Theology and Religion 

You can have theology without religion but you cannot have religion without theology. Theology consists of statements about God and how God has acted, and continues to act, in in relation to human beings. Religion consists of beliefs and practices reflecting these statements and therefore these ideas.

It is possible to develop theories about God without the beliefs or expressions customarily associated with them. You could spend your life working out these theories but no longer accept what they imply. Formulating theories of God, regardless of how elaborate or sophisticated, does not guarantee faith or the beliefs on which faith is based. Devoid of these beliefs, religions practices, on which they are also based, are unlikely to continue.

Perhaps because they have been trained as theologians, a few professors of theology appear no longer to believe what they teach. They have become so caught up in developing ideas about God that they seem no longer believe or have faith in the God to whom they point.

The reason you cannot have religion, certainly not one that posits a purposeful God, is that religious beliefs and practices reflect ideas about God, which taken together are a theology. This theology may be disorganized and inconsistent, if not incoherent, but it still exists, there in the background.

Some Christians insist they are not religious but that their Christianity is a way of life. By this, they seem to mean their faith is vital and should not be reduced to ritualistic practices from which they want to distance themselves. It is possible to be sympathetic to their opinions and intentions, but such use of the word religion is unconventional. All religions, even those involving great spontaneity in worship, have rituals. One example is a public profession of belief and faith.

Even if Christians allow the term religion to be applied to what they believe and do, they may remain unaware of what the term theology means, but their beliefs and practices nonetheless reflect and embody one.