Gary A. Anderson > Quotes

“For however much the Gateses might give away, their daily life remains, by and large, unaffected. They remain, in spite of this enormous donation, one of the wealthiest couples in the world. Mother Teresa, on the other hand, gave up everything to serve the poorest of the poor. Pinker”
― Gary A. Anderson, Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition

“Our own conceptions of creation are far more scientific in outlook, and we expect creation stories merely to disclose the rudiments of nature’s origins. Not so the ancients. They told creation stories with the primary purpose of providing a cosmic foundation for the meaning and purpose of human life.”
― Gary A Anderson, Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis

“And this is the key to the passion: like the brothers of Joseph, we reject the Elect One of Israel, but the Elect One does not reject us. And strikingly, it is precisely the culpability of the brothers or the disciples that allows them to experience and ponder the miracle of their forgiveness. As Robert Jenson so aptly puts it: “To the question ‘Who crucified Jesus?’ only the church is able to say, ‘We did.’ The [human] race in general must, in justice, say, ‘We were not there,’ and just so go its way.”30”
― Gary A Anderson, Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis

“Thomas Hieke puts the matter: “This dramatic narrative dispels the misunderstanding that one can compel God to behave in a certain way through human—or more exactly—ritual action.”
― Gary A Anderson, Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis

“For Ephrem, the one who makes a loan to God through almsgiving is not simply doing a human work—he is making a public testimony to his faith. On this view, alms are not so much a human work as they are an index of one’s underlying faith.”
― Gary A Anderson, Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis

“The preference for Abel over Cain, like that of Jacob over Esau, is grounded in the mystery of election, a domain of divine activity that is closed off to full human comprehension.”
― Gary A Anderson, Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis

“What is striking here is that we see what happens when our appointed Mosaic prophet does not rise to the accepted standard of his office. It is not the case that all bets are off and that God’s rage will now burst forth unchecked. In fact, God had the system rigged from the beginning. He was going to get Jonah to Nineveh no matter what.”
― Gary A Anderson, Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis