Is Religion without Religion a new form of Religion?

Our society no longer religiously follows a religion, yet the 2001 census shows that 70% of people still regard themselves as ‘Christian’. The question is, is this the start to a secularised society or have we simply created our very own religion out of Christianity? Have we re-created Christianity or just formed yet another denomination within the church. If church is taken out of the picture for this new form of religion then can it be classed as a denomination? If it is a new religion would the still Christian followers regard it as a sect? All these questions lead to more questions including the difficult, ‘What does it really mean to be a Christian in society today?’

In his April 30 1944 letter, Bonhoeffer asks “what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is for us today”. Although written in the war and therefore the words would have had a completely different context and meaning, Bonhoeffer’s words can still relate to even our society today.  He argues that man has become “radically religionless” and this means “the foundation is taken away from the whole”. Thus, how can we talk about Christ in a secular context? If we take Christ out of Christianity the whole religion would be meaningless. But what if we take church out of Christianity? Does this still mean we can be Christians? Are those who attend church even Christians themselves? It could be argued that those who are religiously attending church weekly do not understand why they are going or the messages being fed to them throughout the service. Has church therefore become an irreligious place? It may be possible that the actual religious people are staying at home because churches these days are filled with the irreligious! Davie calls this ‘believing without belonging’ and argues that although there is a decline in church attendance, people still maintain religious faith. Bruce argues that when people say they believe in God, what they actually mean is ‘I’m a good person’ which is completely different to a Christians’ belief in God. Therefore, this new religion that we have created has essentially taken the ‘best bits’ from Christianity i.e. getting into heaven and removed the ‘boring’ bits i.e. going to church every Sunday. This new form of religion suits the average Joe as they can live ‘good lives’ as ‘Christians’ whilst doing what they want with their time, energy and money.

This poses yet another big question, ‘who decides how religious an individual is’? There doesn’t exist a religious-meter which decides that if you go to church weekly, pray daily and read scripture then yes you’re religious! Whilst if you only go to church on special occasions and pray in times of need, well then your only a quarter of a Christian. This uncertainty of the levels of Christianity supports the point that we have created a new religion out of no longer being religious. There is a split between the ‘real’ Christians (whatever this may entail) to those who believe in God and would consider themselves a Christian but don’t actually show any signs of living that out daily. Thus, it can be argued that in our society today we have indeed created our own religion without the religion.