Insofar as theology is an attempt to define and clarify intellectual positions, it is apt to lead to discussion, to differences of opinion, even to controversy, and hence to be divisive. And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias...
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Many man's scruples lie almost wholly about obedience to authority and compliance with indifferent customs, but very seldom about the read more
Many man's scruples lie almost wholly about obedience to authority and compliance with indifferent customs, but very seldom about the dangers of disobedience and unpeaceableness and rending in pieces the Church of Christ by needless separations and endless divisions.
The "great commitment" is so much easier than the ordinary, everyday one--and can all too easily shut our hearts to read more
The "great commitment" is so much easier than the ordinary, everyday one--and can all too easily shut our hearts to the latter. A willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice can be associated with, and even produce, a great hardness of heart.
As the genuine religious impulse becomes dominant, adoration more and more takes charge. "I come to seek God because I read more
As the genuine religious impulse becomes dominant, adoration more and more takes charge. "I come to seek God because I need Him", may be an adequate formula for prayer. "I come to adore His splendour, and fling myself and all that I have at His feet", is the only possible formula for worship.
By the quality of our inner lives I do not mean something characterized by ferocious intensity and strain. I mean read more
By the quality of our inner lives I do not mean something characterized by ferocious intensity and strain. I mean rather such a humble and genial devotedness as we find in the most loving of the saints. I mean the quality which makes contagious Christians, makes people catch the love of God from you.
I was confirmed in my conviction that when all the best scholarship is taken into account we can know Christ read more
I was confirmed in my conviction that when all the best scholarship is taken into account we can know Christ as He was in the days of His flesh. Although I became familiar with the contemporary and recent studies of honest, competent scholars who questioned them, I was convinced that the historical evidence confirms the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. Increasingly, I believed that the nearest verbal approach that we human beings can come to the great mystery is to affirm that Christ is both fully man and fully God. Although now we see Him not, yet believing, we can "rejoice with joy unspeakable" in what the Triune God has done and is doing through Him. This Good News, so rich that it is stated in a variety of ways, but always consistently, in the New Testament, is what we always imperfect children, but children [yet], are privileged -- and commanded -- to make known and to demonstrate to all mankind.
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry; Our earthly rulers falter, Our people read more
O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry; Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die; The walls of gold entomb us, The swords of scorn divide; Take not Thy thunder from us, But take away our pride. From all that terror teaches, From lies of tongue and pen; From all the easy speeches That comfort cruel men; From sale and profanation Of honor and the sword; From sleep and from damnation, Deliver us, good Lord! Tie in a living tether The prince and priest and thrall; Bind all our lives together, Smite us and save us all; In ire and exultation Aflame with faith, and free, Lift up a living nation, A single sword to Thee.
Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 Concluding a short series on the Bible: read more
Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 Concluding a short series on the Bible: The popular craving [for an English Bible] could not be stifled, and the sixteenth century saw the pioneering works of Tyndale and Coverdale; then, two years after Coverdale, the real "authorized version" appeared in 1537, when a mysterious translator called "Thomas Matthew" had his works not only dedicated to but licensed by Henry VIII. In the long run, what put the Bible into the hands of the common people was the influence exerted on public opinion and authority by the reformation of the church.
[Johannes] Brahms chose his own texts [for his German Requiem] from Luther's Bible to illustrate the Protestant conviction that man read more
[Johannes] Brahms chose his own texts [for his German Requiem] from Luther's Bible to illustrate the Protestant conviction that man must hear and respond to God's word in man's own language, and that every believer must be free to deal with the Biblical text apart from priestly veto... For the word "German" he would gladly have substituted the word "human" because he was concerned to comment on "the primary text of human existence," finding there, as in the Bible, the universal themes of suffering and joy.
