Quotes about Theology

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything. Votes: 9

Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell. Votes: 8

One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. Votes: 6

Theology is a science of mind applied to God. Votes: 6

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing. Votes: 6

What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has 'theology' ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all? Votes: 6

The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously. Votes: 5

The religion of the future will be cosmic religion. It will transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Votes: 5

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. Votes: 5

A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. Votes: 5

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. Votes: 5

I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of that pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one? Votes: 5

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms. Votes: 5

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. Votes: 5

The cross alone is our theology. Votes: 4

To downgrade the human mind is bad theology. Votes: 4

My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not signed. Votes: 4

Medicine makes people ill, mathematics make them sad and theology makes them sinful. Votes: 4

The function of Theology? The recitation of the incomprehensible by the unspeakable to pick the pockets of the unthinking. Votes: 4

The religion of tomorrow will be less concerned with the dogmas of theology and more concerned with the social welfare of humanity. Votes: 4

If we take science as our sole guide, if we accept and hold fast that alone which is verifiable, the old theology must go. Votes: 4

Catholic theology believes that God gave man free will, and you can't give somebody free will and then send in a play from the sidelines. Votes: 4

Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories; they have a point, but he who tries too hard to get it will miss it. Votes: 4

The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion. Votes: 4

Theology is unnecessary. Votes: 3

Theology is Classified Superstition. Votes: 3

Theology is ignorance with wings. Votes: 3

Theology, like fiction, is largely autobiographical. Votes: 3

Theology made no provision for evolution. Votes: 3

Theology is the logic of the Devil. Votes: 3

Theology is a subject without an object Votes: 3

Theology is only thought applied to religion. Votes: 3

Theology without practice is the theology of demons Votes: 3

Theosophy blesses the world; Theology is its curse. Votes: 3

Theology without love simply is very bad theology. Votes: 3

Theology is the science of the divine lie. Votes: 3

Theology must have the character of a living procession. Votes: 3

Theology is the doctrine or teaching of living to God. Votes: 3

Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged. Votes: 3

Theology without proclamation is empty, proclamation without theology is blind. Votes: 3

Theology is simply that part of religion that requires brains. Votes: 3

Theology must work itself out in the most practical relationships. Votes: 3

Theology is that discipline whereby we stop talking nonsense about God. Votes: 3

Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Votes: 3

Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads to God. Votes: 3

Theology is the post hoc rationalization of what you want to believe. Votes: 3

In Bright Shadow: C.S. Lewis on the Imagination for Theology and Discipleship Votes: 3

The Christian Theology Reader brings the best primary sources to the theological inquirer. Votes: 3

Theology is not only about understanding the world; it is about mending the world. Votes: 3

Theology in general seems to me a substitution of human ingenuity for divine wisdom. Votes: 3

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. Votes: 3

A professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution [the University of Virginia] Votes: 3

Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know about Nature. Votes: 3

Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it." Votes: 3

Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it. Votes: 3

Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it. Votes: 3

Theology is a thing of unreason altogether, an edifice of assumptions and dreams, a superstructure without a substructure Votes: 3

Damn, but science is just a constant feed of cool new facts and theories. Theology doesn't come close. Votes: 3

I think my degrees in Theology and Psychology qualified me for nothing, but probably prepared me for everything. Votes: 3

The Christ of Theology is not alive for us today. He is wrapped in the grave cloths of dogma. Votes: 3

Theology, philosophy, metaphysics, and quantum physics are merely ways for God to have his smart people believe in him Votes: 3

This is the reason why our Theology is certain: because it seizes us from ourselves and places us outside ourselves. Votes: 3

Theology is reflection, a critical attitude. The commitment of love, of service, comes first. Theology follows; it is the second step. Votes: 3

Satan could make an "A" in my Systematic Theology course. He knows the information and knows that the information is true. Votes: 3

Theology is speaking about God while in the very presence of God. We are intimately engaged with the subject of our study. Votes: 3

God is the Truth. The Bible is the truth about the Truth. Theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth. Votes: 3

The stupendous truth of the existence of a Heavenly Mother, as well as a Heavenly Father, became established facts in Mormon Theology. Votes: 3

Theology should be a discourse that helps the sociopolitical approach to justice to maintain its human face and not to become impersonal. Votes: 3

Theology is for homemakers who need to know who God is, who they are, and what this mundane life is all about. Votes: 3

Theology offers you a working arrangement, which leaves the scientist free to continue his experiments and the Christian to continue his prayers. Votes: 3

Theology, however implausible many of its truth claims, is one of the most ambitious theoretical arenas left in an increasingly specialized world Votes: 3

Theology created the fiction of Satan which represents the revolt if an infinite being against the existence of an absolute infinity, against God. Votes: 3

Theology, not morality, is the first business on the church's agenda of reform, and the church, not society, is the first target of divine criticism. Votes: 3

Theology, not morality, is the first business on the church's agenda of reform, and the church, not society, is the first target of divine criticism Votes: 3

Theology is Anthropology... [T]he distinction which is made, or rather supposed to be made, between the theological and anthropological predicates resolves itself into an absurdity. Votes: 3

Theology moves back and forth between two poles, the eternal truth of its foundations and the temporal situation in which the eternal truth must be received. Votes: 3

Theology isn't what drove them to their...theology." author writes on dealing with the embittering experience of those who protect a wounded place with abstract arguments. Votes: 3

Theology is a part of our lives. It's unavoidable. A thoughtless theology guides our lives with just as much force as a thoughtful and informed one. Votes: 3

And though he had almost flunked in Greek, his thesis on 'Sixteen Ways of Paying a Church Debt' had won the ten-dollar prize in Practical Theology. Votes: 3

What is the difference between a Doctor of Medicine and a Doctor of Theology? One prescribes drugs, while the other might as well be on drugs. Votes: 3

Theology is an attempt to explain a subject by men who do not understand it. The intent is not to tell the truth but to satisfy the questioner. Votes: 3

Theology has not advanced an inch in the last 1,000 years. How much respect does a profession deserve if it cannot add to the knowledge and understanding of man? Votes: 3

Theology is in disrepute among most Western intellectuals. The word is taken to mean a passe form of religious thinking that embraces irrationality and dogmatism. So too, Scholasticism. Votes: 3

Science ha seradicated smallpox, can immunise against most previously deadly viruses, can kill most previously deadly bacteria. Theology has done nothing but talk of pestilence as the wages of sin. Votes: 3

The problem with a Separation Theology is that it produces a Separation Cosmology, a way of looking at all of life that says that everything is separate from everything else. Votes: 3

I have, alas! Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence too, And to my cost Theology, With ardent labor, studied through. And here I stand, with all my lore, Poor fool, no wiser than before. Votes: 3

