Dale C. Allison Jr. > Quotes

“If we are to believe anything, we must get used to disagreeing with lots of other people.”
― Allison Jr., Dale C., The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus

“Study of the historical Jesus belongs to the diversity and pluralism of modernity, or, if you prefer, postmodernity, and there can be no easy appeal to the consensus on much of anything. The biblical guild is not a group-mind thinking the same thoughts. Nor are the experts a single company producing a single product, "history." As Chesterton says somewhere: "There is no history; there are only historians." The unification of academic opinion would be almost as miraculous as the union of the churches. If you are holding your breath waiting for the consensus of the specialists, you will pass out.”
― Allison Jr., Dale C., The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus

“What good is an underinformed religious leader who is at a loss or dismissive in the face of mystical raptures, unexpected occurrences at deathbeds, visions of self-luminous figures, or encounters with dead loved ones?”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age

“First, although the evidence is woefully imperfect, it nonetheless suffices to establish, with a high degree of probability, that some of Jesus’ followers came to believe in his resurrection quite soon after his death.”
― Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History

“Yet recovering exactly what happened two thousand years ago is not easy. History appears to have taken a peculiar turn here. Although Pilate must have assumed that crucifixion would do away with Jesus, it did not. What unforeseen series of events undid the governor’s expectation? C. D. Broad was right: “something very queer must have happened soon after the crucifixion, which led certain of the disciples and St. Paul to believe that Jesus had survived in some supernatural way.”
― Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History

“Subjectivity undoubtedly is a prerogative of the Christian faith, which affirms a personal God-human relationship and not just subscription to a collectively held package of dogma or nominal participation in a religious or social institution.” —Klaus Bockmuehl”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age

“So we require a compelling vision that surpasses and so relativizes the contemporary moment, a vision that breaks our cultural hypnosis and moves us to hope for more than what we see, a vision that breeds impatience and keeps us ill-adjusted to so-called reality. We need the idealistic faith to move the mountains before us: commodity fetishism, oppressive governments, corrupting entertainment, narcissistic indifference.”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things

“TEXT 1.2 CURING BLINDNESS, INSCRIPTIONES GRAECAE, 4.1.121-22.18 (THIRD CENTURY B(r), ALCETAS OF HALLEIS
The blind man saw a dream. It seemed to him that the god [Asclepius] came up to him and with his fingers opened his eyes, and that he first saw the trees in the sanctuary. At daybreak he walked out sound.”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., The Historical Jesus in Context

“Mt. 27:51 has it, the earth shook not long after Jesus was laid to rest. Although the commentaries are unacquainted with the fact, seismological data reveal that a significant earthquake occurred in Judea near the time of Jesus’ crucifixion.”
― Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History

“Death is not one thing, and theology should not seek to reduce it to one thing. It is rather, like life, many different things.”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age

“Gregory of Nyssa observed, “most judge the credibility of what they hear according to the measure of their own experience, and what is beyond the power of hearers they insult with the suspicion of falsehood as outside the truth.”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age

“Self-perception is only partial perception, and while the passing of time dims memories, it can also unfold significance.”
― Allison Jr., Dale C., The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus

“most clergy perceive encounters with deceased relatives, angels, beings of light and celestial visions as nonsense.”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age

“If God being all in all is our future, and if God can't be comprehended, then our future can't be comprehended.”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things

“Skepticism about religious beliefs and experiences is, for many today, an integral part of what it means to be educated.”
― Dale C. Allison Jr., Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age

“These various stories concur on one thing: within a few days of Jesus’ death, some thought he had risen from the dead. The common conviction harmonizes with the synoptic passion predictions, which have Jesus rising on or after the third day. Since there is no trace of a competing story line, I infer that we have here not just a social memory but a likely historical fact. Within a week of the crucifixion, something—or some things—happened which Jesus’ friends took to signal his resurrection.123”
― Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History