Status Updates From The Passionate Intellect: C...

“Religion may have a tendency toward absolutism, but the same tendency is innate in any human attempt to find or create meaning, especially when it is challenged. The key thing here, it seems, is not the ideas or values, but the dedication, even fanaticism, of those who follow them.“

The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it.” Simon Weil

We must ensure that we weave all the Bible’s themes into our thinking, not merely those we find easy to understand or we happen to like—even if this sometimes leads us to conclusions that seem deeply counterintuitive.

Worship is so important for Christian identity. It focuses our attention on what really matters, and proclaims that the Christian faith has the power to capture the imagination —not merely to persuade the mind—by throwing open the depths of the human soul to the realities of the gospel.

“We cannot love God without wanting to understand more about Him.”

Terry Eagleton ridicules those who treat religion as a purely explana- tory matter. “Christianity was never meant to be an explana- tion of anything in the first place. Believing that religion is a “botched attempt to explain the world” is on the same intellectual level as “seeing ballet as a botched attempt to run for a bus.”

theology is at its best when it generates reflective practices in the life and service of the church.

theology is at its best when it generates reflective practices in the life and service of the church.