Theology is faith seeking understanding, but understanding is more than theoretical. If we really grasp who and where we are as disciples, we should know how to live out our faith. Votes: 3

Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God? Votes: 3

Barth's approach tears up any possibility of dialogue between faith and unfaith or between theology and other human sciences. Theology just says what it says on the basis of scripture, and that's that. Votes: 3

Those sciences which govern the morals of mankind, such as Theology and Philosophy, make everything their concern: no activity is so private or so secret as to escape their attention or their jurisdiction. Votes: 3

Theology emerged not as a course of knowledge but as a feast of homily and imagination and exaggeration in which every man could find his image and his portion. And yet there were limits. Votes: 3

Natural Theology says not only look up and look out-it also says look down and look in, and you will find the proofs of the reality of God in the depth of your own nature. Votes: 3

Theo named his son Theology. But his son changed it to The O to honor his dad, Orafoura. Orafoura is my dad, he is my son, and we love to love people who are lovable. Votes: 3

Theology alone doesn't convine anyone.Only those words which are pregnant with action, theology that is born of suffering, of struggles, of the poor--this theology is a testimony. This theology leads to conversion. (Leonardo Boff, p. 169) Votes: 3

Theology is but a science of applied to God. As schools change theology must necessarily change. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas of truth are not. Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged. Votes: 3

If after all my Atheology turns out wrong and your Theology right I feel I shall always be able to pass into Heaven (if I want to) as a friend of G.K.C.'s. Bless you. Votes: 3

Prayer and Theology are inseparable. True Theology is the adoration offered by the intellect. The intellect clarifies the moment of prayer, but only prayer can give it the fervor of the Spirit. Theology is light, prayer is fire. Votes: 3

In God's eyes, all creatures have value whether we find them cuddly, affectionate, beautiful or otherwise. Our own perspective-in a way-is neither here nor there. Theology, at its best, can help to liberate us from our own anthropocentric limitations. Votes: 3

Everyone reads, everyone hears things discussed. Consequently, if you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones--bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas. Votes: 3

Theology is just what you really think about God, and if you're going to do that, you'd better use your mind and not just let it be a receptacle - a catch-all for whatever beliefs happen to be passing by. Votes: 3

I'm not sure that I've ever been drawn to the academic life as such. Theology has been a matter of survival for me. If I have a carapace of academic presentability, it is thanks to the wonderful teachers I had. Votes: 3

I've come to learn that theology matters. It matters not because we want to impress people, but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong. Votes: 3

Music will inevitably get you into Philosophy, and once you logically see that through, will end up getting you into Theology. Once you see that through, it will end up getting you to a simple place of being happy with yourself and everybody around you. Votes: 3

Theology is endlessly interesting in that you can study it without believing in anything. I do believe, but you don't have to. I got very caught up in the 11th-century monasticism and the Cistercians. My dissertation was about Aelred of Rievaulx and one of his books. Votes: 3

The problem with Prosperity Theology is not that it promises too much, but that it aims for so little. What God promises us in Christ is far above anything that can be measured in earthly wealth - and believers are not promised earthly wealth nor the gift of health. Votes: 3

The best theology would need no advocates; it would prove itself. Votes: 2

In all systems of theology the devil figures as a male person. Yes, it is women who keep the church going. Votes: 2

Conservative New Testament studies could also provide an intellectually satisfying alternative to German biblical criticism and to the liberal theology that accompanied it. Votes: 2

The humanities need to be defended today against the encroachments of physical science, as they once needed to be against the encroachment of theology. Votes: 2

People don't do theology in a vacuum but in a community with other theological thinkers, where there's jealousy, vanity, hurt pride, all those things. Votes: 2

We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of women within the church. The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions. Votes: 2

What makes you a Christian is whether or not you really are in accord with biblical theology and whether you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Votes: 2

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth. Votes: 2

One of the main tasks of theology is to find words that do not divide but unite, that do not create conflict but unity, that do not hurt but heal. Votes: 2

Life isn't like a book. Life isn't logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess. Votes: 2

To be Biblically balanced is to let our theology and preaching be proportioned by the Bible's radically disproportionate focus on God's saving love for sinners seen and accomplished in the crucified and risen Christ. Votes: 2

When it comes to the hijab - why to wear it, whether to wear it, how to wear it - there is theology and then there is practice, and there is huge diversity in both. Votes: 2

Science cannot tell theology how to construct a doctrine of creation, but you can't construct a doctrine of creation without taking account of the age of the universe and the evolutionary character of cosmic history. Votes: 2

Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is 'The Book of British Birds,' and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology. Votes: 2

Over the centuries, and even today, the Bible and Christian theology have helped justify the Crusades, slavery, violence against gays, and the murder of doctors who perform abortions. The words themselves are latent, inert, harmless - until they aren't. Votes: 2

If atheism is to be used to express the state of mind in which God is identified with the unknowable, and theology is pronounced to be a collection of meaningless words about unintelligible chimeras, then I have no doubt, and I think few people doubt. Votes: 2

I don't claim to be knowledgeable about theology. Most of my knowledge comes out of my experience and the lessons in the Bible. Every Sunday I'm home I teach 45 minutes and we boiled them down to one page for the new book, 'Through the Year with Jimmy Carter.' Votes: 2

People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology. Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview. Votes: 2

God created the world; the laws of nature were created by God. True science tries to find out what God put in the world. The trouble is where scientists speculate about theology and they don't know what they're talking about because they weren't there. They can't speculate about the origins of life because they weren't there. Votes: 2

Depression can kill you. It can also be a spiritually enriching experience. It's really an important part of my theology now and my spirituality that life is not perfect, and I grew up wanting it to be and thinking that if it wasn't, I could make it that way, and I had to acknowledge that I had all kinds of flaws and sadnesses and problems. Votes: 2

Conformity is deformity Votes: 1

Love gives you eyes. Votes: 1

No cross, no Christian Votes: 1

Heaven is not a republic. Votes: 1

Great praxis demands great piety. Votes: 1

Isn't the human body a miracle Votes: 1

Science, unlike theology, never leads to insanity. Votes: 1

All religions are based on obsolete terminology. Votes: 1

One man's pornography is another man's theology. Votes: 1

I believe the discussion itself is divine. Votes: 1

Jesus Christ, a Nazarene, lived in Nazareth. Votes: 1

I haven't even read everything I wrote. Votes: 1

The light radiates from a divine soul. Votes: 1

Death was far more certain than God. Votes: 1

Heed not thy feeling. Do thy work. Votes: 1

We are saved only by grace through faith. Votes: 1

Every human being is, by definition, a theologian. Votes: 1

Cosmopolitan theology is a theology for _the impossible_. Votes: 1

Peace is a deeper reality than violence."p. 231 Votes: 1

God transcends even the undertakings of evangelical theologians. Votes: 1

My body kills me, so I kill it. Votes: 1

We sucked in atheism with our canned milk. Votes: 1

As history shows, dead metaphors make good idols. Votes: 1

Is any man skillful enough to have fashioned himself? Votes: 1

Everyone has gods. You just don't think they're gods. Votes: 1

Everybody has theology whether they admit it or not. Votes: 1

Besides Zeus on his throne, Justice has her seat. Votes: 1

The Bible is the greatest love story ever told. Votes: 1

True knowledge of God is born out of obedience. Votes: 1

Christ is the Lesson as well as the Teacher. Votes: 1

If books can transform, those have to be conscientious. Votes: 1

Violence is spiritual junk food, and boredom is spiritual anorexia. Votes: 1

IGNORANCE is without gaining Knowledge & Knowledge is gained without IGNORANCE Votes: 1

