Mike Joyce

“Since the survival impulse in nature is transmuted into two different and contradictory spiritualized forms, which we may briefly designate as the will-to-live-truly and the will-to-power, man is at variance with himself. The power of the second impulse places him more fundamentally in conflict with his fellowman than democratic liberalism realizes.”
― Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of Its Traditional Defense

“The influence of Christianity seems to be declining in America and the West. At the same time, opposition to Christianity seems to be increasing-not only in this country but also around the world-and this makes some Christians pessimistic about the future. Many can relate to the words of Aragorn: "So we come to it in the end; the great battle of our time, in which many things shall pass away." Others are tempted to take up Théoden's lament: "Alas! That these evil days should be mine, and should come in my old age instead of that peace which I have earned. Alas for Boromir the brave! The young perish and the old linger, withering." Fortunately for Théoden- and his followers-Gandalf is there to correct his royal self-pity and strengthen his courage. The wizard calls the old king to "cast aside regret and fear" and "do the deed at hand.”
― Philip Ryken

“[I]t is wrong to think of conversion as the decision of a man or as an agreement or contract between a man and God in which grace comes to a man only as a result of his decision to allow it. For one thing such an idea suggests that men before they are converted occupy a position of neutrality or of balance or equilibrium, and that a man by his decision is able to tip the balance one way or the other, to allow grace or to resist it. But any conscious decision, any turning to God, comes about as a result of being turned by God, by being regenerated.”
― Paul Helm, The Beginnings: Word and Spirit in Conversion

“Now we are able to rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that he will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, he will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes – and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away and he that sits upon the throne will say, ‘Behold, I make all things new.”
― David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?