COLLECTING
RELIGION

Topics: Belief; Doctrine; Experiencing God; Faith; False Beliefs; Idolatry; Legalism; Religion; Self-righteousness

References: Ezekiel 33:32; Matthew 23; Mark 7:9; John 14:6; Galatians 5:6; 1 Timothy 5:4; Titus 1:16; James 1:26–27

One can love religion like anything else in life: sports, science, stamp collecting. One can love it for its own sake without relation to God or the world or life.

Religion fascinates; it is entertaining. It has everything that is sought after by a certain type of person: aesthetics, mystery, the sacred, a feeling of one’s importance and exclusive depth, etc. That kind of religion is not necessarily faith.

—Alexander Schmemann, The Journals of Alexander Schmemann, 1973–1983 (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2000)