James Luther Adams Quotes

• Church is a place where you get to practice what it means to be human.

  James Luther Adams

  Mean, Practice, Church

  25 Copy quote

• An unexamined faith is not worth having, for it can be true only by accident.

  James Luther Adams

  Being True, Accidents

  James Luther Adams (1986). “The Prophethood of All Believers”, Beacon Press (MA)

  53 Copy quote

• I call that church free which enters into the covenant with the ultimate source of existence. It binds together families and generations, protecting against the idolatry of any human claim to absolute truth or authority.

  James Luther Adams

  Together, Church, Covenant

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• We are not a religious tradition with a creed, but a religious movement that has always wedded social justice work to theology

  James Luther Adams

  Religious, Justice, Movement

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• The faith of a church or of a nation is an adequate faith only when it inspires and enables people to give of their time and energy to shape the various institutions - social, economic, and political - of the common life.

  James Luther Adams

  Faith, People, Giving

  James Luther Adams (1976). “On being human religiously: selected essays in religion and society”, Beacon Press (MA)

  18 Copy quote

• Everyone is a theologian, either conscious or unconscious, in the sense that everyone has some conception of the nature of reality, of the demands of reality, and of those elements in reality that support or threaten meaningful existence.

  James Luther Adams

  Meaningful, Reality, Support

  17 Copy quote

• Religious liberalism affirms the moral obligation to direct one's effort toward the establishment of a just and *loving* community.

  James Luther Adams

  Religious, Effort, Community

  James Luther Adams (1976). “On being human religiously: selected essays in religion and society”, Beacon Press (MA)

  19 Copy quote

• Nothing is complete and thus nothing is exempt from criticism.

  James Luther Adams

  Criticism

  James Luther Adams (1976). “On being human religiously: selected essays in religion and society”, Beacon Press (MA)

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• The free person does not live by an unexamined faith. To do so is to worship an idol whittled out and made into a fetish.

  James Luther Adams

  Idols, Doe, Worship

  James Luther Adams (1986). “The Prophethood of All Believers”, Beacon Press (MA)

  9 Copy quote

• A good deal of so-called atheism is itself, from my point of view, theologically significant. It is the working of God in history, and judgement upon the pious. An authentic prophet can be a radical critic of spurious piety, of sham spirituality.

  James Luther Adams

  Views, Judgement, Atheism

  James Luther Adams (1986). “The Prophethood of All Believers”, Beacon Press (MA)

  10 Copy quote

• L]iberalism holds that the resources (divine and human) that are available for the achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate optimism

  James Luther Adams

  Meaningful, Attitude, Optimism

  James Luther Adams (1976). “On being human religiously: selected essays in religion and society”, Beacon Press (MA)

  12 Copy quote

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