What does "God is bigger than religion" mean?

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I have not heard this quote before. In searching for an answer I find that most use it to talk down organized religion, saying that religion was made by man not god. So, I guess my question is if God is bigger than religion, why do I need to be Catholic?
 
People who say that are expressing relativism of the silliest sort. Who do they think religion is about if not God? What they mean is that since there are so many religions and they can’t be bothered to look into them to see which is the true one, they’ll just hold themselves aloof in a kind of reverse hubris and declare in their imposed ignorance that it doesn’t matter. :rolleyes:

We are Catholics because Christ founded the Church which is universal–which is what the world catholic means. We believe in Christ because he rose from the dead–something no other founder of a religion has ever done. We believe Jesus to be the Word of God and the Redeemer of mankind, the Second Adam whose sacrifcie on the cross satisfied God’s justice when we could not do that for ourselves. If this isn’t true, then there is no God and no reason to say anything about God at all.
 
I should have said that I came across the quote in James Martin,SJ book The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. He was talking about friendship with God and how religion may hinder its development. A quote form Guy Consolmango was used “One obvious way we can let religion limit our view of the universe is by insisting that its doctrines are a complete and final description of nature and God. Martin the sums it up with” God is bigger than religion. I thought about it for a while but could not comprehend its meaning. God is the creator of all and so yes, God is big. Everyones relationship with God is different but there has to be a basis for worship and that is why there needs to be religion. Its hard to explain, but I do appreciate the conversation.
 
I think that when people say that ‘God is bigger than religion’ what they’re actually saying is ‘I don’t have the intelligence or diligence to inquire about any religion myself so I’ll just come out with vacuous comments instead’.
 
matt9512 said:
I should have said that I came across the quote in James Martin,SJ book The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. He was talking about friendship with God and how religion may hinder its development. A quote form Guy Consolmango was used “One obvious way we can let religion limit our view of the universe is by insisting that its doctrines are a complete and final description of nature and God. Martin the sums it up with” God is bigger than religion. I thought about it for a while but could not comprehend its meaning. God is the creator of all and so yes, God is big. Everyones relationship with God is different but there has to be a basis for worship and that is why there needs to be religion. Its hard to explain, but I do appreciate the conversation.
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No offense to James Martin, SJ, but religion is the help to God not a hidrance. Next thing he’ll be writing is that the saints come between us and God and so we should dump devotions. Oh wait! Jesus comes between us and God so we have to dump him too! Please! It’s one thing to say that we can become overly wrapped up in a system of religion that we forget God but God is not “bigger” than the relationship he established with us through Christ’s Church.
 
matt9512 said:
I have not heard this quote before. In searching for an answer I find that most use it to talk down organized religion, saying that religion was made by man not god. So, I guess my question is if God is bigger than religion, why do I need to be Catholic?
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Look at Vatican II, actually, for an answer to this. Vatican II said that there are, in fact, “rays of truth” in non-Catholic religions, but that the Catholic Church represents the fullness of what it is that Christ wanted to reveal to the world. Through the sacraments, which were entrusted by Christ to the Church, we, as Catholics, have at our disposal many more tools to acheive salvation than any other religion provides.

Now, with that said, does this mean that God’s grace is restricted to official members of the Catholic Church? Absolutely not. In this sense, God is way bigger than religion. Yes, Christ dies to save everyone. Yes, at the end of the day, we ask Catholics believe that Christ is the one who will judge, regardless of religious affiliation while on our earthly pilgrimage. But does that mean that someone who doesn’t have a Catholic baptismal certificate can’t get into heaven? By no means.

Is this a good reason to leave the Church? NO! This is our home, this is where God does desire for his children to live and grow to love him. As I said before, the Catholic Church has many more tools at its disposal for cultivating a friendship with God than anyone else.
 
You need to be Catholic because it is God’s wish to send his beloved son to build His Church upon the 12 Apostles. Catholicism is God’s Church not man as you said. Therefore God is bigger than religion and you need to be a Catholic.
 
Della said:
No offense to James Martin, SJ, but religion is the help to God not a hidrance. Next thing he’ll be writing is that the saints come between us and God and so we should dump devotions. Oh wait! Jesus comes between us and God so we have to dump him too! Please! It’s one thing to say that we can become overly wrapped up in a system of religion that we forget God but God is not “bigger” than the relationship he established with us through Christ’s Church.
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I think the other user may have misinterpreted Fr. Martin. I have never come accross that sentiment in any of his books, though I have not read the Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. However, as to Fr. Martin on the saints, read his semi-memoir, My Life With the Saints. I call it a semi-memoir because, in addition to giving a history of the lives of several saints, Fr. Martin recounts stories of his personal friendship with each of these people throughout his life.
 
“God is not bound by the sacraments” - that’s all it should mean for Catholics.
 
matt9512 said:
I have not heard this quote before. In searching for an answer I find that most use it to talk down organized religion, saying that religion was made by man not god. So, I guess my question is if God is bigger than religion, why do I need to be Catholic?
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Of course God is bigger than religion. He can save man any way He so wishes. He is not bound to save us ONLY by baptism or ONLY by circumcision. WE are bound to help each other be saved by baptism and cultivating a life given over to God in obedience.

