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Idolatry Quotes

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Idolatry Quotes

“Orthodoxy is idolatry if it means holding the 'correct opinions about God' - 'fundamentalism' is the most extreme and salient example of such idolatry - but not if it means holding faith in the right way, that is, not holding it at all but being held by God, in love and service. Theology is idolatry if it means what we say about God instead of letting ourselves be addressed by what God has to say to us. Faith is idolatrous if it is rigidly self-certain but not if it is softened in the waters of 'doubt.”

IfsWayMeanSelfCertainWaterOpinionDoubtExampleExtremesTheologyFundamentalismRight WayOrthodoxyIdolatry
Book:What Would Jesus Deconstruct? (The Church and Postmodern Culture): The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church
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“As to the so-called Hindu idolatry - first go and learn the forms they are going through, and where it is that the worshippers are really worshipping, whether in the temple, in the image, or in the temple of their own bodies. First know for certain what they are doing - which more than ninety per cent of the revilers are thoroughly ignorant of - and then it will explain itself in the light of the Vedantic philosophy.”

KnowsFirstsPhilosophyBodyLightFormCertainWorshipIgnorantTemplesCentsNinetyIdolatryWorshippersIdol Worship
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“Despite the many iniquities that have found entrance into the practices of image-worship as it is in vogue now, I do not condemn it. Ay, where would I have been if I had not been blessed with the dust of the holy feet of that orthodox, image-worshipping Brahmin!”

IfsHas BeensFoundPracticeFeetHolyWorshipBlessedDespiteDustOrthodoxIdolatryEntrancesVogueIniquityIdol WorshipBrahmins
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“The idol is the expression of religion.”

ExpressionWorshipIdolsIdolatryIdol Worship
Book:The Complete Works of the Swami Vivekananda, Comprising All His Lectures, Addresses and Discourses Delivered in Europe, America and India: All His Writings in Prose and Poetry, Together with Translations of Those Written in Bengali and Sanskrit; Reports of His Interviews and His Replies to the Various Addresses of Welcome; His Sayings and Epistles,--private and Public--original and Translated; with an Index; Carefully Revised & Edited
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“We are all born idolaters, and idolatry is good, because it is in the nature of man. Who can get beyond it? Only the perfect man, the God-man. The rest are all idolaters. So long as we see this universe before us, with its forms and shapes, we are all idolaters. This is a gigantic symbol we are worshipping. He who says he is the body is a born idolater.”

MenLongBodyFormUniverseBornPerfectShapesWorshipSymbolsIdolatryNature Of ManPerfect ManIdol Worship
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“MOST of the ugliness in the human narrative comes from a distorted quest to possess beauty. COVETING begins with appreciating blessings: MURDER begins with a hunger for justice. LUST begins with a recognition of beauty. GLUTTONY begins when our enjoyment of the delectable gifts of GOD starts to consume us. IDOLATRY begins when our seeing a reflection of God in something beautiful leads to our thinking that the beautiful image bearer is worthy of WORSHIP.”

ThinkingHumansBeautifulJusticeSeeingBlessingWorshipReflectionAppreciateMurderHungerWorthyLustRecognitionNarrativeEnjoymentQuestsUglinessIdolatryGift From GodSomething BeautifulGluttonyCovetingDelectableBeautiful Images
Author:Shane Claiborne
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“And that's really what's happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”

FirstsCountryGovernmentDependsHappeningsProtectionBreadCommandmentsViolationProvisionIdolatryDependencyDaily BreadOur Daily Bread
Author:Sharron Angle
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“Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.”

InspirationalShouldIndividualRespectIdolsRespectfulRespecting OthersIdolatryNo RespectBe RespectfulRespect MeDignity And RespectIdolizedAdmiration And RespectRespect Someone
Book:Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb
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“What first truly stirred my soul was not fear or pain, nor was it pleasure or games; it was the yearning for freedom. I had to gain freedom-but from what, from whom? Little by little, in the course of time, I mounted freedom's rough unaccommodating ascent. To gain freedom first of all from the Turk, that was the initial step; after that, later, this new struggle began: to gain freedom from the inner Turk-from ignorance, malice and envy, from fear and laziness, from dazzling false ideas; and finally from idols, all of them, even the most revered and beloved.”

FirstsLittlesIdeasSoulPainCoursesGamesPleasureStepsStruggleIgnoranceGainsEnvyMy SoulBelovedRoughIdolsYearningLazinessInitialsMaliceIdolatryDazzlingAscent
Author:Nikos Kazantzakis
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“If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.”

IfsKnowsFeelsRealEnoughWholeStoriesBodyAgeDiesStuffLevelsConsciousnessMillionsFrontsWorshipUglyMythYour BodyTricksGrievingIdolatrySkeletonsParablesEpigramsMeaning LifeAllureWorship YouReal Worship
Author:David Foster Wallace
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“Surely nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind, for the only blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence. To look up to the sky for the nutriment of our bodies, is the condition of nature; to call upon the sun for peace and gaiety, or deprecate the clouds lest sorrow should overwhelm us, is the cowardice of idleness, and the idolatry of folly.”

ShouldLooksReasonBodySunAirSkyInfluenceConditionsWindSorrowBlessingCloudsWeatherLook UpFollyCowardiceDependenceIdlenessBenevolenceIdolatryTranquillityGaiety
Book:Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings
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“For indeed Christianity was complicit in the death of antiquity, and in the birth of modernity, not because it was an accomplice of the latter, but because it, alone in the history of the West, constituted a rejection of and alternative to nihilism's despair, violence, and idolatry of power; as such, Christianity shattered the imposing and enchanting facade behind which nihilism once hid, and thereby, inadvertently, called it forth into the open.”

BehindsChristianityViolenceBirthDespairWestAlternativesRejectionLatterModernityNihilismShatteredIdolatryAntiquityImposingFacadeEnchantingAccomplices
Author:David Bentley Hart
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