Gregory A. Boyd Quotes

• Our central job is not to solve the world’s problems. Our job is to draw our entire life from Christ and manifest that life to others. Nothing could be simpler—and nothing could be more challenging.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Life, Christian, Jesus

  Gregory A. Boyd (2007). “The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church”, p.64, Zondervan

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• Our fundamental sin is that we place ourselves in the position of God and divide the world between what we judge to be good and what we judge to be evil. And this judgment is the primary thing that keeps us from doing the central thing God created us to do, namely, love like He loves.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Love, Evil, Judging

  Gregory A. Boyd (2004). “Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God”, p.17, Baker Books

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• Wondering whether Christianity is real is not the same as wondering whether Christianity is true. If you question the truth of Christianity, you can do something tangible about it. You can read books, take a class, or talk to someone about it. But what can you do when you're already convinced it's true but don't experience it as real?

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Real, Book, Class

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• I think our mental picture of God is the most important fact about our life. All other things being equal, the beauty of our life won't outrun the beauty of our vision of God. Unfortunately, the God that many Christians envision is not completely Christ-like, but is rather influenced by the violent depictions of God in the Old Testament.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Christian, Thinking, Vision

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• Love is the all-or-nothing of the kingdom of God. Above all we are to love (Col. 3:14; 1 Peter 4:8). Everything we do is to be done in love and, thus, communicate love (1 Cor. 16:14). We are to imitate God by living in Christlike love (Eph. 5:1–2), and if we do this, we fulfill the whole law (Matt. 22:37–40; Rom. 13:8–10). If we lack this, everything else we do is devoid of kingdom value, however impressive it might otherwise be (1 Cor. 13:1–3).

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Love Is, Law, Done

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• Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God as a radical alternative to all versions of the kingdom of the world, whether they declare themselves to be "under God" or not.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Jesus, Alternatives, World

  Gregory A. Boyd (2007). “The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church”, p.102, Zondervan

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• America wasn't founded as a theocracy. America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn't bloody and barbaric. That's why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Christian, America, People

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• It takes a greater God to steer a world populated with free agents than it does to steer a world of preprogrammed automatons.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Doe, Agents, World

  Gregory A. Boyd (2000). “God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God”, p.31, Baker Books

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• The sin that Jesus bore, and that we are now empowered to live free from, includes all the sinful warrior deity images humans throughout history have projected onto God. In this way, the cross is at one and the same time the definitive revelation of the true loving God and the "crucifixion of the warrior god". And just as we should forever revolt against the sin and that was permanently put to death on the cross, so too followers of Jesus should forever revolt against the sinful warrior image of God that was permanently put to death on the cross.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Jesus, Warrior, Forever

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• Jesus clearly believed in the reality of Satan and other principalities and powers. Now, I have very compelling historical, philosophical, and existential reasons for concluding that Jesus is Lord, and if I confess him to be Lord, I don't see how I can consider myself in a position to ever correct his theology, especially about such a foundational theological matter!

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Jesus, Philosophical, Reality

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• If we have the potential to oppress or slay millions, it’s because we also have the potential to liberate and love millions.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  And Love, Ifs, Millions

  Dr. Gregory A. Boyd (2010). “Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity”, p.34, David C Cook

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• If we fully trust that God is as beautiful as he reveals himself to be on the cross, we must regard the ugly surface appearance of these portraits to reflect the sinful way his people imagined God, not the way God actually is. But when we by faith look through the ugly surface of these portraits, we can see God stooping out of love to meet his people where they are at and to bear their sin, which is why in Scripture he takes on an ugly surface appearance that reflects the ugliness of their sin.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Beautiful, People, Ugly

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• The holiness of the kingdom of God must be preserved. If Jesus refused to acknowledge and fight for Israel as God's favored nation- even though it was the one nation in history that actually held this status at one time- how much more must his followers refuse to acknowledge and fight for America as God's favored nation" To say it another way, if Jesus was committed solely to establishing a kingdom that had no intrinsic nationalistic or ethnic allegiances- not even with Israel- how much more should his followers be committed to expanding this unique, non-nationalistic kingdom?

