The other day I was speaking with a woman about her experience of Christianity. After having explored various other religions, she has gained a new perspective. She said, "Christianity is a religion of the heart, but we've turned it into a religion of the head." I immediately resonated with her insight. Every religion has a particular gift to offer. Buddhism awakens us from our illusions through practices that still the mind's chatterbox. Judaism stokes the fires of social consciousness with a passion for repairing the world as our service to the Divine.
Christianity offers a mystical path of the heart. Jesus was not concerned with creating an institution or promulgating doctrine. Jesus sought to move people from fear to love, from self-preoccupation to selfless service, and from mindless religion to heart-centered engagement.
The purpose of Christianity is that the story and Spirit of Jesus so deeply move us that we simply can no longer be ego-centric. That's it. It's not an intellectual construct or even an article of faith. It's the installation of a new operating system.
This transformation has two movements: letting go of fear-based living (which feels like a crucifixion) so that love-based living arises (a resurrection). When that shift happens, then we "get" Christ; we become a new creation; the old passes away, and all things become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
This path of Jesus is a heart-broken-wide-open. Anything less might look religious, but it's not Christian.