Home / Quotes / Quote by George Pattison

Quote by George Pattison

“Of course, if one's reading Kierkegaard for personal interest that's fine - but it's sloppy scholarship just to cherry pick what suits one from a particular author, whether it's Kierkegaard, Heidegger, or whoever. Nevertheless, it does seem to me that even the more religious parts of the authorship can offer significant insights into the meaning of the human condition to those who can't then say that, e.g., they believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and their personal Saviour.”

Quote by George Pattison

Author

George Pattison

George Pattison, born in 1950, is an individual whose profession and category remain unknown. more

You May Also Like

“Sartre is one example of someone who does just this. Every text is, after all, a human document and whatever Kierkegaard thought about God was clearly a matter of human thought that can, in principle, be retrieved and interpreted by other human beings. A phenomenological approach to religion must, it seems to me, adopt the old adage: nothing human is alien to me.”

Humans Doe Matter Seems Human Beings Principles Example Approach Aliens Documents Adages Human Thought

Author:George Pattison

“There are kinds of unity other than those of the explicit and systematic unity that Poole is attacking. There are kinds of movement - in music or athletics, for example - that present themselves as having a certain unity about them. In some sphere we might talk about 'style'.”

Kind Might Certain Style Example Movement Unity Spheres Attacking Athletics Systematic Explicit

Author:George Pattison

“Every stroke a tennis player plays is different, yet we perceive them as playing in a distinctive and unique way. It's what Heidegger called a certain 'how' of existing. It's ultimately always singular, and the double task of (a) getting it in view and (b) communicating it to others will inevitably be marked more often by failure than success!”

Way Different Play Certain Views Player Unique Tasks Communicate Perceive Tennis Strokes Distinctive Tennis Player Heidegger

Author:George Pattison

“Interpretation is a task that we repeatedly have to take up and start again from the beginning, Sisyphus-like. But, as Camus said, we must always imagine Sisyphus happy, and this is not so difficult when it's a matter of texts that reveal important truths about being human.”

Humans Said Important Matter Difficult Imagine Tasks Interpretation Being Human Sisyphus

Author:George Pattison

“Barth's approach tears up any possibility of dialogue between faith and unfaith or between theology and other human sciences. Theology just says what it says on the basis of scripture, and that's that.”

Humans Possibility Tears Approach Bases Scripture Theology Dialogue

Author:George Pattison

“Schleiermacher, however, starts by attempting to find what he takes to be a basic element of the human condition as such, namely, that we did not invent ourselves but find ourselves born into a life and a world that precedes us in manifold ways.”

World Way Humans Born Conditions Elements Human Condition Attempting Manifold

Author:George Pattison

“Ultimately, we live in the face of an irresolvable mystery about our origin and, for that matter, about our end. And what Schleiermacher would have us do is (a) acknowledge that this is the case and (b) accept it as something positive, a point of departure for a life of trusting joy.”

Ends Matter Faces Joy Accepting Cases Mystery Acknowledge Departure

Author:George Pattison

“And this is also what he takes Christian doctrine, in all its complexity, to be centrally about, that is, teaching an attitude rather than a set of propositions. Call it joyous openness to life. What's not relevant about that?”

Christian Attitude Teaching Doctrine Complexity Openness Relevant Propositions Joyous Christian Doctrine

Author:George Pattison

“It's strange that in an age when we pride ourselves on our independence of thought we meekly submit without further question to the declaration of a clearly unbalanced nineteenth century philosopher that God is dead! That's cheeky, of course - and one rarely comes away from reading Nietzsche without learning something new and significant. He's certainly FAR more unsettling for faith than any contemporary atheist I know of.”

“But my point is that 'the death of God' is not something like the Battle of Waterloo or Magna Charta. It's not a historic event of that kind. For many people it hasn't happened yet. Others - to recur to an earlier question - are still in the phase of intense shock.”

People Kind Stills Happened Events Battle Intense Shock Phases Historic Waterloo

Author:George Pattison