Theological Quotes - Page 7

• God has hardwired me to thoroughly enjoy and be sharpened by good and friendly theological discussion about the gospel.

  Tullian Tchividjian

  Friendly, Enjoy, Discussion

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• There must be no division by class hatred, whether this hatred be that of creed against creed, nationality against nationality, section against section, or men of one social or industrial condition against men of another social and industrial condition. We must ever judge each individual on his own conduct and merits, and not on his membership in any class, whether that class be based on theological, social, or industrial considerations.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Class, Judging

  Theodore Roosevelt (1913). “Theodore Roosevelt, an Autobiography”

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• I have long said there are three distinct groups under the GOP's tent: theological warriors, who want to impose their social views on the rest of society; Tea Party zealots, who say with a straight face that they want the government to get out of their Medicare; and remnants of the pro-business moderates.

  Eliot Spitzer

  Party, Warrior, Government

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• Given that sexual orientation is innate and that we are all, in theological terms, children of God, to deny access to some sacraments based on sexuality is as wrong as denying access to some sacraments based on race or gender.

  Jon Meacham

  Children, Race, Sexuality

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• Extremists often derive their inspiration from literal interpretations of texts that should rightly be read not as Associated Press reports from the ancient world, but as theological and literary enterprises requiring independent intellectual assessment.

  Jon Meacham

  Inspiration, Independent, Assessment

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• I do not have deep theological understanding or opinion, but I do not read the Bible as the literal word of God.

  Anne Lamott

  Understanding, Opinion, Word Of God

  "'Like a puppy in a Christmas stocking'". Interview With Susan Olasky, world.wng.org. September 20, 2003.

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• But now it's kind of a given that a 15-year-old would have a record deal and sell a quarter of a million records. No one's expecting her to answer any deep theological questions. And I'll tell you, I was asked some deep theological questions from the git-go.

  Amy Grant

  Years, Records, Answers

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• The first reason for the preponderant influence of those Evangelicals who define themselves as advocates of Religious Right theological and political ideologies is that they have both the financial means and technological know-how to make widespread use of modern electronic forms of communication.

  Tony Campolo

  Religious, Communication, Mean

  "Why the Religious Right Will Dominate" by Tony Campolo, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 4, 2010.

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• St. Paul would say to the philosophers that God created man so that he would seek the Divine, try to attain the Divine. That is why all pre-Christian philosophy is theological at its summit.

  Hans Urs von Balthasar

  Christian, Philosophy, Men

  Hans Urs von Balthasar (1993). “My Work: In Retrospect”, p.99, Ignatius Press

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• Knotty theological questions are the least worrying of problems to me. Why? Because they will be resolved in the hereafter, and meanwhile they can be safely shelved.

  Ken Follett

  Worry, Problem, Hereafter

  Ken Follett (2010). “The Pillars of the Earth”, p.866, Penguin

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• I want first of all - in fact, as an end to these other desires - to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact - to borrow from the language of the saints - to live 'in grace' as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony.

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

  Life, Spiritual, Peace

  "Gift from the Sea". Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

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• If someone were to ask whether communications skills or meekness is most important to a marriage, I'd answer meekness, hands down. You can be a superb communicator but still never have the humility to ask, 'Is it I?' Communication skills are no substitute for Christlike attributes. As Dr. Douglas Brinley has observed, 'Without theological perspectives, secular exercises designed to improve our relationship and our communication skills (the common tools of counselors and marriage books) will never work any permanent change in one's heart: they simply develop more clever and skilled fighters!

  John Bytheway

  Clever, Communication, Book

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• Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.

  C. S. Lewis

  Christian, Mean, Thinking

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.138, Simon and Schuster

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• We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Death, Atheist, Philosophy

  "Freedom From The Known" by Jiddu Krishnamurti, 1969.

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• Plain experience and common sense inform us that no abstract Person can have made us as we are without also wishing to delete us and start over (Gen. 8:21; Zeph. 1:2). Therefore, the existence of cruel and arbitrary nature, together with the universality of human sin, prevents us from beginning the theological enterprise with any concept of God that is distinct from revelation. All theologies of a cosmic harmonic principle shipwreck on the truths of tragedy, catastrophe, and injustice.

