

“Faith, then, is not a set of beliefs about the world. It is rather found in the loving embrace of the world. Because the actual existing church has reduced the Crucifixion and Resurrection to religious affirmations held by a certain tribe, rather than expressions of a type of life, the event they testify to has been almost completely eclipsed.”
― The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith
― The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith

“The point then is to help break the false distinction between the idea that there are those who are whole and those who have a lack. For the true distinction is between those who hide their lack under the fiction of wholeness and those who are able to embrace it.”
― The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith
― The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith

“What I've learned to do is be certain that I am uncertain. To revel in the fuzziness of my understanding of the world. And to look with great anticipation toward the next moment I'll figure out that I'm wrong about something. And that lets you get on this trajectory where you just become more and more and more open.”
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“There is an old anecdote in which a mystic, an evangelical pastor and a fundamentalist preacher die on the same day and awake to find themselves by the pearly gates. Upon reaching the gates they are promptly greeted by Peter, who informs them that before entering heaven they must be interviewed by Jesus concerning the state of their doctrine. The first to be called forward is the mystic, who is quietly ushered into a room. Five hours later the mystic reappears with a smile, saying, ‘I thought I had got it all wrong.’ Then Peter signals to the evangelical pastor, who stands up and enters the room. After a full day has passed the pastor reappears with a frown and says to himself, ‘How could I have been so foolish!’ Finally Peter asks the fundamentalist to follow him. The fundamentalist picks up his well-worn Bible and walks into the room. A few days pass with no sign of the preacher, then finally the door swings open and Jesus himself appears, exclaiming, ‘How could I have got it all so wrong!”
― How (Not) to Speak of God: Marks of the Emerging Church
― How (Not) to Speak of God: Marks of the Emerging Church

“this is not about the mere extension of life along a horizontal plane, but about the deepening of life along a vertical plane. Mere longevity cannot render life meaningful any more than brevity has the power to make it meaningless.”
― The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith
― The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith
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