James W. Sire > Quotes

“Truth cannot be constructed. To live in ideology is, as Havel so eloquently reminds us, inevitably to live in a lie. Truth can only be revealed. We cannot be creators, only receptors.”
― James W. Sire

“A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundations on which we live and more and have our being.”
― James W. Sire

“God does not love us because we are so valuable; we are valuable because God loves us."12”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“To glorify God is not just to do so in religious worship, singing praise and enacting the traditional rites of the church. To glorify God is to reveal his character by being who we were created to be-the embodiment of the image of God in human form.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“I am most interested in encouraging Christians to think and read well. Christians, of all people, should reflect the mind of their Maker. Learning to read well is a step toward loving God with your mind. It is a leap toward thinking God’s thoughts after Him.”
― James W. Sire, How to Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension

“For is it not the common experience of all of us - you and I - that we do no incorporate the truth of these propositions in our lives? We say we know, but we do not do as we know. We say we believe, but we do not act like it.”
― James W. Sire, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual life as a Christian calling

“So what is a worldview? Essentially this: A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) that we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“Life is short, but art is long. Sophocles is dead, but Oedipus lives on…Each of us when we read a great piece of literature is a little more human than befor”
― James W. Sire, How to Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension

“removed the “God-given” from this conception and made “reason” the sole criterion for truth.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“But nothing external to God can possibly constrain him. If he chooses to restore a broken universe, it is because he "wants" to, because, for example, he loves it and wants the best for it. But he is free to do as he wills, and his character (Who He Is) controls his will.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“A fearless honesty should characterize both our self-analysis-where we are now-and our pursuit of truth.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“Theism, however, teaches that not only is there a moral universe but there is an absolute standard by which all moral judgments are measured. God himself-his character of goodness (holiness and love)-is the standard.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“Artists operating within the theistic worldview have a solid basis for their work. Nothing is more freeing than for them to realize that because they are like God they can really invent. Artistic inventiveness is a reflection of God's unbounded capacity to create.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“But first let us get one thing clear. Postmodernism has influenced religious understanding, including that characteristic of Christian theism, but it accepts the foundation at the heart of naturalism: Matter exists eternally; God does not exist.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“Well-wrought poems and works of imaginative literature can do for us what stone-cold prose can never do. They can help us grasp the full dimension of ways of life other than our own.”
― James W. Sire, How to Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension

“​Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam, 1988), p. 122.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“all theisms—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—the difference between the self and God is radical. Pride is the fundamental sin of human beings.”
― James W Sire, Echoes of a Voice: We Are Not Alone

“Our age, which more and more is coming to be called postmodern, finds itself afloat in a pluralism of perspectives, a plethora of philosophical possibilities, but with no dominant notion of where to go or how to get there. A near future of cultural anarchy seems inevitable.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“From Chapter 9: The Vanished Horizon: Postmodernism. Truth is whatever we can get out colleagues, our community, to agree to. If we can get them to use our language, then, like the strong poets--Moses, Jesus, Plato, Freud--our story is as true as any story will ever get.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog: Fourth Edition: Easyread Large Bold Edition

“Knowledge is power," Francis Bacon said in a peculiarly prophetic moment. He was right; "modern" scientific knowledge has demonstrated its power for three centuries. With postmodernism, however, the situation is reversed. There is no purely objective knowledge, no truth of correspondence. Instead there are only stories, stories that, when they are believed, give the storyteller power over others.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“The postmodern pundit says, “We are only what we describe ourselves to be.” The I is not a substance, not even an activity, but a floating construct dependent on the language it uses.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“How does God fulfill our ultimate longing? He does so in many ways: by being the perfect fit for our very nature, by satisfying our longing for interpersonal relationship, by being in his omniscience the end to our search for knowledge, by being in his infinite being the refuge from all fear, by being in his holiness the righteous ground of our quest for justice, by being in his infinite love the cause of our hope for salvation, by being in his infinite creativity both the source of our creative imagination and the ultimate beauty we seek to reflect as we ourselves create.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“universes fashioned by words and concepts that work together to provide a more or less coherent frame of reference for all thought and action.5”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“There are a million signposts pointing toward the specific truth of God in Christ.”
― James W. Sire, Apologetics Beyond Reason: Why Seeing Really Is Believing

“So into this history of the growing pluralism of Western worldviews came the New Age movement whose central thesis is simple: The individual self is the center of reality: The self is the really real. Immanence replaces Transcendence.”
― James W Sire, Echoes of a Voice: We Are Not Alone

“The New Age operates on the epistemology of ecstasy.”
― James W Sire, Echoes of a Voice: We Are Not Alone

“Step on my toe. Must I curse? I may. Must I forgive you? I may. Must I yell? I may. Must I smile? I may. What I do will reflect my character, but it is "I" who will act and not just react like a bell ringing when a button is pushed.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“Morality itself requires transcendence, the existence of a “real” goodness.”
― James W Sire, Echoes of a Voice: We Are Not Alone

“But to discover one’s own worldview is much more valuable. In fact, it is a significant step toward self-awareness, self-knowledge and self-understanding.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

“Depersonalized Personalized Sin Breaking a rule Betraying a relationship Repentance Admitting guilt Sorrowing over personal betrayal Forgiveness Canceling a penalty Renewing fellowship Faith Believing a set of propositions Committing oneself to a person Christian life Obeying rules Pleasing the Lord,”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog