιδαιμονία (Strong'S #1175 — Noun Feminine — deisidaimonia — dice-ee-dahee-mon-ee'-ah )

primarily denotes "fear of the gods" (from deido, "to fear," daimon, "a pagan deity," Eng., "demon"), regarded whether as a religious attitude, or, in its usual meaning, with a condemnatory or contemptuous significance, "superstition." That is how Festus regarded the Jews' "religion,"  Acts 25:19 , AV and RV marg., "superstition" (RV, "religion"). See Religious , Note (1), and under SUPERSTITIOUS.

 Galatians 1:13,14Jews

King James Dictionary [5]

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.  James 1 . 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, &c. as well as of the christian religion. We speak of false religion, as well as of true religion. 5. The rites of religion in the plural.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary [6]

RELIGIOUS.  James 1:26-27, threeskos , threeskeia; distinct from eulabees ("Reverent"; From The Old Testament Standpoint; "Cautious Fear Toward God") , "devout" ( Luke 2:25); theosebees , "godly"; eusebees , "pious." "If any man seem a diligent observer of the offices of religion (threeskos ) ... pure and undefiled religion (Not The Sum Total Or Inner Essentials Of Religion, But Its Outer Manifestations) is to visit the fatherless," etc. The Old Testament cult or "religious service" (threeskeia ) was ceremony and ritual; the New Testament religious service consists in acts of mercy, love, and holiness. "Religion" refers to the external service, "godliness" being the soul. James as president of the Jerusalem council ( Acts 15:13-21) had decided against ritualism; so he teaches, instead of Judaic ceremonialism, true religious service is (1) active, (2) passive ( Micah 6:7-8;  Matthew 23:23); compare  Acts 26:5, "our religion";  Colossians 2:18, "worshipping," threeskeia .

Holman Bible Dictionary [7]

 Acts 17:22 Acts 25:19 Acts 17:22 Acts 25:19 2 Acts 26:5  James 1:26-27  Acts 26:5  James 1:26-27 sebomai   Acts 13:43  1 Timothy 2:10  John 9:31 1 Timothy 3:16 2 Timothy 3:5 1 Timothy 5:4  Colossians 2:23 thelo Ioudaismo   Galatians 1:13-14 6 Amos 5:21 Amos 8:10 Colossians 2:16 Hebrews 10:11

Chris Church

Webster's Dictionary [8]

(1): ( n.) The outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having power over their destiny, to whom obedience, service, and honor are due; the feeling or expression of human love, fear, or awe of some superhuman and overruling power, whether by profession of belief, by observance of rites and ceremonies, or by the conduct of life; a system of faith and worship; a manifestation of piety; as, ethical religions; monotheistic religions; natural religion; revealed religion; the religion of the Jews; the religion of idol worshipers.

(2): ( n.) Strictness of fidelity in conforming to any practice, as if it were an enjoined rule of conduct.

(3): ( n.) Specifically, conformity in faith and life to the precepts inculcated in the Bible, respecting the conduct of life and duty toward God and man; the Christian faith and practice.

(4): ( n.) A monastic or religious order subject to a regulated mode of life; the religious state; as, to enter religion.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [9]

RELIGION . The word ‘religion,’ wherever it occurs in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , signifies not the inner spirit of the religious life, but its outward expression. It is thus used of one form of religion as distinguished from another; as in 2Ma 14:36 , where the same word is translated in the middle of the verse ‘Judaism,’ and in the end of it ‘the religion of the Jews.’ It is also used by St. James (  James 1:26-27 ) to contrast moral acts with ritual forms.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary [10]

See Christianity .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [11]

(Lat. relego, religo). This word, according to Cicero (Div. Instit. 4), is derived from, or rather compounded of, re and legere, to read over again, to reflect upon or to study the sacred books in which religion is delivered. According to Lactantius (De Civit. Dei, lib. 10:c. 3), it comes from re- ligare, to bind back, because religion is that which furnishes the true ground of obligation.

Religion has been divided into natural and revealed. By natural religion is meant that knowledge, veneration, and love of God, and the practice of those duties to him, our fellow-creatures, and ourselves, which are discoverable by the right exercise of our rational faculties, from considering the nature and perfections of God, and our relation to him and to one another. By revealed religion is understood that discovery which he has made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Scriptures. As respects natural religion, some doubt whether, properly speaking, there can be any such thing; since, through the fall. reason is so depraved that man, without revelation, is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may be easily seen by considering the history of those nations who are destitute of it, and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So far as this, however, may be observed, the light of nature can give us no proper ideas of God, nor inform us what worship will be acceptable to him. It does not tell us how man became a fallen, sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recovered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery. The apostle, indeed, observes that the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts, and are a law unto themselves; yet the greatest moralists among them were so blinded as to be guilty of, and actually to countenance, the greatest vices. Such a system, therefore, it is supposed, can hardly be said to be religious which leaves man in such uncertainty, ignorance, and impiety. (See Natural Theology).

Revealed religion forms the correlate of natural religion, or the religion of reason. It is not the result of human investigation, but being the result of an extraordinary communication from God, is therefore infallible; whereas, on the contrary, all processes of human thought are more or less subjected to error. Hence we can explain why it is that religion gives itself out to be, not a product of the reason merely, not anything which originated from human inquiry and study, but a result of a divine revelation. The religious feeling is undoubtedly a propension of human nature; yet without a divine revelation the mind would sink in dark and perpetual disorder. Of the whole family of man, existing in all ages, and scattered over every quarter of the globe, there is not one well-authenticated exception to the fact that, moved by an inward impulse, and guided by revelation or tradition, man worships something which he believes to be endowed with the attributes of a superior being. Even the occasional gleamings of truth found in the various idolatrous systems are but the traditions of ancient revelations, more or less corrupted, which have descended from the first worshippers. Revealed religion comprehends, besides the doctrines of natural religion, many truths which were beyond the reach of human reason, though not contradictory thereto, and for a knowledge of which we are indebted directly to the Old and New Testaments. While other religions had been variously accommodated to the peculiar countries in which they flourished, Christianity was so framed as to be adapted to the whole human family. It is the one thing needful for the elevation of our race, and is destined alike to universality and perpetuity.

In all forms of religion there is one part, which may be called the doctrine or dogma, which is to be received by faith; and the cultus, or worship, which is the outward expression of the religious sentiment. By religion is also meant that homage to the Deity in all the forms which pertain to the spiritual life, in contrast with theology, the theory of the divine nature and government. (See Theology).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [12]

rḗ - lij´un  : "Religion" and "religious" in Elizabethan English were used frequently to denote the outward expression of worship. This is the force of φρησκεία , thrēskeia , translated "religion" in   Acts 26:5;  James 1:26 ,  James 1:27 (with adjective thrḗskos , "religious"), while the same noun in  Colossians 2:18 is rendered "worshipping" ("cult" would give the exact meaning). And in the same external sense "religion" is used by the King James Version for λατρεία , latreı́a , "worship" (so the Revised Version (British and American)), in 1 Macc 1:43; 2:19, 22. Otherwise "Jews' religion" (or "religion of the Jews") appears in 2 Macc 8:1; 14:38 (the Revised Version (British and American) bis);  Galatians 1:13 ,  Galatians 1:14 ( Ἰουδαΐσμός , Ioudaismós , "Judaism"); and "an alien religion" in 2 Macc 6:24 (ἀλλοφυλισμός , allophulismós , "that belonging to another tribe"). The neglect of the external force of "religion" has led to much reckless misquoting of  James 1:26 ,  James 1:27 . Compare  Acts 17:22 . See Superstition .

The Nuttall Encyclopedia [13]

A sense, affecting the whole character and life, of dependence on, reverence for, and responsibility to a Higher Power; or a mode of thinking, feeling, and acting which respects, trusts in, and strives after God, and determines a man's duty and destiny in this universe, or "the manner in which a man feels himself to be spiritually related to the unseen world."

References

  1. ↑ Religion from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology
  2. ↑ Religion from Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
  3. ↑ Religion from Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
  4. ↑ Religion from Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words
  5. ↑ Religion from King James Dictionary
  6. ↑ Religion from Fausset's Bible Dictionary
  7. ↑ Religion from Holman Bible Dictionary
  8. ↑ Religion from Webster's Dictionary
  9. ↑ Religion from Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
  10. ↑ Religion from Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
  11. ↑ Religion from Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
  12. ↑ Religion from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
  13. ↑ Religion from The Nuttall Encyclopedia
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