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A Call to What is Vital
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
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About the author
Rufus Matthew Jones
223 books11 followersRufus Matthew Jones (January 25, 1863 – June 16, 1948) was an American religious leader, writer, magazine editor, philosopher, and college professor. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Haverford Emergency Unit (a precursor to the American Friends Service Committee). One of the most influential Quakers of the 20th century, he was a Quaker historian and theologian as well as a philosopher. He is the only person to have delivered two Swarthmore Lectures.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 1, 2012
Highlights:
"Every discovery and every verification of Truth links the finite mind up with a foundational mind that undergirds us and our world." pg.24
"But what I insist upon is not merely that the saints and geniuses have been possessed with a unique quality, but that there is a unique spiritual endowment -- at least potentially -- in man as man, in the so-called 'common man.' The capacity to think, to be self-conscious, to enjoy beauty and music, to rise to mathematical insight, to transcend all that is presented, to live by ideal vision, to be creative of what is not yet, to be smitten with homesickness for the beyond, the unattained, to love with an undying love that never lets go -- all this is unique." pg.43
"It is high time that we should seriously realize that vital religion cannot be maintained and preserved on the theory that God dealt with our human race only in the far past ages, and that the Bible is the only evidence we have that our God is a living, revealing, communicating God. If God ever spoke He is still speaking. If He has ever been in mutual and reciprocal communication with the persons He has made, He is still a communicating God, as eager as ever to have listening and receptive souls. If there is something of His image adn superscription in our inmost structure and being, we ought to expect a continuous revelation of His will and purpose through the ages, and just that is what I discover to be a fact. He is the Great I am, not a Great he was." pg65
"Every discovery and every verification of Truth links the finite mind up with a foundational mind that undergirds us and our world." pg.24
"But what I insist upon is not merely that the saints and geniuses have been possessed with a unique quality, but that there is a unique spiritual endowment -- at least potentially -- in man as man, in the so-called 'common man.' The capacity to think, to be self-conscious, to enjoy beauty and music, to rise to mathematical insight, to transcend all that is presented, to live by ideal vision, to be creative of what is not yet, to be smitten with homesickness for the beyond, the unattained, to love with an undying love that never lets go -- all this is unique." pg.43
"It is high time that we should seriously realize that vital religion cannot be maintained and preserved on the theory that God dealt with our human race only in the far past ages, and that the Bible is the only evidence we have that our God is a living, revealing, communicating God. If God ever spoke He is still speaking. If He has ever been in mutual and reciprocal communication with the persons He has made, He is still a communicating God, as eager as ever to have listening and receptive souls. If there is something of His image adn superscription in our inmost structure and being, we ought to expect a continuous revelation of His will and purpose through the ages, and just that is what I discover to be a fact. He is the Great I am, not a Great he was." pg65
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