God is not just intensely personal. He is infinitely powerful. Votes: 1

Jesus is God is the unified field theory of Christianity". Votes: 1

Nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God. Votes: 1

Walking in close fellowship with God is a spiritual self. Votes: 1

Quit Believing in Lies and Always Search For the Truth! Votes: 1

The search for God begins at the point of need. Votes: 1

How do evil people find the strength to do good? Votes: 1

Our are speculations are not the measure of our God. Votes: 1

Jesus was not a theologian. He was God who told stories. Votes: 1

Are we not all actors playing parts in another person's play? Votes: 1

It is better to lose your life than to waste it. Votes: 1

The theologians dead, knew no more than the theologians now living. Votes: 1

We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. Votes: 1

The lives of the saints are the hermeneutical key to Scripture. Votes: 1

What the mind cannot accept, the heart can finally never adore. Votes: 1

The rich fop Francis of Assisi was bored all his lif Votes: 1

Cosmopolitanism starts from the _singular_ individual rather than the _faceless_ collective Votes: 1

There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God. Votes: 1

Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company. Votes: 1

I know the theological answers, but do my blood and my pulse? Votes: 1

In order to pick something up, you've got to put something down. Votes: 1

Faith is the only belief which remains alive between heaven and hell. Votes: 1

You ought to read, mediate and affirm the living word of God. Votes: 1

God did create a world without sin. We just screwed it up. Votes: 1

We ought to know the Lord and fullness of His great grace. Votes: 1

God is a living Spirit. The Spirit is life.Life is divine. Votes: 1

Angels are the powers hidden in the faculties and organs of man Votes: 1

I Only Believe What I See But I Question Everything I Hear Votes: 1

Suffering provides the gym equipment on which my faith can be exercised. Votes: 1

In any theological struggle, the first thousand years are always the bitterest. Votes: 1

... the earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord. Votes: 1

Religion is about hospitality, solidarity, and responsibility or it is nothing at all. Votes: 1

An educated theologian: someone who's better at rationalizing what they're pretending to know. Votes: 1

The repentance we are called to is about choosing one audience over another. Votes: 1

the cosmopolitan gaze of planetary love and hospitality _is_ what constitutes being _religious_. Votes: 1

Cosmopolitanism emphasizes and is grounded in a _singular relationality between and among people Votes: 1

In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians. Votes: 1

If thinking wants to think God, then it must endeavor to tell stories. Votes: 1

No sooner was the wound given than the remedy was provided and revealed. Votes: 1

Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun. Votes: 1

When man is with God in awe and love, then he is praying. Votes: 1

Humor is a prelude to faith, and laughter is the beginning of prayer. Votes: 1

Question like a child, reason like an adult, and write like a sage. Votes: 1

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him Votes: 1

Every book is a great action and every great action is a book! Votes: 1

Followers of Jesus do well to spend more time engaging him than explaining him. Votes: 1

Everything smaller than Heaven bores us because only Heaven is bigger than our hearts. Votes: 1

Theological discourse can be, in and of itself, a form of identity and solidarity. Votes: 1

Worship is forgetting about what's wrong with you and remembering what's right with God. Votes: 1

A covenant differs from a contract almost as much as marriage differs from prostitution. Votes: 1

Learning to think rigorously, so as to act rightly and to serve humanity better. Votes: 1

God's dialogue with us becomes truly human, since God conducts his part as man. Votes: 1

Question the answers, I repeated every class. Reevaluate your conclusions when the evidence changes. Votes: 1

The grace of endurance is the great power of God at work within us. Votes: 1

In life, you have 3 choices. Give up, give in, or give it your all. Votes: 1

The Psalms wrap nouns and verbs around our pain better than any other book. Votes: 1

Lord, forgive us for the times we have read about Gethsemane with dry eyes. Votes: 1

You will face your greatest opposition when you are closest to your biggest miracle. Votes: 1

I want to affirm that thinking and living, knowing and doing, theory and practice intersect. Votes: 1

Isn't that funny, that deity is passe but the attributes and implications of deity linger-- Votes: 1

Joy isn't grounded in our circumstances; it is grounded in the unchanging character of God. Votes: 1

When they realized they were in the desert, they built a religion to worship thirstiness. Votes: 1

He was too perplexed to please the conventional and too reverent. to please the infidels. Votes: 1

Be careful not to appear obsessively intellectual. When intelligence fills up, it overflows a parody. Votes: 1

Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church? Votes: 1

Very small errors in our understanding of the Gospel can result in very big problems. Votes: 1

One possibility is: God is nothing but the power of the universe to organize itself. Votes: 1

Hold material goods and wealth on a flat palm and not in a clenched fist. Votes: 1

Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God. Votes: 1

We would do our theology better if more was at stake in what we said. Votes: 1

An Ego Mind is a destructive mind and a rational mind is a peaceful mind. Votes: 1

The less theorizing you do about God, the more receptive you are to His inpouring. Votes: 1

The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things. Votes: 1

Prayer is an acknowledgment that our need of God's help is not partial but total. Votes: 1

They had not yet attained the stupefying boredom of omnipotence; their experiments did not always succeed. Votes: 1

Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible. Votes: 1

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Votes: 1

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Votes: 1

No language about God will ever be fully adequate to the burning mystery which it signifies. Votes: 1

About the time I told God that He didn't exist, I was desperate for an identity. Votes: 1

Whatever else in the Bible catches your eye, do not let it distract you from Him. Votes: 1

We can do what we ought to do, only by great grace that comes from God. Votes: 1

I believe we best say yes to God's glory and sovereignty by saying no to Calvinism. Votes: 1

There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word, but none without ghosts. Votes: 1

...we can never attain a maximum love of God with only a minimum knowledge of God Votes: 1

A poet is not an apostle; he drives out devils only by the power of the devil. Votes: 1

We...sin not because we want what is evil, but because we want what isn't good enough. Votes: 1

The living water that never runs dry,The water of life, Lord, the saviour of the world. Votes: 1

I don't care what problem you face; it has no power to defeat the cross of Christ. Votes: 1

The task of the theologian is to explain everything through God, and to explain God as unexplainable. Votes: 1

If you have never truly questioned what you believe, I would question whether you truly believe it. Votes: 1

To find the Father of all is hard. And when found, it is impossible to utter Him. Votes: 1

That vague and wandering opinion of Deity is declared by an apostle to be ignorance of God: Votes: 1

The English experience suggested that nobody really doubted the existence of God until theologians tried to prove it. Votes: 1

Every single Biblical doctrine of theology, directly or indirectly, ultimately has its basis in the book of Genesis. Votes: 1

Before you call yourself a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or any other theology, learn to be human first. Votes: 1

He that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion. Votes: 1

...celebrating the Eucharist as a remembrance of Christ means practicing God's justice towards neighbors, strangers, and enemies alike. Votes: 1

To theology, ... only what it holds sacred is true, whereas to philosophy, only what holds true is sacred. Votes: 1

We degrade God too much, ascribing to him our ideas, in vexation at being unable to understand Him. Votes: 1

Our true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without reservation, whatever the holy scriptures have delivered. Votes: 1

If you do not love, you will not be alive; if you love effectively, you will be killed. Votes: 1

And what greater might do we possess as human beings than our capacity to question and to learn? Votes: 1

Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons. Votes: 1

We are all theologians, either good ones or bad ones. I'd rather be a good one. Wouldn't you? Votes: 1

I study theology in the works of creation and find in it new reasons for adoring the creator. Votes: 1

Oh, sometimes I like to put the sand of doubt into the oyster of my faith." (Br. Cadfael) Votes: 1

God's revelation in the Gospel not only reveals Who He is, but it also reveals who we are. Votes: 1

If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul. Votes: 1

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? Votes: 1

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. Votes: 1

...'joy' in Phillippians is a defiant 'Nevertheless!' that Paul sets like a full stop against the Philippians' anxiety... Votes: 1

We've got to believe that God is sane, Davie boy. We'd be lost indeed if we didn't do that. Votes: 1

Jesus did not die just to save you from hell. He paid the price to give you all of heaven. Votes: 1

I wanted that future officer to weigh decisions with a supple mind and to be comfortable with nuance and uncertainty. Votes: 1

It is reasonable to love the Absolute absolutely for the same reason it is reasonable to love the relative relatively. Votes: 1

God loves atheists. The former ones make the most compelling theists because they're so empirically familiar with how atheists think. Votes: 1

It is better to doubt that a concept is stupidly flying under your head than profoundly flying over your head. Votes: 1

You can never make someone like something they don't like, but you can always help them to better understand it. Votes: 1

Not only had I got rid of the theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution. Votes: 1

A theology that endangers life rather than "giving life" is one that cannot accept the title of being adequately Christian. Votes: 1

We may not play with the new theology even if we may think we can turn it to our advantage. Votes: 1

the overall theme of theology can be twofold: the search for meaning and the responsibility one has to the others. Votes: 1

It is just as crazy not to be crazy about Christ as it is to be crazy about anything else. Votes: 1

Cosmopolitan discourse...provides one with a _public gaze_ with which one can relate oneself to others in a different way. Votes: 1

Immortal beings have been compared to stars, these are existences that linger on long after the death of the thing itself. Votes: 1

Not the last time in Western history, the revolutionaries armed themselves with a new religion to steel themselves for greater outrageous. Votes: 1

Not bad, not bad at all," Diotallevi said. "To arrive at the truth through the painstaking reconstruction of a false text. Votes: 1

The obsession with putting ourselves at the centre of everything is the bane not only of theologians but also of zoologists. Votes: 1

His knowledge is not like ours, which has three tenses: present, past, and future. God's knowledge has no change or variation. Votes: 1

Only God may be adored, because only God is unlimited goodness, truth, and beauty, and thus only God deserves unlimited love. Votes: 1

Fundamentalism's strident denunciation of its opponents is a sign of its weakness, its dogmatic authoritarianism is a pathological mutation of faith. Votes: 1

Those who love God with their minds, even if it gives them a headache, are those whose hearts stay on fire. Votes: 1

The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become. Votes: 1

You have the chief spark of your health's fire, for you have true knowledge of the hand that guides the universe. Votes: 1

When the early Church recited the Apostles Creed, it was simultaneously their greatest act of rebellion, and their greatest act of submission. Votes: 1

For a lot of people, God lives in their Bibles and they open it when they feel He has something to say. Votes: 1

I love theologians, they know god cannot speak so they spend their energy trying to explain to us what his silence means Votes: 1

Well, first I would ask them if they had read the Bible; then I would ask them if they had understood it. Votes: 1

I still believe that many Americans have a deep longing for that glorious moment when a sermon is more Biblical than American. Votes: 1

But here we see the peace of God is not the absence of negative thoughts, it is the presence of God himself. Votes: 1

I'm of the opinion and quite certain that our 'personal histories' with God are meant to be well informed by the Scriptures Votes: 1

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. Votes: 1

If you do believe in God, and your first instinct in all things must be gratitude: for creation, or love, for mercy. Votes: 1

most of us happily disavow fairies, astrology and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, without first immersing ourselves in books of Pastafarian theology etc. Votes: 1

Trying to figure out God is like trying to catch a fish in the Pacific Ocean with an inch of dental floss. Votes: 1

It's no fun to think about infinity and no cinche to write about it. Again, it helps to look for some human link. Votes: 1

The irony of rule followers is they often quote a lot of people that do not follow as many rules as they do. Votes: 1

Everything I have learned has not come from books, it has come experientially over time under pressure walking with Christ".~ R. Alan Woods [2012] Votes: 1

Proxy religion involves too great a risk: you had better see to your soul's matters yourself, and leave them in no man's hands. Votes: 1

The fact that we can neither prove nor disprove the existence of something does not put existence and non-existence on an even footing. Votes: 1

knowledge depends on the mode of the knower; for what is known is in the knower according to the measure of his mode Votes: 1

Allowing a person or thing to leave your life, without further pain is the basis of humanity. Everything else is the reason (theology). Votes: 1

A major gap between many of the denominations stems from how people define some of the most basic terms, such as 'religion' itself. Votes: 1

The conscious attempt to be a good person without Christ is as legalistic as an attempt to make it into Heaven through empty religiosity. Votes: 1

Anybody can say, "Praise the Lord!", but open my eyes the opportunities to be the declare WHO You are rather than just Your position. Votes: 1

I believe that theology is facing the abyss.I must face the abyss, the abyss of existence, the abyss of mystery. (Rubem Alves, p. 189) Votes: 1

For the majority of people, though they do not know what to do with this life, long for another that shall have no end. Votes: 1

It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it. Votes: 1

...theology waits as it works. It waits for its lungs again to be filled. Without the renewing breath of the Spirit it cannot speak. Votes: 1

We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love. Votes: 1

We are fools, not by our religious beliefs,however by what we are lead to believe by those who control what information we receive Votes: 1

Every time we mention God we become theologians, and the only question is whether we are going to be good ones or bad ones. Votes: 1

The most total opposite of pleasure is not pain but boredom, for we are willing to risk pain to make a boring life interesting. Votes: 1

Metagapism is the belief that love is the ultimate reality, literally god and the one shared soul, and the source, nature and destiny of all. Votes: 1

Jesus never spoke of truth in abstraction, as something that stands alone. Jesus always spoke of truth in relation to God being revealed through himself. Votes: 1

To its critics, the study of theology distracts from real life. But, at its best, theology inspires and informs precisely the committed and caring ministry. Votes: 1

I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child who...prayed..with...unexpiated tears to 'dear,kind God! Votes: 1

At the cross, Jesus subjects himself to disability, and his resurrected body continues to bear his scars as a sign of God's solidarity with humanity. Votes: 1

The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God. (City of God, Book 19) Votes: 1

After the evil spirit of a narrow Scholastic orthodoxy has been driven out, in the end seven much more wicked spirits return in its place. Votes: 1

Before we apply Joshua to our lives, we need to make sure which side of the Jordan we are living on. Militarism invites God's wrath. Votes: 1

I do not think either virginity or old age contemptible, and some of the shrewdest minds I have met inhabited the bodies of old maids. Votes: 1

A God who punishes disobedience will teach us to obey and endure when it would be holy to protest and righteous to refuse to cooperate. Votes: 1

Scripture was given to the church, and theology is a necessary work of the church, by the church, in the church, and for the church. Votes: 1

If you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will train yourself to be a good skeptic. Votes: 1

Knowing nature is part of knowing God. Faith directs us to the invisible God, but leads us back from God to the entire visible world. Votes: 1

Once humanity discovers what's behind the mirror of all the ruling class of governments and religions there will be a new beginning of justice called Enlightenment. Votes: 1

Most theists are deists most of the time, in practice if not in theory. They practice the absence of God instead of the presence of God. Votes: 1

When I realize that God makes his gifts fit each person, there's no way I can covet what you got because it just wouldn't fit me. Votes: 1

It is through your experience you find out who you really are and who you are is from finding your own experience who really defines you. Votes: 1

A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it. Votes: 1

The 2 extremes, neither one worse than the other: the result of bad religion is self-loathing and violence; the result of bad spirituality is self-worship and narcissism. Votes: 1

The evangelist is the world's hopeless romantic, and just like a hopeless romantic, he must hope for the miracle of God more than the romance itself. Votes: 1

The only truths worth arguing about are those truths that could prevent or lead to circumstances that may bite us in the rear sooner or later. Votes: 1

Theological formation is the gradual and often painful discovery of God's incomprehensibility. You can be competent in many things, but you cannot be competent in God. Votes: 1

The connection between art and Christ is like the connection between sunlight and the sun. It is, in fact, the connection between Sonlight and the Son. Votes: 1

She knew that it was better to have a dream and pay a price for it than to be lukewarm. - regarding St. Teresa of Avila Votes: 1

...Jesus responds to almost every question he's asked with...a question."What do you think? How do you read it?" he asks, again and again and again. Votes: 1

For Christians . . . an unreflective faith is not possible if we take seriously the injunction to love God with the mind as well as the heart and soul. Votes: 1

The importance of Man, which is the one indispensable dogma of the theologians, receives no support from a scientific view of the future of the solar system. Votes: 1

do something from nothing for nothing is nothing unless it is made something. There is always something common with something and nothing and that is the 'thing Votes: 1

Anytime you meditate, some electric jerks occur in your thigh...the symbol of premonition of an unpleasant event that has happened or will take place in future. Votes: 1

I wonder how many people have been killed, tortured, and in some cases cannibalized, all because certain Christians (mis)applied the book of Joshua to their lives. Votes: 1

How can one maintain a theological confidence in what one claims to be _true_ while acknowledging the existence of multiple religions that also claim to be _true_? Votes: 1

How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask-half our great theological and metaphysical problems-are like that. Votes: 1

Truth is, something exists, and everything exists for a reason. Regardless if the reason is known or unknown, knowable or unknowable, reason exists and can be named. Votes: 1

I write with the entire alphabet, not just the popular letters.Readers don't want to lose themselves in the text. They want to find themselves in it. Votes: 1

How easy it is to read the Scriptures and give a kind of nominal assent to the truth and yet never to appropriate what it tells us! Votes: 1

Never think that you need to protect God. Because anytime you think you need to protect God, you can be sure that you are worshipping an idol. Votes: 1

Do I need to wriggle my breasts at you again?""No, please. I don't know if I'd be able to stand the theological debate that would follow. Votes: 1

How do you give something away with the knowledge that you will get it back in three days, and then claim it to be the 'Ultimate Sacrifice'? Votes: 1

It's not about whether or not someone is a bigot, but whether or not the argument which that someone is arguing is worth being a bigot about. Votes: 1

If we are to be biblical, then, the issue is not whether we should have a doctrine of predestination or not, but what kind we should embrace. Votes: 1

We can no more assist the Holy Spirit in the quickening of our souls to spiritual life than Lazarus could help Jesus raise him from the dead. Votes: 1

I enjoy poetry where I can talk as bizarre as I please, but theology or philosophy, I always respect the truth by taking it a step further. Votes: 1

I recall hearing one of my professors in seminary say that one of the best tests of a person's theology was the effect it has on one's prayers. Votes: 1

God impressed me with this a long time ago: 'Roddy, I will never do anything through you until I have done it to you!'."~R. Alan Woods [1998] Votes: 1

With what dread and apprehension we entrust important jobs into the hands of others. Imagine the love of a needless God who is willing to want our work. Votes: 1

Atheism is a lack of belief...what about the powers of darkness, and that of light, will you trace both to nothing? Then you must have created yourself. Votes: 1

Where neither go wrong, the naive only see the world as a victim of bad doctrine; the cynic only sees good doctrine as a victim of the world. Votes: 1

God wants us to humbly and sincerely ask him things. How often do you enjoy people talking about you without taking the time to get to know you? Votes: 1

I believe theology should be about one's way of life, a kind of gaze into onesself and others, and a mode of one's profound existence in the world. Votes: 1

When you find that a theology has nothing more to offer than what the world already offers, then that theology as a theology is impractical, and therefore, useless. Votes: 1

It would behoove you to have your thesis finely tuned and the logical arguments utilized in support of it tightly woven into a credible, and creatively persuasive tapestry. Votes: 1

I want you to see persecution and opposition and slander and misunderstanding and disappointment and self-recrimination and weakness and danger as the normal portion of faithful pastoral ministry. Votes: 1

Meditation turns from its purgatory role to recognize in self-knowledge and in the mind's images of the external world the general essences in which all things have their being. Votes: 1

A big part of me needed something outside myself to tell me who I was. The thing that had been designed to tell me who I was was gone. Votes: 1

However statistically improbable the entity you seek to explain by invoking a designer, the designer himself has got to be at least as improbable. God is the Ultimate Boeing 747. Votes: 1

To limit the ways our daughters can legitimately function as stewards/rulers further devalues the image of God in them and continues the imbalance and distortion of God's plan. Votes: 1

If tribulation is a necessary element in redemption, we must anticipate that it will never cease till God sees the world to be either redeemed or no further redeemable. Votes: 1

My confidence is in the idea that I may be wrong on this or that. No man in this life should ever have to bear the burden of perfection. Votes: 1

Here I stand, so help me God, I can do no other. With the greater consciousness of the issues involved comes a lesser assurance that an alternative is possible. Votes: 1

Can any one deny that the old Israelites conceived Jahveh not only in the image of a man, but in that of a changeable, irritable, and, occasionally, violent man? Votes: 1

The lust of the flesh directs these desires [of personal union], however, to satisfaction of the body, often at the cost of a real and full communion of persons. Votes: 1

To so many people, the Lord is in danger of being no more than a patron saint of our systematic theology instead of the Christ who is our life. Votes: 1

Its helpful to know the reasons for our faith...it helps us not be so vulnerable to doubt, and it helps us not be so vulnerable to false doctrine. Votes: 1

The gospel is the gospel of the cross. This means that God loves the objects of his wrath and that he, in his love, embraces men alienated from him. Votes: 1

No man that ever lived, not John Calvin himself, ever asserted either original sin, or justification by faith, in more strong, more clear and express terms, than Arminius has done. Votes: 1

The Marxist thus finds himself in real agreement with the Christian in those two beliefs which Christianity paradoxically demands - that poverty is blessed and yet ought to be removed. Votes: 1

Faith without reason produces a mindless Christianity which is less than useless; the focus on justice in this world produces a theology that chases its own tail."~R. Alan Woods [2013] Votes: 1

If you live in such a manner as to stand the test of the last judgment, you can depend upon it that the world will not speak well of you. Votes: 1

God, Lincoln believed, is seen more clearly events that in nature, though He maybe seen there also. It is a majestic thing, thought Lincoln, for a person to be RESPONSIBLE. Votes: 1

Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him? Votes: 1

God gives us not only the truth but also the ability to believe it; not only the new thing to see but also the new eye to see it with. Votes: 1

Beyond all sciences, philosophies, theologies, and histories, a child's relentless inquiry is truly all it takes to remind us that we don't know as much as we think we know. Votes: 1

It is you I foreknew and have predestined for such a time as this. Just as My heart has so eagerly chosen you, William Ore, you must also choose me. Votes: 1

Creation exists to be a place for the covenant that God wants to make with man. The goal of creation is the covenant, the love story of God and man. Votes: 1

I have found so many angels trapped inside undisputed jargon that I find myself digging at the words, in order to release them, from the books that unfairly captured their soul. Votes: 1

Peruse all the sermons of Jesus and you will be sure to find parables, and sometimes allegory. What you will always find, however, is something of keeping our hearts in order. Votes: 1

All life is bound to a simple truth... that time goes on, that in each person's life begins a tale, a tale that will either end in memory or in legend. Votes: 1

Evil is powerful, but good is more powerful. In fact, evil is so powerful that only good has the power to overcome evil. Darkness can be driven away only by light. Votes: 1

What the Father gives is the capacity to be a self, freedom, and thus autonomy, but an autonomy which can be understood only as a surrender of self to the other. Votes: 1

...if you give such a creature two blows with a whip, there are, indeed, two pains: but there is no co-ordinating self which can recognise that 'I have had two pains'. Votes: 1

A time will come in your life, William, where your faith will be tested... and you must stay faithful to the word and vision that the All-Father has given to you. Votes: 1

She tried to argue, and tell him that he had mixed in his dull brain two matters, theology and morals, which in the primitive days of mankind had been quite distinct. Votes: 1

The question is not, therefore, _whether_ a theory is grand or small, or whether it is universal/global or particular/local, but _what function_ a theory plays and _whose interest_ it serves. Votes: 1

We must learn to accept ourselves in the painful experiment of living. We must embrace the spiritual adventure of becoming human, moving through the many stages that lie between birth and death. Votes: 1

If there is no friendship with them [the poor] and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals. Votes: 1

Once people get hung up on theology, they've lost sanity forever. More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ than any other name in the history of the world. Votes: 1

He (Lincoln) recognized the delicate balance between immanence and transcendence, refusing to settle for either of these alone. His was a God who was both in the world and above the world. Votes: 1

. . . the mysteries, on belief in which theology would hang the destinies of mankind, are cunningly devised fables whose origin and growth are traceable to the age of Ignorance, the mother of credulity. Votes: 1

Pilate's skeptical sneer "What is truth?" was addressed to Truth Himself, standing there right in front of his face. The world's stupidest question was three words; God's profoundest answer was one Word. Votes: 1

Our comfort in theological traditions should never usurp our desire for spiritual Truth. If we vigorously pursue the rituals rather than a relational experience with God then we've missed His message entirely. Votes: 1

Cosmopolitan discourse is in a way a response to the issue of solidarity. Although the precondition for solidarity can be a _community_, solidarity requires more intentional commitment and performance than does community. Votes: 1

By the way, if you get mad at your Mac laptop and wonder who designed this demonic device, notice the manufacturer's icon on top: an apple with a bite out of it. Votes: 1

Some people's theologies come across as blatantly wrong when weighed against what is revealed in Scripture. However God has mercy on those who may be wrong but genuinely seek understanding before seeking themselves. Votes: 1

The disruption of science is one which abandons the method and seeks to conquer grounds outside its territory. It is not at all religion but this pseudo-science that is the enemy of science. Votes: 1

The last thing Scripture should do is make you blind in the world. Instead, you hear everything, see everything, and feel everything because everything just so happens to point right back to it. Votes: 1

It is because baptism is a real insertion of human beings into the ascended manhood of Christ that the Church is Christ's own body, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones. Votes: 1

If only the Geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful Hammers! I hear the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses Votes: 1

Me? You are laughing at me. Put your hand here. This has no theology.' I mocked myself while I made love. I flung myself into pleasure like a suicide on to a pavement. Votes: 1

He [Omar Khayyam] is an atheist, but knows how to interpret in orthodox style the most difficult passages of the Koran; for every educated man is a theologian and faith is not a requisite. Votes: 1

Wherever there is abuse there is also corruption. Politics, philosophy, theology, science, industry, any field with the potential to affect the well-being of others can be destroyed by abuse and saved by good will. Votes: 1

Here (in Thomas Aquinas) is the mind that prepared the way for the scientific and industrial revolutions. Here is the mind that was Catholic enough to embrace any good idea, from wherever it came. Votes: 1

If what they say is right we're none of us going to have time to do all that we planned to do. But we can keep on doing it as long as we can. Votes: 1

Sacraments are like hoses. They are the channels of the living water of God's grace. Our faith is like opening the faucet. We can open it a lot, a little, or not at all. Votes: 1

Heresy is usually quite sophisticated, actually has a meaning, and is to be taken very seriously. It is therefore to be carefully distinguished from turgid, pretentious, badly-written Bullsgeshichte, to use the technical German theological term. Votes: 1

Those who meet Jesus always experience either joy or its opposites, either foretastes of Heaven or foretastes of Hell. Not everyone who meets Jesus is pleased, and not everyone is happy, but everyone is shocked. Votes: 1

How does "Let go and let God" measure up against Scripture? Remember, the test isn't what sounds deep, what sounds holy, or even what makes sense to us. For the Christian, the test is Scripture. Votes: 1

It is easy, out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, 'I couldn't help it; the way was set.' But think of the glory of the choice! Votes: 1

Human was simultaneously the bearer of God's wise rule into the world, and also the creature who would bring the loyalty and praise of that creation for its Creator into love, speech, and conscious obedience. Votes: 1

If I love a dose of (good) theology or philosophy, I probably also love discipline, improvement, wisdom, and challenges. If I hate it, I am probably too comfortable and proud to try to question myself. Votes: 1

The more rigid and exclusive one makes the border between philosophy and theology, the more that distinction itself has to fall on the side of theology, and the more inaccessible that very distinction becomes to philosophy Votes: 1

We are talking about a bet, remember, and Pascal wasn't claiming that his wager enjoyed anything but very long odds. Would you bet on God's valuing dishonestly faked belief (or even honest belief) over honest scepticism? Votes: 1

The politics of trans-identity seeks to move from the _politics of singular identity_ to the _politics of multiple solidarities_ across various identities without abandoning one's personal attachments and commitments to the group that one finds significant. Votes: 1

And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of of that order was to give room for good things to run wild. Votes: 1

Our culture has filled our heads but emptied our hearts, stuffed our wallets but starved our wonder. It has fed our thirst for facts but not for meaning or mystery. It produces "nice" people, not heroes. Votes: 1

Being that 'reason is not antithetical to faith' (Woods) and that Pentecost established the Reality of super-nature (Lewis) and that 'theology matters' (Wimber), then 'empowered evangelicalism' (Nathan) is the natural expression of discipleship."~R. Alan Woods [2013] Votes: 1

I believe _cosmopolitanism_ can be an effective discourse with which to advocate a politics of _transidentity_ of overlapping interests and heterogeneous or hybrid subjects in order to challenge conventional notions of exclusive belonging, identity and citizenship. Votes: 1

No matter what God's power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself. Votes: 1

I cannot encourage any fabrication even for the sake of making people feel good. If I were to fabricate consciously and knowingly, I would not only be ordaining myself their enemy, but also ordaining myself God's enemy. Votes: 1

The evil and suffering in this world are greater than any of us can comprehend. But evil and suffering are not ultimate. God is. Satan, the great lover of evil and suffering, is not sovereign. God is. Votes: 1

God has disclosed himself in descriptive terms that give us enough information to be able to know who he is, and he has hidden enough of himself for us to learn the balance between faith and reason. Votes: 1

The wrong approaches to faith and to skepticism are equally detrimental to the path. For the former declares its answers too soon and is later found false; the latter rejects sound answers altogether and hashes itself useless. Votes: 1

Cosmopolitan theology affirms and radicalizes the belief that the Divine creates each and every human being as equal to every one else as a _citizen-of-the-cosmos and that no one is either superior or inferior to the other. Votes: 1

The heart is like a woman, and the head is like a man, and although man is the head of woman, woman is the heart of man, and she turns man's head because she turns his heart. Votes: 1

To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are. Votes: 1

Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life." Paul Tillich Votes: 1

You are not blamed for your unwilling ignorance, but because you fail to ask about what you do not know.... For no one is prevented from leaving behind the disadvantage of ignorance and seeking the advantage of knowledge. Votes: 1

It helps to not confuse theological philosophers with evangelists. There is a difference but objectively neither better than the other: an evangelist's mission is to convert; a theological philosopher's mission is to build an understanding of a position. Votes: 1

If your life is Christ, then your death will be only more of Christ, forever. If your life is only Christlessness, then your death will be only more Christlessness, forever. That's not fundamentalism, that's the law of non-contradiction. Votes: 1

I am not aligned in my thinking with Calvinism, neither am I aligned in my thinking with Arminianism. I have proposed a more 'Wholeistic' theology encompassing the 'both/and' in the context Objective Truth & Reality". ~R. Alan Woods [2012] Votes: 1

The idea that reason and rationality is somehow separate from and antithetical to ones ' heart' is one of the most absurd theologies I have ever in my life heard." ~R. Alan Woods ("Just Keeping It Real", Copyright 2012) Votes: 1

At best we are but clay, animated dust; but viewed as sinners, we are monsters indeed. Let it be published in heaven as a miracle that the Lord Jesus should set His heart's love upon people like us. Votes: 1

Setting the stage for the Tower of Babel, the author says that, while humanity had a mission to reflect God, it had been distracted by its own reflection and was both fascinated and fearful of what it saw. Votes: 1

No one book of scripture can be understood by itself, any more than any one part of a tree or member of the body can be understood without reference to the whole of which it is a part. Votes: 1

It is closer to the truth to say that God is crazy than that God is reasonable. I suspect God merely smiles when someone calls him crazy, but shakes His head and frowns when someone calls Him reasonable. Votes: 1

...we are to be lights in the world. It is God's business to light us, to set us on the lampstand, and to bring the people into the house. Our only duty is to shine forth with the gospel. Votes: 1

Only the Christian religion, which in its essence is communicated by the eternal child of God, keeps alive in its believers the lifelong awareness of their being children, and therefore of having to ask and give thanks for things. Votes: 1

Of Course God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is)... Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him. Votes: 1

Sola scriptura means at least this: that the church's proclamation is always subject to potential correction from the canon. It is for this reason that we resist simply collapsing the text into the tradition of its interpretation and performance. Votes: 1

In contrast, the a/theistic approach can be seen as a form of disbelieving what one believes, or rather, believing in God while remaining dubious concerning what one believes about God (a distinction that fundamentalism is unable to maintain). Votes: 1

A theology that cannot be sung is not worth having.... Authentic Christian faith is not merely believed. Nor is it merely acted upon. It is sung - with utter joy sometimes, in uncontrollable tears sometimes, but it is sung. Votes: 1

