Mrs May, whose father was a Church of England vicar, discussed Christianity mainly as an inspiration for people to do good such as visiting the sick or bereaved.
“We should celebrate all these contributions and others like them, and the difference they make in our society and around the world,” she said.
Mr Farron, meanwhile, accused Mrs May of linking Easter to “comfortable nostalgia”. He insisted that the message was, instead, “radical and disturbing”.
“People do not traditionally willingly exchange riches, glory and comfort for poverty, shame and pain — but that is what we see in the Easter story,” Mr Farron said.