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Jesus, Fighting, Unique

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• So too, since Christ has in principle defeated the fallen "gods" (principalities and powers) who have for ages inspired injustice, cruelty and apathy toward the weak, the poor the oppressed and the needy (Ps. 82), the church can hardly carry out its role in manifesting, on earth and in heaven, Christ's victory over these gods without taking up as a central part of its missions just these causes. We can, in truth, no more bifurcate social concerns and individual salvation than we can bifurcate the cosmic and anthropocentric dimensions of Christ's work on the cross.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Heaven, Victory, Age

  Gregory A. Boyd (1997). “God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict”, p.254, InterVarsity Press

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• Adolf Hitler is simply the dark-side of Mother Teresa.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Mother, Dark, Sides

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• Accommodation is a central aspect of the cross-centered interpretation of violent portraits of God that I'm advocating. Like everything else in Cross Vision, this concept is anchored in the cross. On the cross, God stoops to meet us, and to enter into solidarity with us, right where we are at, which is in bondage to sin and to Satan. And he does this to free us and to bring us where he wants us to be, which is united with him in Christ. The cross is thus the paradigmatic example of God mercifully stooping to accommodate people in their fallen conditioning.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  People, Vision, Sin

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• [Those who accept] the Americanized, Constantinian paradigm [say:] We are of God; they are of the Devil. We are the light; they are the darkness. Our wars are therefore "holy" wars. With all due respect, this is blatant idolatry.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  War, Light, Darkness

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• Many who are convinced that God is non-violent simply dismiss the Old Testament accounts of God commanding or engaging in violence. I don't consider this to be a viable option, for Jesus treats the whole Old Testament as the inspired Word of God. My cross-centered interpretation of these violent portraits allows believers to affirm that God is non-violent while also affirming that all Scripture is "God-breathed.".

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Jesus, Scripture, Violence

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• I don't want to base my life on a symbol, he said resolutely. I want reality, and the Christian faith has always been rooted in reality. What's not rooted in reality is the faith of liberal scholars. They're the ones who are following a pipe dream, but Christianity is not a pipe dream.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Christian, Dream, Reality

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• Jesus expressed intense anger toward those who where immoral, such as the self-righteous Pharisees, but he never suggested that they were demonized. Toward the demonized, however, he never expressed anger; rather he exhibited only compassion. As Langton notes, "Pity rather than anger characterizes the attitude of Jesus toward the possessed...He treats them as if they were the victims of an involuntary possession." Indeed, he treats them as though they are casualties of war. For, in his view, this is precisely what they are.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Jesus, Attitude, War

  Gregory A. Boyd (2014). “God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict”, p.199, InterVarsity Press

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• I wondered if there was a way to teach people how to use their imaginations in prayer and worship. So I began reading books on cognitive therapy and neuroscience and started studying the devotional traditions of the church.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Prayer, Book, Reading

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• So these liberals say historical research can't possibly discover the Jesus of faith, because the Jesus of faith is not rooted in history. He's merely a symbol. But listen: Jesus is not a symbol of anything unless he's rooted in history. The Nicene Creed doesn't say, "We wish these things were true." It says, "Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and the third day he rose again from the dead,' and it goes on from there.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Jesus, Rose, Historical

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• Second, if you disbelieve in the reality of good and evil spirit agents, you fundamentally change the narrative of Scripture. The motif of spiritual warfare is a through-line of both the Old and New Testaments (NT). And in the NT, the meaning of what Jesus was doing in his life, ministry, death and resurrection is fundamentally tied up with the belief in spiritual warfare. Take away Satan, and you take away one of the most fundamental reasons Jesus came to earth!

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Spiritual, Jesus, Reality

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• When we interpret the violent portraits of God through the lens of the cross, we can see God doing in history what he did in a supreme way on Calvary. And this is how these violent divine portraits anticipate, and point us toward, the cross.

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Violent, Divine

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• Another form of prayer, called cataphatic, honors and reverences images and feelings and goes through them to God. This form of prayer also has an ancient and well-attested history in the world of religions. Any sort of prayer that highlights the mediation of creation can be called cataphatic. So, praying before icons or images of saints; the mediation of sacraments and sacramentals; prayer out in creation - all these are cataphatic forms of prayer

  Gregory A. Boyd

  Prayer, Icons, Feelings

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