God gave man religion to make it easier for man to find God. As Our Lord says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”.

The Ten Commandments, the Catechism, the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church are the religious result of Christ’s ordination of Peter in Matthew 16:18-19 and subsequently Jesus’s Resurrection which proved Jesus to be the Son of God and therefore incapable of evil and therefore lying. These are the ways God has made for us to reach Him - not for Him to reach us.

One does not see with his nose. One does not reach higher by crouching. One doesn’t have children through sodomy (no matter what people want to define “marriage” as). And one reaches God through the ways He ordains. And if Christ rose from the dead, the only way is through the Church. If He did not, then surely the Church is the first gate to Hell.
 
Aquila_Lucis said:
I think the other user may have misinterpreted Fr. Martin. I have never come accross that sentiment in any of his books, though I have not read the Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. However, as to Fr. Martin on the saints, read his semi-memoir, My Life With the Saints. I call it a semi-memoir because, in addition to giving a history of the lives of several saints, Fr. Martin recounts stories of his personal friendship with each of these people throughout his life.
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I do hope our OP has misinterpreted Fr. Martin’s words. :tiphat: As to the saints, I only meant to use that as an example of how far one could take the idea that religion is a “barrier” to God instead of the means by which we know and understand his will for us. I did not mean to imply that Fr. Martin believes the saints are a barrier. 😊

There are a lot of poorly thought out books that, while they may not teach anything against the faith, they are more confusing than helpful because of the loose language used by the author. Again, I have not read Fr. Martin’s books so I cannot say if he falls into that category–you believe he doesn’t, so, of course, I will bow to you since you’ve read his writing.

People often read into books things that may not be there or not fully understand the meaning. From what you’ve written that sounds like the case with the OP. 🙂
 
Depends what you mean by “religion”.

In some contexts “religion” could mean a set of rules & dogmas which people may perceive are inflexible and dehumanizing and thus a barrier to God, much the way Jesus railed against the Scribes and the Pharisees for placing heavy burdens upon people in the name of slavish observance of the Law, and not lifting a finger to help.

In a more positive sense “religion” or “organized religion” can be viewed as our way of having a relationship with God that is bigger than just “me & Jesus”, which is sometimes more accurately “me & my imaginary friend” or simply just “me”. “Religion” brings other people into the picture, says that this is a shared experience, I can learn from the experience & wisdom of others (aka “tradition”), I am accountable to something other than myself (aka “rules”), I don’t just make it up myself and change it willy-nilly as I go along. And I am responsible for my neighbor, and I want to spread the Good News.

Hopefully religion tends more toward the latter, but when people use “religion” in the negative sense they tend to be referring to the former. Which sad to say is sometimes peoples’ experience of the Catholic church (contrary to our own tradition and ideals).
 
Yes, “God is bigger than religion.” So we should abandon religion and cling to God?

But how do we know God? The best way, according to our faith, is that God reaches out to us and shows us himself. And we find that revelation in . . . the Church and the Scriptures.

The Church is still the best way to come to know God, with the least distortion. To use an example, how am I to know about Quantum Dynamics? The best way is through the math–but I don’t have that level of understanding of math. So the best way available to me is through the explanations of the experts, who do know the math and can find ways to put that knowledge into words. What if someone then says, “but the reality of quantum dynamics is bigger than these words”? Do I then reject the experts and go to second- and third-hand interpreters? Do I rely on my own experiences and vague memories of what I was taught or read? Do I look to TV shows, that try to explain in 5 or 20 minutes what the books cover in much greater detail? The best way is still with the original experts; I need to go to them.

So here: Yes, our understanding of God is limited, due to the nature of our human limits. But the best way to understand and follow God is through the means God himself gives us: the Church, along with its teaching authority and Scriptures and traditions.
 
False religion can be hinderance with one’s relationship with God, but the true religion cannot be, since the all-wise, all-loving, and all-powerful God gave it to us as the means of our relationship with Him. Such a God would not be loving if He gave us a hinderance (cf. Luke 11:11-13).

God is bigger than religion is true, though, in the sense that even through revelation we will not know God in the fullest or to the exent we will when we behold him in the beatific vision: We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). But, the absolute best way we can have a relationship with Him in this world is through the true religion He has given us.
 
matt9512 said:
I should have said that I came across the quote in James Martin,SJ book The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. He was talking about friendship with God and how religion may hinder its development. A quote form Guy Consolmango was used “One obvious way we can let religion limit our view of the universe is by insisting that its doctrines are a complete and final description of nature and God. Martin the sums it up with” God is bigger than religion. I thought about it for a while but could not comprehend its meaning. God is the creator of all and so yes, God is big. Everyones relationship with God is different but there has to be a basis for worship and that is why there needs to be religion. Its hard to explain, but I do appreciate the conversation.
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my view would be that it is not religion that limits our view, but rather our misinterpretations of scirpture/Church teachings

teachings and scripture direct us to God and offer a means by which we can assess our understanding as we attempt a deeper relationship with Him

if religion refers our relationship with Him, yes God is more than that, but that does not need to be stated
 
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