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Quotes by Theologian
"Denial of our pattern of failure seems to be a kind of practical atheism or chosen ignorance among many believers and clergy."
33
"It's often difficult for us to act compassionately, but sacred art eases the difficulty by ennobling us."
32
"First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community, it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat."
32
"The verdict of the world is conclusive."
32
"In order to live man must believe in that for which he lives."
32
"Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too."
32
"It was my study of the two Corinthian letters that first caused me to concentrate my attention more directly on the relation of the apostle Paul to the older apostles."
32
"The scientific perspective of the world, especially the living world, inexorably impresses on us a dynamic picture of the world of entities and structures involved in continuous and incessant change and in process without ceasing."
32
"The universe must exist for the self-expression of God and the delight of God."
32
"The crisis that the world finds itself in as it swings on the hinge of a new millennium is located in something deeper than particular ways of organizing political systems and economies."
32
"The Church in England is the Church of England."
32
"Wealth and want equally harden the human heart."
32
"As we know life in ourselves we want to understand life in the universe in order to enter into harmony with it."
32
"The modern period adds social ethics to religions agenda, for we now realize that social structures are not like laws of nature. They are human creations, so we are responsible for them."
32
"Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better."
32
"Now all the knowledge and wisdom that is in creatures, whether angels or men, is nothing else but a participation of that one eternal, immutable and increased wisdom of God."
32
"It is not your love that sustains the marriage,but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love."
32
"Man can no longer live for himself alone. We must realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe."
32
"The tragedy in a man's life is what dies inside of him while he lives."
32
"You cannot contain evil by shaming it, or making people feel guilty, but only by revealing it toward it is, and then seeing the good as better."
32
"Teach and practice, practice and teach - that is all we have; that is all we are good for; that is all we ever ought to do."
32
"With improved historical records, and easier access to them, we actually have better reasons for hating one another, for anger and violence toward one another."
32
"One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life, and not through purity codes and moral achievement contests, which are seldom achieved anyway. We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking. The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality."
32
"Jews have God's promise and if we Christians have it, too, then it is only as those chosen with them, as guests in their house, that we are new wood grafted onto their tree."
32
"It is one thing to follow God's way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a 'doormat' under other people's feet."
32
"If this inner and critical voice has kept you safe for many years as your inner voice of authority, you may end up not being able to hear the real voice of God."
32
"The shock of unemployment becomes a pathology in its own right."
32
"Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it."
32
"Organized religion is no longer good news for most people, but bad news indeed. It set us up for the massive atheism, agnosticism, hedonism, and secularism we now see in almost all formerly Christian countries."
32
"Thirdly, Death is nothing else but a change of a short and temporary for an unalterable and eternal condition."
32
"We wander through this life together in a semi-darkness in which none of us can distinguish exactly the features of his neighbour. Only from time to time through some experience that we have of our companion or through some remark that he passes he stands for a moment close to us as though illuminated by a flash of lightning. Then we see him as he really is."
31
"Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion."
31
"When prayer removes distrust and doubt and enters the field of mental certainty, it becomes faith; and the universe is built on faith."
31
"True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: 'I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live."
31
"In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich."
31
"Such an emphasis on the immanence of God as Creator in, with, and under the natural processes of the world unveiled by the sciences is certainly in accord with all that the sciences have revealed since those debates of the nineteenth century."
31
"Poetry is a special use of language that opens onto the real. The business of the poet is truth telling, which is why in the Celtic tradition no one could be a teacher unless he or she was a poet."
31
"The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; but to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies."
31
"When it is a question of God's almighty Spirit, never say, "I can't.""
31
"I always have the feeling we are merely fearfully trying to save room for God; I would rather speak of God at the center than at the limits, in strength rather than weakness, and thus in human life and goodness rather than in death and guilt."
31
"Our first remark on this subject is that the ministry is an office, and not merely a work."
31
"Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God - the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God."
31
"I therefore used the last ten minutes of our classes to recite with them words from the Bible and verses from hymns, so that they would know them and the words would stay with them throughout their lives. The aim of my teaching was to bring to their hearts and thoughts the great truths of the Gospels so religion would have meaning in their lives and give them the strength to resist the irreligious forces that might assail them. I also tried to awaken in them a love for the Church, and a desire for that hour of spiritual peace to be found in the Sunday service. I taught them to respect traditional doctrines, but at the same time to hold fast to the saying of Paul that where the spirit of Christ is, there is freedom."
31
"Love . . . includes fellowship in suffering in joy and in effort."
31
"You don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too."
31
"Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing."
31
"The right of the people to a substantive part in the government of the Church is recognized and sanctioned by the apostles in almost every conceivable way."
31
"The ego hates losing ' even to God."
31
"Consider then, O man! whether there can be anything more wretched and poor, more naked and miserable, than man when he dies, if he be not clothed with Christ's righteousness, and enriched in his God."
31
"You know after any truly initiating experience that you are part of a much bigger whole. Life is not about you henceforward, but you are about life."
31
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