After the great example of St. Thomas, the principle stands - that we must either not argue with a man at all, or we must argue on his grounds and not on ours.
Book: St. Thomas Aquinas
When he seemed to stand up as a stubborn Aristotelian hardly distinguishable from the Arabian heretics, I do seriously believe that what protected him was very largely the prodigious power of his simplicity and his obvious goodness and love of truth.
Book:
Granted all the grandeur of Augustine’s contribution to Christianity, there is a more subtle danger in Augustine the Platonist than even in Augustine the Manichee. There came from it a mood which unconsciously committed the heresy of dividing the substance of the Trinity. It thought of God too exclusively as a Spirit who purifies or a Savior who redeems; and too little as a Creator who creates. That is why Aquinas thought it right to correct Plato by an appeal to Aristotle; Aristotle who took things as he found them, just as Aquinas accepted things as he found them. In the world of St. Thomas the world of positive creation is perpetually present. Humanly speaking, it was he who saved the human element in Christian theology, if he used for convenience certain elements of heathen philosophy. Only, as has already been urged, the human element is also the Christian one.
Book: St. Thomas Aquinas
Some have expressed a prayerful desire to walk in the power of a “Resurrected” life. The prerequisite to such a walk, is dying to self. And dying to self is - - when you’re forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set aside and you don’t sting and hurt with the insult of the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ; when your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or to even defend yourself, but you take it all in patient, loving silence; when you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good words, or itch after commendations, when you truly love to be unknown; when you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and you can honestly rejoice with him and feel no envy, or question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances; and when you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart.
Are you dead yet?
Are you dead yet?
I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.
Book: Psalm 73: versus 22 -24 (New King James Bible)
Should a man be in error in supposing the Christian religion to be true, he could not be a loser by mistake. But how irreparable is his loss and how irresistible is his danger who should error in supposing it to be false (so called, Blaise Pascal’s Wager).
Speech: The Harvard Veritas Forum (1992)
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. (G. K. Chesterton)
Speech: The Harvard Veritas Forum (1992)
An un surrendered autonomy will not shake off the specter of doubt.
Speech: The Harvard Veritas Forum (1992)
Kierkegaard considers faith to be the most important of all human potentials, because he believes that an individual can only reach complete selfhood through faith.
Book: Kierkegaard
Existence is the child that is born of the infinite and the finite, the eternal and the temporal, and is therefore a constant striving. Kierkegaard claims that through the passion of faith it is possible to achieve a ‘happy relationship’ between human reason and paradox; but the rational mind has an imperialistic quality to it that resists any recognition or acknowledgment of its own limits.
It is for this reason that the rational mind finds the paradox of faith so offensive - faith threatens its position of ‘absolute power’ because at the same time that it rejects faith outright, there exists in the mind a shred of doubt. If this doubt is justified, then the rational mind can no longer lay claim to its supremacy, for something incomprehensible and far more powerful transcends it. What is interesting is that offense, like faith - is not rational.
It is for this reason that the rational mind finds the paradox of faith so offensive - faith threatens its position of ‘absolute power’ because at the same time that it rejects faith outright, there exists in the mind a shred of doubt. If this doubt is justified, then the rational mind can no longer lay claim to its supremacy, for something incomprehensible and far more powerful transcends it. What is interesting is that offense, like faith - is not rational.
Book: Kierkegaard
Existence is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, and the existing individual is both finite and infinite.
Book: Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard’s definition of truth is the objective uncertainty, held fast through appropriation with the most passionate inwardness, is the truth, the highest truth there is for an existing person.
The definition of truth stated above is a paraphrasing of faith. Without risk, no faith. Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith. If I want to keep myself in faith, I must continually see to it that I hold fast the objective uncertainty, see to it that in the objective uncertainty I am ‘out on 70,000 fathoms of water’ and still have faith.
The definition of truth stated above is a paraphrasing of faith. Without risk, no faith. Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith. If I want to keep myself in faith, I must continually see to it that I hold fast the objective uncertainty, see to it that in the objective uncertainty I am ‘out on 70,000 fathoms of water’ and still have faith.
Book: Kierkegaard
The church fills up those suffering that are still lacking to the whole Christ, …. her passion is the extension of Christ’s own passion and therefore an extension of his redemptive victory. By our willing acceptance of suffering, therefore, Christ continues to suffer in us and to work out to its completion through the centuries the effect of his redemptive act for the salvation of the human race performed once for all on Calvary (reference to Dom Bruno Webb, O.S.B., “Why Does God Permit Evil?” [Burns & Oates]).
Book: Spiritual Childhood The Spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux
To offer him, and herself in him, that he might offer himself and suffer in her, and that so the whole redemptive activity of the merciful love on Calvary might be worked out in her own soul–-that is what St. Therese MEANS BY OFFERING HERFSELF AS A LITTLE VICTIM OF THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD: little, because the more wholly she surrenders herself to the grace of her Baptism with the simple dependence of a little child, the more complete will be her offering, her conformity with Christ.
Book: Spiritual Childhood The Spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux
You’re not making Christianity better, you’re just making rock and roll worse.
TV: King of the Hill
I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature… Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make half the world fools and half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world.
I am, who I am
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean livin’.”
I’m whispering “I was lost,
Now I’m found and forgiven.”
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride
I’m confessing that I stumble and
need Christ to be my guide
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong
I’m professing that I’m weak and
need His strength to carry on
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success
I’m admitting I have failed and
need God to clean my mess
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect
My flaws are far too visible but
God believes I am worth it
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou
I’m just a simple sinner who received
God’s good grace, somehow
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean livin’.”
I’m whispering “I was lost,
Now I’m found and forgiven.”
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride
I’m confessing that I stumble and
need Christ to be my guide
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong
I’m professing that I’m weak and
need His strength to carry on
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success
I’m admitting I have failed and
need God to clean my mess
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect
My flaws are far too visible but
God believes I am worth it
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou
I’m just a simple sinner who received
God’s good grace, somehow
Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to the garage makes you a car.