Theology Quotes - Page 24

• When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics.

  Frank J. Tipler

  Christian, Dream, Atheist

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• The scientist who yields anything to theology, however slight, is yielding to ignorance and false pretenses, and as certainly as if he granted that a horse-hair put into a bottle of water will turn into a snake.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Horse, Ignorance

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• Witchcraft offers the model of a religion of poetry, not theology. It presents metaphors, not doctrines, and leaves open the possibility of reconciliation of science and religion, of many ways of knowing.

  Starhawk

  Knowing, Doctrine, Way

  Starhawk (1999). “Spiral Dance: Slipcase”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• I believe that many who find that "nothing happens" when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.

  C. S. Lewis

  Believe, Book, Heart

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.223, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• The question rather is how we should do science and theology in light of the impending collapse of Enlightenment rationalism and scientific naturalism. These ideologies are on the way out. They are on the way out.

  William A. Dembski

  Light, Way, Should

  William A. Dembski (2002). “Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology”, p.14, InterVarsity Press

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• Theology recognizes the contingency of human existence only to derive it from a necessary being, that is, to remove it. Theology makes use of philosophical wonder only for the purpose of motivating an affirmation which ends it. Philosophy, on the other hand, arouses us to what is problematic in our own existence and in that of the world, to such a point that we shall never be cured of searching for a solution.

  Maurice Merleau-Ponty

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Hands

  Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1988). “In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays”, p.44, Northwestern University Press

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• The capacity for the accomplishment of religious virtuosos the "intellectual sacrifice" is the decisive characteristic of the positively religious man. That this is so is shown by the fact that in spite of (or rather in consequence) of theology (which unveils it) the tension between the value-spheres of "science" and the sphere of "the holy" is unbridgeable.

  Max Weber

  Religious, Sacrifice, Men

  Max Weber (2009). “From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology”, p.154, Routledge

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• Theology is like a map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God--experiences compared with which many thrills of pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further you must use the map.

  C. S. Lewis

  Christian, Confused, Real

  C.S. Lewis (1960). “Mere Christianity”

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• At best we are but clay, animated dust; but viewed as sinners, we are monsters indeed. Let it be published in heaven as a miracle that the Lord Jesus should set His heart's love upon people like us.

  Alistair Begg

  Jesus, Heart, Dust

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• Aristotle especially, both by speculation and observation... reached something like the modern idea of a succession of higher organizations from lower, and made the fruitful suggestion of "a perfecting principle" in Nature. With the coming in of Christian theology this tendency toward a yet truer theory of evolution was mainly stopped, but the old crude view remained.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Christian, Views, Organization

  Andrew Dickson White (2012). “A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom: From Creation to the Victory of Scientific and Literary Methods”, p.52, Transaction Publishers

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• In too many modern churches there is no emphasis on theology at all. There is a kind of justification by works or by keeping up with modern trends anything that will drag in a few more people.

  Robertson Davies

  People, Church, Trends

  "Conversations with Robertson Davies". Book by Robertson Davies, "Author Says Messiah Could Be a Woman", 1989.

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• Science may be weird and incomprehensible--more weird and less comprehensible than any theology--but science works. It gets results. It can fly you to Saturn, slingshotting you around Venus and Jupiter on the way. We may not understand quantum theory (heaven knows, I don't), but a theory that predicts the real world to ten decimal places cannot in any straightforward sense be wrong.

  Richard Dawkins

  Real, Heaven, Jupiter

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• Indians, of course, have no "theology," and indeed no word for the system of credulity in which the white priests arrange for God, who must be entirely bewildered by it, a series of excuses for his failures.

  Sinclair Lewis

  White, Excuse, Priests

  "The God-Seeker". Book by Sinclair Lewis. Chapter 41, 1949.

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• If I advance new views in Philosophy or Theology, I cannot expect to have many adherents among minds altogether unprepared for such views; yet it is certain that even those who most fiercely oppose me will recognize the power of my voice if it is not a mere echo; and the very novelty will challenge attention, and at last gain adherents if my views have any real insight.

  George Henry Lewes

  Real, Philosophy, Views

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• I would say that teleology is theology, and that God is not a "because," but rather an "in order to.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  Order

  "San Manuel Bueno, Mártir". Book by Miguel de Unamuno, 1933.

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• Moral Teleology supplies the deficiency in physical Teleology , and first establishes a Theology ; because the latter, if it did not borrow from the former without being observed, but were to proceed consistently, could only found a Demonology , which is incapable of any definite concept.

  Immanuel Kant

  Firsts, Moral, Found

  Immanuel Kant (2015). “THE THREE CRITIQUES: The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason & The Critique of Judgment: The Base Plan for Transcendental Philosophy, The Theory of Moral Reasoning and The Critiques of Aesthetic and Teleological Judgment”, p.936, e-artnow

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• In Islamic theology, the phallic symbol is very important. Your biggest phallic symbol is New York City and your tallest building will be the phallic symbol they will hit.

  Isser Harel

  New York, Islamic, Cities

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• This withdrawal of theology from the world of secular affairs is made more complete by the work of biblical scholars whose endlessly fascinating exercises have made it appear to the lay Christian that no one untrained in their methods can really understand anything the Bible says. We are in a situation analogous to one about which the great Reformers complained. The Bible has been taken out of the hands of the layperson; it has now become the professional property not of the priesthood but of the scholars.

  Lesslie Newbigin

  Christian, Taken, Exercise

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• Science is a limited way of knowing, looking at just the natural world and natural causes. There are a lot of ways human beings understand the universe - through literature, theology, aesthetics, art or music.

  Eugenie Scott

  Art, Knowing, Atheism

  "PROFILE / EUGENIE SCOTT / Berkeley scientist leads fight to stop teaching of creationism" by Monica Lam, www.sfgate.com. February 7, 2003.

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• It seldom seems to strike the ultra-Darwinists that theology might have its own richness and subtleties, and might strange thought actually tell us things about the world that are not only to our real advantage, but will never be revealed by science.

  Simon Conway Morris

  Real, World, Might

  Simon Conway Morris (2003). “Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe”, p.316, Cambridge University Press

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• We’re seeking — imperfectly at every turn, no doubt — an incarnational theology, a theology that brings radical good news of great joy for all the people, good news that God loves the world and didn’t send Jesus to condemn it but to save it, good news that God’s wrath is not merely punitive but restorative, good news that the fire of God’s holiness is not bent on eternal torment but always works to purify and refine, good news that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

  Brian D. McLaren

  Jesus, Fire, Wrath

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• A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Religious, Attitude

  Albert Einstein (2011). “The World As I See It”, p.15, Open Road Media

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• In theology we must consider the predominance of authority; in philosophy the predominance of reason.

  Johannes Kepler

  Philosophy, Atheism, Reason

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• For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.

  Bill Moyers

  Firsts, Monopoly, First Time

  "On Bush, the Dems, Jon Stewart, Hunter Thompson, Bill Moyers, and King (not Don)" by John Cusack, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 11, 2005.

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• James 2:19- 'You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder.' God doesn't just want us to have good theology; He wants us to know and love Him.

  Francis Chan

  Believe, And Love, Want

  Francis Chan, Preston Sprinkle (2014). “The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply”, p.60, David C Cook

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