To say on the authority of the Bible that God does a thing no honourable man would do, is to lie against God; to say that it is therefore right, is to lie against the very spirit of God. Votes: 1

Nonviolent action on behalf of justice is no automatic forumla with promise of success: but neither is war. After all, at least half of the people who go to war for some cause deemed worthy of it are defeated. Votes: 1

Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God's word, but testify to it. Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer Votes: 1

Simply to render oneself able to understand what other Christian thinkers have themselves come to understand and to more or less felicitously communicate requires that one's mind not be a blank slate but already properly formed, disciplined, and exercised. Votes: 1

Just as the church needs members with different skills, our world must have various forms of labor, interdependent and thus valuable. A world full of ministers would be without churches, bread for the Lord's Supper, and printed Bibles to read. Votes: 1

As Plato: We become more worthy the more we bend our minds to the impersonal. We become better as we take in the universe, thinking more about the largeness that it is and laugh about the smallness that is us. Votes: 1

In Christ, for the first time, we see that in God himself there exists--within his inseparable unity--the distinction between the Father who gives and the Gift which is given (the Son), but only in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Votes: 1

Protestants believe that the sacraments are like ladders that God gave to us by which we can climb up to Him. Catholics believe that they are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us. Votes: 1

Theologians and other clerks, You won't understand this book, -- However bright your wits -- If you do not meet it humbly, And in this way, Love and Faith Make you surmount Reason, for They are the protectors of Reason's house. Votes: 1

We imagine that our theological/conceptual systems are the means by which we know God as God is. I truly believe that such postures and perspectives put us in danger of conceptual idolatry, worshiping our ideas of and frameworks for God. Votes: 1

Truly, I've learned more theology living in poor neighborhoods than in classrooms. At times I wonder if the questions of traditional theology have any meaning for the poor. And "the poor" here mean eighty percent of the population! (Ivone Gebara, p. 209) Votes: 1

We tend to believe that God's commands are given to us merely for our own sake. But this is not true. As those created in the image of God, our very nature as image bearers explains the reasons behind God's commands. Votes: 1

We're very familiar with the idea that some things are so complex they're beyond our comprehension. This not only keeps us solving and experimenting but also distracted. Many things are really so simple we can't see them under our big noses. Votes: 1

...the operative idea here is that there is a right and wrong theology -- a right God and a wrong God. But this is an invalid premise. All versions of God are the same thing: A HUMAN INTERPRETATION OF THE UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS. Votes: 1

Christianity tells us we have free will. God has provided man with a choice whether to believe in Him or not. If God's existence were logically inescapable, there would be no free will to choose whether or not to believe in Him. Votes: 1

The Church does not dispense the sacrament of baptism in order to acquire for herself an increase in membership but in order to consecrate a human being to God and to communicate to that person the divine gift of birth from God. Votes: 1

In learning and argumentation, the quality brain is similar to a facility of maximum security. What passes the logic test, free of fallacy and pretense, then must pass the test of biblical accuracy in order to proceed as an adopted, reliable truth. Votes: 1

The study of truth requires a considerable effort - which is why few are willing to undertake it out of love of knowledge - despite the fact that God has implanted a natural appetite for such knowledge in the minds of men. Votes: 1

To know myself as woman in the image of God to know God as Mother and to know my own mother as a window into God: these three are inseparable.If one is implausible to the heart the other two are as well. Votes: 1

The human spirit is so utterly one with the body that the term "form" can be used of the body and retain its proper meaning. Conversely, the form of the body is spirit, and this is what makes the human being a person. Votes: 1

Cosmopolitanism has offered me an ethical perspective and a conceptual framework with which to read the _signs of our times_ as a theologian and intellectual who has a public responsibility for constantly offering a way to engage in this rapidly changing public world. Votes: 1

The church is biblical, therefore, when it seeks to embody the words in the power of the Spirit and so become a living commentary. The church is thus not only the "people of the book" but also "the (lived) interpretation of the book. Votes: 1

What a chimera then is man! What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sewer of uncertainty and error, the glory and the scum of the universe. Votes: 1

It occurs to me that my thinking has been faulty: we do not feel God's absence. We feel the absence of all that is lost to God, that which has set itself apart and refuses to return, believing itself to be in exile. Votes: 1

If we were to suppose that mankind never can or will be in a better condition, it seems impossible to justify by any kind of theodicy the mere fact that such a race of corrupt beings could have been created on earth at all. Votes: 1

If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now. Votes: 1

now the question we must ask is...what kind of _practices_ [theology] motivates, what kind of _gaze_ onto others, the guest, the new arrivant, it offers us to carry with us; _not_ who my neighbors are _but_ to whom I am being a neighbor. Votes: 1

It would be unjust toward children to introduce them to Christian teaching and existence only as little pagans and catechumens, in order to leave it up to them to choose the Faith on their own responsibility at a point in time difficult to determine. Votes: 1

This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before. Votes: 1

Indeed, a quick glance around this broken world makes it painfully obvious that we don't need more arguments on behalf of God; we need more people who live as if they are in covenant with Unconditional Love, which is our best definition of God. (p. 21) Votes: 1

Your theology won't always work toward your obedience, because your use of theology is dictated by the condition of your heart. If your heart is not submitting to the plan of God, you will actually use your theology to justify things that should not be justified. Votes: 1

What gave you this idea of an imperfect god?''I don't know. It seems quite feasible to me. That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not a redemption, who saves nothing, fulfills no purpose--a god who simply is. Votes: 1

I fear that much of the Christianity that surrounds us assumes our task is to save appearances by protecting God from Job-like anguish. But if God is the God of Jesus Christ, then God does not need our protection. What God demands is not protection, but truth. Votes: 1

Grace is costly because it calls us through our person to the person of Jesus Christ. And when we follow the person of Jesus Christ, when we follow his call through our person, we're sent to act for the concrete person of our neighbor in the world. Votes: 1

For you, my darlings, freedom to do what you like is the discovery of how unlikable what you like to do makes you. Not that that stops you doing what you like, since you like doing what you like more than you like liking what you do...[Lucifer] Votes: 1

She had experimented with Wicca eight years ago, found that her spells did not produce the desired results of making her every bully bald and fat, and threw it in the corner of her soul as effete and impractical, as she had with a series of other theological outfits. Votes: 1

Woe to us if we get our satisfaction from the food in the kitchen and the TV in the den and the sex in the bedroom with an occasional tribute to the cement blocks in the basement! God wills to be displayed and known and loved and cherished and worshiped. Votes: 1

My father was a better bricklayer than I am a theologian. I am still in too much of a hurry. But if the work I have done in theology is of any use, it is because of what I learned on the job, that is, you can lay only one brick at a time. Votes: 1