Christianity, a non-religion

I’m re-reading Tim Keller’s excellent book, “The Prodigal God” and came across a small observation by Keller on how Christianity burst onto the scene in the 1st century and was not known as a “religion.”

It is hard for us to realize this today, but when Christianity first arose in the world it was not called a religion. It was the non-religion. Imagine the neighbors of early Christians asking them about their faith. “Where’s your temple?” they’d ask. The Christians would reply that they didn’t have a temple. “But how could that be? Where do your priests labor?” The Christians would have replied that they didn’t have priests. “But… but,” the neighbors would have sputtered, “where are the sacrifices made to please your gods?” The Christians would have responded that they did not make sacrifices anymore. Jesus himself was the temple to end all temples, the priest to end all priests, and the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.”

No one had ever heard anything like this. So the Romans called them “atheists,” because what the Christians were saying about spiritual reality was unique and could not be classified with the other religions of the world. — Tim Keller, Prodigal God

Indeed Christianity is a non-religion. In fact the ministry of Jesus exposed religious leaders showing the emptiness that religion brings. Christianity is about a Person whose name is Jesus Christ, whose work is what we place our faith on. Religion is about a work, that we place our faith on.