Religion Versus Spirituality

Here is an interesting distinction D.A. Carson makes between religion and spirituality from a recent post at STR.

Religion vs. Spirituality
This quotation from D.A. Carson's book Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians captures the difference between religion and spirituality - or if you prefer, relationship vs. spirituality. Spirituality doesn't demand much of us. It's focuses on benefits to us. That's why spirituality is much more popular in our culture than religion. Unfortunately, it's also more popular in Christianity much of the time. Religion or relationship, which is what Christianity is, places demands on us. It's focused on God. It requires something of us, yet that demand produces in us what we were created for.

I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please.

Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted.
I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust.
I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture.

I want ecstasy, not repentance;

I want transcendence, not transformation.

I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell.

I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged.

I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please. (pp. 12-13)


How many people in this culture want spirituality without the difficulty of moral obligation. It sure is tempting, and I pray that I don't fall into the trap.
Derrick