CS Lewis on 3 dangers when agreeing that religion is not just a department of life:
the truth that religion as a department has really no right to exist can be misunderstood. Some will conclude that this illegitimate department ought to be abolished. Others will think, coming nearer to the truth, that it ought to cease to be departmental by being extended to the whole of life, but will misinterpret this. They will think it means that more and more of our secular transactions should be “opened with prayer”, that a wearisomely explicit pietism should infect our talk, that there should be no more cakes and ale. A third sort, well aware that God still rules a very small part of their lives, and that “a departmental religion” is no good, may despair. It would have to be carefully explained to them that to be “still only a part” is not the same as being a permanent department. In all of us God “still” holds only a part. (Letters to Malcolm, p.31)
The second danger is, it seems to me, a very present one as we enter what some have called post-Christendom. And dangerous it is, since it rests content with a nominal faith, baptised through accommodation, that deflects suffering with Jesus, outside the camp.
The third is seldom far away for those with over-sensitive consciences, of which there seem to be significant numbers within reformed churches. That fact in itself ought to give us pause for thought.
