My Religion

My Religion.

Religion. 

"State of life bound by monastic vows."

From religionem: "Respect for what is sacred."

Derived from either relegate (go through again and again. from re "again" + legere "read") or religare "to bind fast"

Is this what modern religion is? A state of life? To bind fast to something? To go through the ups and downs again and again? 

A state of life. Wow. That stood out to me. Do any of us make our religion a state of life? I would guess that very very few people make faith and spirituality their way of life.

In fact, if I asked random Americans on the street what their definition of religion was, they would probably draw it back to churches. Sunday worship.

So what changed since 1000 BC when the definition of religion was a "state of life bound by monastic vows?" 

I have no clue. Comments people?

Let me go through my process of thinking. First, did only monks make monastic vows? If so... does that go to say that average farmers and workers weren't religious? If so... Has anything changed? Are the only religious people the monks, the priests, the pope, the prophets, the religious teachers who live attached to their religion at all times and in all places? 

So maybe people are incapable of being religious? Well crud. 

I don't like that idea. At all. So lets look at the roots of that definition. 

My definition of a classic is something we can return to over and over and learn something new each time. Using this definition, the bible is a classic.

If The Bible is the modern classic of christianity (a major western religion), then treating it as sacred… would determine that we are being religious.

Very good.

This definition is a reminder to me to make my christian religion a state of life.