“It is a very good exercise, at least from a historian's point of view, to imagine oneself a devout pagan while reading various Christian writings.” WritingChristianReadingViewsImagineExerciseVery GoodOneselfVariousPoint Of ViewHistorianPaganGood Exercise Author:Ramsay MacMullen
“This withdrawal of theology from the world of secular affairs is made more complete by the work of biblical scholars whose endlessly fascinating exercises have made it appear to the lay Christian that no one untrained in their methods can really understand anything the Bible says. We are in a situation analogous to one about which the great Reformers complained. The Bible has been taken out of the hands of the layperson; it has now become the professional property not of the priesthood but of the scholars.” WorldHas BeensMadeHandsChristianSituationTakenExerciseMethodLaysPropertyAffairTheologyMade ItFascinatingScholarBiblicalSecularPriesthoodWithdrawalReformers Author:Lesslie Newbigin
“The whole life of Christians ought to be an exercise of piety, since they are called to sanctification. It is the office of the law to remind them of their duty and thereby to excite them to the pursuit of holiness and integrity. But when their consciences are solicitous how God may be propitiated, what answer they shall make, and on what they shall rest their confidence, if called to his tribunal, there must then be no consideration of the requisitions of the law, but Christ alone must be proposed for righteousness, who exceeds all the perfection of the law.” IfsMayWholeChristianLawChristAnswersDutyOughtExerciseIntegrityOfficeConsciencePerfectionWhole LifePursuitHolinessConsiderationRighteousnessExceedPietySanctificationTribunalsChrist Alone Book:On God and Political Duty: Calvin Source: On God and Political Duty: Calvin
“We Christians forget (if we ever learned) that attempts to redress real or imagined injustice by violent means are merely another exercise in denial - denial of God and her nonviolence towards us, denial of love of neighbor, denial of laws essential to our being.” IfsMeanRealChristianLawForgetExerciseEssentialsInjusticeNeighborViolentDenialNonviolenceRedress Author:Philip Berrigan
“Thanks in large measure to the ACLU, the belief that there is a wall of separation between faith and state, not just church and state, is endemic. The exercise of religious faith in the public square is not prohibited; only the federal imposition of a particular faith. Hardly anyone any longer knows the difference.” KnowsStatesChristianBeliefDifferencesChurchReligiousParticularWallExerciseSeparationThanksSquaresReligious FaithChurch And StateImposition Author:F. LaGard Smith
“All that the Y.M.C.A.'s horse and rings really accomplished was to fill me with an ineradicable distaste, not only for Christian endeavor in all its forms, but also for every variety of calisthenics, so that I still begrudge the trifling exertion needed to climb in and out of a bathtub, and hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense. If I had my way no man guilty of golf would be eligible to any office of trust or profit under the United States, and all female athletes would be shipped to the white-slave corrals of the Argentine.” IfsMenWayPersonsStillsStatesWould BeChristianFormHateSportsWhiteUnitedCommonUnited StatesNeededExerciseOfficeFemaleHorseGolfSlaveAthleteProfitRingsLikesCommon SenseGuiltyVarietyMy WayAccomplishedClimbsEndeavorExertionTriflingBathtubsDistasteFemale AthleteCalisthenics Author:H. L. Mencken