The term used here, IIRC, refers to devotion which FOLLOWS from faith. It also appears as “godliness” in the verse sometimes rendered “The mystery of godliness is great.”
What Gendron is warning about, and unfortunately his style can get over-polemic and serve more as a red herring than to illuminate, is systems of devotion where there is no saving faith to root it in. In that case it’s just our own busy work in which we hope to impress God.
What Gendron is warning about, and unfortunately his style can get over-polemic and serve more as a red herring than to illuminate, is systems of devotion where there is no saving faith to root it in.
I do actually agree about a word being used in different ways; I don't like introducing ambiguity in the way that this relatively recent negative usage of "religion" can do.
Compare the complaint that contemporary English tends to use one word, "love," that covers a number of different things in historical Greek.
(I also have other issues with this usage of "religion," but although they're even more central to my objection, they're even more tangential to this discussion.)