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Theology Quotes

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Theology Quotes

“Dogmatic theology is, by its very nature, unchangeable. The same can be said in regard to the spirit of the law. Law was and is to protect the past and present status of society and, by its very essence, must be very conservative, if not reactionary. Theology and law are both of them static by their nature. Philosophy, law and ethics, to be effective in a dynamic world must be dynamic; they must be made vital enough to keep pace with the progress of life and science. In recent civilization ethics, because controlled by theology and law, which are static, could not duly influence the dynamic, revolutionary progress of technic and the steadily changing conditions of life; and so we witness a tremendous downfall of morals in politics and business. Life progresses faster than our ideas, and so medieval ideas, methods and judgments are constantly applied to the conditions and problems of modern life. This discrepancy between facts and ideas is greatly responsible for the dividing of modern society into different warring classes, which do not understand each other. Medieval legalism and medieval morals- the basis of the old social structure-being by their nature conservative, reactionary, opposed to change, and thus becoming more and more unable to support the mighty social burden of the modern world, must be adjudged responsible in a large measure for the circumstances which made the World War inevitable.”

“If I Wrote God (Sonnet) If I wrote God, they'd would be kind and gentle, not vengeful and jealous. Freedom of choice would be first commandment, preventing wrongs they'd stand righteous. They'd refuse to entertain suffering, their grand design would epitomize equality. Sure, their world would still have problems, but it would be spared from ungodly atrocity. Law of Nature is its lack of meaning, as well as its lack of morality. We needed an image to bear the blame, and be the imaginary steward of our destiny. True godliness lies in behavior, not belief. Hand of God unfolds when human takes the steed.”

“Implicit … in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or “ism,” any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single, unalterable course, or drive both majorities and minorities into the cruelties of the Inquisition, the pogrom, the gulag, or the jihad. ... A rejection of absolutism, in all its forms, may sometimes slip into moral relativism or even nihilism, an erosion of values that hold society together…”

“I say this with all my humility, To the fundamentalists particularly. This is not meant for those of faith, Who never claim ideological supremacy. What do the dumbbells of bible know, About the bold serendipities of love! What do the captives of koran know, About the welcoming language of the dove! What do the vultures of vedas know, About the elimination of assumption! What do the militants of atheism know, About the sweetness of assimilation! I learnt my religion on the streets, Like Jesus, Gautama, Shams and Shankara. Given the choice between dogma and love, The human always chooses love over dogma. Love finds new meaning in every age, Each amplifies the glory of the last one. Those who fear expansion out of insecurity, Deserve only pity not serious consideration. But beware o lovers, hate not those, Who stand as obstacle in your love. Lovers are born to conquer hate and fear, To reciprocate them is to dishonor love.”

“Esperanza Impossible Sonnet 39 I need a religion, With less pomposity and more simplicity. I need a religion, With less noise and more tranquility. I need a religion, With less pollution and more sustainability. I need a religion, With less malnutrition and more magnanimity. I need a religion, With less citadels and more sidewalk. I need a religion, With less barking and more footwork. Yet when I look around I get choked with all the pollution. Perhaps the religion I seek doesn't exist, for I am my religion.”

“Sonnet of Holy Water A new day starts with a new you, And I ain't talkin' about born again nonsense. A bigot baptized a thousand times is still a bigot, A human helping another is Christ himself. There is no second coming, there’s no reincarnation, Except when we go from selfishness to kindness. We are the messiahs and saviors of our people, Nobody's gonna fall from the sky to lift the helpless. The liquor store sells you the same divinity, That the holy store sells you for even higher price. We'll be born again when we abolish such divinity, By baptizing the soil of society with our sacrifice. The tears of joy someone sheds because of you, Are the only holy water to build the world anew.”

“Handcrafted Humanity Sonnet 58 Faith is no declaration of character, It is just a matter of mental necessity. It has nothing to do with truth and holiness, In many cases, it makes a person quite unholy. I often find myself speaking to my dead teacher, It gives me strength and helps me take the leap. The scientist in me knows it's all in my head, But sometimes all logic must take a backseat. The problem however is not our imaginary friend, It is our loyalty to it at the expense of our humanity. Keep your faith if it helps you through hard times, But never let it be an impediment to universality. Imagination is healthy when it sustains us as human, When it ruins our humanity, it's time for its demolition.”

“Test of Faith (The Sonnet) How many gospels are there? Civilized answer is, who cares! How many apostles were there? Civilized answer is, who cares! What are the commandments? Civilized answer is, who cares! How many vedas are there? Civilized answer is, who cares! What is the meaning of basmala? Civilized answer is, who cares! What are the words of mool mantar? Civilized answer is, who cares! What god wants of us, who the fudge cares! To be human for all humans is what matters.”

“Honor He Wrote Sonnet 53 Better a marvelheaded idiot, Than a marbleheaded bigot. Better a self-proclaimed dope, Than an arrogant dilettante. Better a kindhearted commoner, Than a cockeyed intellectualist. