“Religionless Christianity” is a phrase that has been around for as long as I can remember. But it is usually misunderstood. Too often it is hip lingo for tossing historic Christianity under the bus or for sneering at Christians who take worship, Bible, and Sacraments seriously. But none of these captures its true meaning.
Last week, Eric Metaxas released his latest book, “Religionless Christianity: God’s Answer to Evil.” It is a sequel to “Letter to the American Church” (2022) which was itself inspired by Metaxas’ biography, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy“ (2010). The phrase, “Religionless Christianity,” was first coined in a letter that Bonhoeffer sent to a friend 80 years ago this week (April 30, 1944). He wrote it a year before he was executed by the Nazis. And he had a very specific definition in mind.
“Religionless Christianity,” in Bonhoeffer’s vocabulary, is a Christianity that is not—and can never be—relegated to Sunday mornings or hemmed in by church doors. “Religionless Christianity” is Christianity lived out in the open. It refuses to “stay in its lane,” and rejects the Secularist/Marxist doctrine of “the separation of Church and state.”
“Religionless Christianity” does not oppose religious forms and formulations at all. It rejects the false doctrine that the only forms and formulations that matter are those spoken in Church institutions. “Religionless Christianity” understands that to agree with ungodly doctrines to “get along”—whether on campus, at work, or in the halls of power—is just as blasphemous as the recitation of a heretical creed in a pagan temple.
The first pastor of the Christian Church, St. James, wrote “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). He is not telling you to bootstrap your way into heaven. “Doing the word” is not the religion that you perform to complete the work of Jesus. That would imply that Jesus lied when He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30)!
“Doing the word,” rather, means that the faith that saves you—the faith that is a pure gift of the Holy Spirit—the faith that you confess in the Creed—has a shape and a form in the world. What we do and say at work, at school, and in the public square are radically changed by saving faith.
And this change is so unalterable and so much at odds with the world that it may land you in jail. It may land you in school detention. It may get you a bad grade on a paper in which you refuse to recite the creeds of the world. It may prevent you from getting a promotion at work. It may get you written up by the Human Resources Department. It may even—as it did in Bonhoeffer’s case—end your life by government execution. Praise God!
“Religionless Christianity” frames your entire life in religious terms. That’s what James was getting at. “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:26-27).
A Christian life lived in public requires boldness and courage. But this is not self-generated chutzpah and bravado. It is a gift and creation of God Himself. And it is given through the hearing of God’s Word (Romans 10:17) and through the “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). God, grant us these gifts in our generation! Amen.
