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Hang My Heart on the Shadows of Light: A Novel

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Zeenat Ansari

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“Dialogue with Catholics and other nonevangelical Christians offered some correction to the Church Growth movement's fixation on cultural accommodation and baptism rates. However - save for those few who converted - evangelicals attracted to other Christian traditions have made those traditions their own. They assemble do-it-yourself liturgies from a hodgepodge of monastic prayers and mystics' visions. They lionize medieval dissenters - Celtic monks, or renegade Franciscans - but don't understand their broader Catholic context. Without quite realizing what they have done, evangelicals often use these ancient teachings and practices to confirm, rather than challenge, their own assumptions. History becomes a sidekick to one's twenty-first-century journey with Jesus.”

“I remember that one Holy Week, the magazine I got every Thursday, Anteojito, came with a free poster depicting the Stations of the Cross. I burned the poster and flushed the ashes down the toilet to dispose of the evidence. The idea that I was supposed to pin this graphic depiction of torture and death on my wall seemed to me as obscene as if someone had suggested decorating my room with pictures of the inner workings of Auschwitz.”

“Although I had become disillusioned with certain aspects of Roman Catholicism, yet I was finding similarities between that religious system and my new-found philosophies. I sought to clear up my own confusions by developing an ecumenical reasoning, accommodating both Christian and Hindu schools of thought. This led to a sense of spiritual superiority for being 'tolerant' both of Eastern and Western religions. I welcomed the idea that all paths led to the same God and that all beliefs were equal.”

“Theotokos is a courageous title. A woman is the Mother of God. One could say, ‘How is this possible? God is eternal, He is the Creator. We are creatures, we are in time. How could a human being be the Mother of God, of the Eternal One, since we are all in time, we are all creatures?’ … Aristotelian philosophy, as we well know, tells us that between God and man there is only a non-reciprocal relationship. Man refers to God, but God, the Eternal, is in Himself. He does not change; He cannot have this relationship today and another relationship tomorrow. He is within Himself, He does not have ad extra relations. It is a very logical term, but it is also a word that makes us despair: ‘So God himself has no relationship with me.’ With the Incarnation, with the event of the Theotokos, this radically changed, because God drew us into Himself – and God in Himself is the relationship and allows us to participate in His interior relationship. Thus we are in His being Father, Son and Holy Spirit; we are within His being in relationship, we are in relationship with Him and He truly created a relationship with us. At that moment, God wished to be born from woman and to remain Himself always: this is the great event.”

“If [John] Piper's beliefs on authority clash with the doctrine of the Reformers as I argue, one would expect that Piper would have much less conflict with Roman Catholicism than the Reformers did. This is indeed the case. In fact, Piper's mystic hedonism is leading evangelicals on a fast trot back to Rome, where mystics have long nestled under its skirts.”

“In the Gospel story we find five great points of special importance; the birth, the life on earth, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension. In these we have what an old writer has called "the process of Jesus Christ;" the process by which He became what He is to-day--our glorified King, and our life. In all this life process we must be made like unto Him.”