Religion is an expression of the brokenness of humanity. It is an effort to move beyond our brokenness. The problem is, however, the more we try to restore ourselves and move beyond the brokenness, the more broken and imprisoned we behave. We believe that our efforts are pure and right, yet exemplify through our fruits that we are still as broken as when we set out to fix ourselves. Is it due to our finiteness that we fail so miserably? Perhaps.
On the flip side, it is an error to assume that finite beings cannot please an infinite God. We are a subset of his existence; an existence he created. Why would he not take pleasure in this subset? Surely, this infinite God longs for our restoration. Yet one way or another we end up getting in the way and contribute to our own imprisonment.
What is at the root of religion? Religion is the natural outcome of human tendency to either deny or defy the infinitude of God.This denial may be willful or subconscious, but it is denial nonetheless. In a sense, it is an organized rebuttal of God’s eternal essence. It is a limited human measure, an illusion of having a grasp on the infinitude of God. It is a formor structurewithout power to transform.[1]
Having said that, there is another perspective on religion. I believe religions are foreshadows of ultimate transformation, knowledge, and relationship with God. Most are misrepresentations of the infinitude of God, but their significance lies in the foreshadowing of transformation. Religion is humankind’s attempt to know and get right with God. Redemptive transformation, on the other hand, is God’s solution: building a relationship with humankind and making us right with him.
Simply ridding ourselves of religion only yields another religion. The process of destroying idols can quickly become a new idol. Arguments that failed religionsare proof of the non-existence of God are as weak as arguing that there is no such thing as parents because the children are misbehaving. Even atheism is a religion in and of itself (for it too denies and defies the infinitude of God). Arguably, there has to be more. Why would we yearn for transformation if it were not possible?
Religion, when understood as foreshadowing ultimate transformation, is quite another story. God speaks and relates to religious peoples precisely because he understands our finitude. In infinite grace, God speaks to us. God wants a relationship with us more than we will ever want one with him. He can and does answer the prayers of religion in spite of religion. That is the most profound thing of all: God, even though hindered by religion, uses religion to relate to us nonetheless. In his desire to free us, he uses religion in spite of religion. What a strange existence. What a strange God!
My all-time favorite Biblical text is Isaiah 61:1 – “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lordis on me,because the Lordhas anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captivesand release from darkness for the prisoners.” This includes freedom from imprisonment by religion.
— Sam Augsburger
[1]For more on denying and/or defying the infinitude of God, see chapter 2.09 in Slices of God: Strange, Dimensional, and Fractal Perspectives on God and the Cosmos, pp. 107-108.
