Religion that is sentimentality

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I assume it would be religion in which people are just attached to external symbols but not the religion itself: as in, “oh, I keep my grandmas rosary because it’s a lovely reminder of her” but they don’t actually pray the rosary or care about it beyond as a momento of grandma.
 
Do you think it could be used as a weapon to change someone’s understanding of what True faith looks like? Especially if it questions: whether or not our Faith has any staying power?
 
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I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re asking.
 
I do not understand this thread. Please explain further. Thanks. 🙏🙏🙏
 
Pius X said that religion is not a sentiment. The belief that the religious instinct is a subconscious need, which manifests as an emotion is the heresy of modernism.

True worship and belief isn’t about feeling good or emotionally satisfied. True religion is submission of the intellect and will to revealed truth.
 
I guess a few ways religion becomes more about sentimentalism than the religion itself are:
  1. Cultural/nominal forms of religion. The person is attached to the religion only as far as family history, cultural history, and early experiences are concerned, but they don’t care about adhering to the religion itself.
  2. Only following the religion due to the promise of something. Two very common ways that this manifests itself in the United States are the Prosperity Gospel and those who exploit religion for political gain.
  3. Desiring religion for the spirituality and community but not wanting the tougher challenges like living truly holy lives. The teachings of the religion may be pretty loose to accompany this, including the changing of more rigid rules.
The above aren’t entirely mutually exclusive, and one person may hold to two or all three.
 
The idea of religion as a sentiment is dangerous. Here’s what it means.

The modernists believe that human reason is limited to sense data; this means that the reason is incapable of knowing anything about the supernatural. Since religion is not rational, it has nothing to do with history or science.

Religion doesn’t come from revelation. It is a need that springs up when science and history can’t explain something. Religion provides an imaginary answer to a mysterious event, which cannot be explained rationally. It does this in order to satisfy our emotional need for certainty and knowledge.

However, when science or history begins to explain the mysterious event, religion must be adapted and changed. The myth is no longer needed because we have the real answer.

From this, we can see that religion only exists to satisfy a psychological need we have for certainty. It should make us feel secure. It explains things we can’t understand e.g. what happens after death. Religion is an opiate - something that provides emotional support.

This is a dangerous idea. It makes man the creator of religion. It reduces religion to an imaginary coping mechanism - into something that makes us feel good. It has nothing to do with real truth; it’s just something we tell ourselves in order to make ourselves feel better. Religion is something that we should enjoy and feel good about. It certainly isn’t something that should make demands on us or ask us to sacrifice ourselves. It’s just an emotional coping mechanism; and if it doesn’t make you feel good, feel free to drop it because its no longer doing its job.
 
To me it looks like the popular Joel Osteen/Beth Moore models. A Christianity that can be expressed on a mug or inernet meme, a motivational speaker sort of religion.
 
TheLittleLady said:
To me it looks like the popular Joel Osteen/Beth Moore models.
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Bingo. Those protestants promote a form of religion that makes people feel good. They downplay doctrine and emphasise self-help. In other words, their religion becomes a form of emotional support system. They’re about improving a person’s natural life. True religion is about bringing people to supernatural life.
 
Yes this what I’m talking about!
From what I’m reading in these posts the best I can explain it is: What if what is being called sentimentality IS the supernatural, not out right but it’s inferd? Know what I mean?
 
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Is prosperity Gospel the same as : doing good deeds because it feels good to do?
 
Buddy1 said:
Yes this what I’m talking about!
From what I’m reading in these posts the best I can explain it is: What if what is being called sentimentality IS the supernatural, not out right but it’s inferd? Know what I mean?
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That’s also Modernism. The Modernists believe that the sentiment is both natural and supernatural - it comes from God and is about God. This false notion has been condemned because it holds every emotional experience to be a form of Revelation from God. This isn’t the case at all.
 
See :What if what is being called sentimentality IS the supernatural, not out right but it’s inferd? Know what I mean?
 
What I’m talking about is: What if the supernatural is what is being called sentimentality, not out right but it’s implied? Know what I mean?
 
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This is a false idea that has been condemned. Religion has nothing to do with sentiment. It is a supernatural revelation by a transcendent God. The revelation is totally complete in Jesus Christ. We need to put feelings to one side and accept Church teaching.
 
So is saying that the mystery of Christ is that faith in God took flesh and that since we are members of his body as St.Paul says, then if it’s about Christ then it’s about us. So then if Jesus is the Revelation of God made flesh then it stands to reason that we too are to be the revelation of God to the world in the flesh, then Modernism?
 
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There is no new revelation until the return of Our Lord at the end of time. Our job is to learn the catechism and obey it.
 
So then it’s false to say, “I am the revelation of God made flesh to the world”
 
Yes it is false and it’ll make you sound like a nutter. You could say that the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, enables you to participate in the divine life. But that’s as far as it goes.
 
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