  Paul F. M. Zahl

  Common Sense, Starting Over, Together

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• The Christ within who is our hope of glory is not a matter of theological debate or philosophical speculation. He is not a hobby, a part-time project, a good theme for a book, or a last resort when all human effort fails. He is our life, the most real fact about us. He is the power and wisdom of God dwelling within us.

  Brennan Manning

  Real, Book, Philosophical

  Brennan Manning (2015). “Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging”, p.130, NavPress

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• I do not believe a person can take two issues from Scripture, those being abortion and gay marriage, and adhere to them as sins, then neglect much of the rest and call himself a fundamentalist or even a conservative. The person who believes the sum of his morality involves gay marriage and abortion alone, and neglects health care and world trade and the environment and loving his neighbor and feeding the poor is, by definition, a theological liberal, because he takes what he wants from Scripture and ignores the rest.

  Donald Miller

  Believe, Gay, Two

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• One of my realizations in such an earthy atmosphere was that many of the burning theological issues in the church were neither burning nor theological.

  Brennan Manning

  Issues, Atmosphere, Church

  Brennan Manning, John Blase (2011). “All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir”, p.101, David C Cook

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• We really have no choice but to pray and encourage a return to an America steeped in Judeo-Christian values. It is either that or taking our chances in a society with no values at all. For all Americans the former carries certain risks, but the latter spells certain doom. For now, we should not be deflected by theological debate from the life-saving tasks awaiting us. There is work to be done. We must ensure that America will continue to be part of God's plan for the world.

  Daniel Lapin

  Christian, America, Choices

  Rabbi Daniel Lapin (2012). “America's Real War”, p.526, Multnomah

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• [Recent evidence regarding quantum mechanics is] sufficient to rule out all theological options but one - the Bible's.

  Hugh Ross

  Scary, Mechanic, Quantum

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• Orthodox Judaism is a thicket of detailed injunctions, Biblical commandments elaborated during centuries of prohibited proselytizing, functioning to limit interaction with outsiders. At the opposite extreme, Islam, still the most rapidly expanding of faiths, demands little immediate knowledge from those who would convert. The convert is permitted to enter and then to learn by participation, although there are plenty of detailed regulations and abstruse theological ideas to be pursued later, and the regulations do effectively separate believers from nonbelievers.

  Mary Catherine Bateson

  Biblical, Opposites, Ideas

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• For God to be kept out of the classroom or out of America's public debate by nervous school administrators or overcautious politicians serves no one's interests. That restriction prevents people from drawing on this country's rich and diverse religious heritage for guidance, and it degrades the nation's moral discourse by placing a whole realm of theological reasoning out of bounds. The price of that sort of quarantine, at a time of moral dislocation, is - and has been - far too high.

  Nancy Gibbs

  Christian, Country, Religious

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• The prevailing notion is that the state should be neutral as to religion, and furthermore, that the best way to be neutral about it is to avoid all mention of it. By this sort of logic, nudism is the best compromise among different styles of dress. The secularist version of 'pluralism' amounts to theological nudism.

  Joseph Sobran

  Christian, Religious, Style

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• I care not for the theoretical symmetry and impregnable logic of your moral code, I care not for the hoary respectability and traditional mysticisms of your theological institutions, I care not for the beauty and solemnity of your rituals and religious ceremonies, I care not even for the reasonableness and unimpeachable fairness of your social ethics,--if it does not turn out better, nobler, truer, men and women,--if it does not add to the world's stock of valuable souls,--if it does not give us a sounder, healthier, more reliable product from this great factory of men--I will have none of it.

  Anna Julia Cooper

  Religious, Men, Giving

  Anna Julia Cooper, Charles C. Lemert, Esme Bhan (1998). “The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including A Voice from the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters”, p.187, Rowman & Littlefield

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• There are dozens of references to God in the Scriptures for every one to the figure of Satan. This reflects a sometimes forgotten theological truth that the devil is by no means God’s counterpart. He is a creature, not the Creator.

  John Ortberg

  Mean, Devil, Dozen

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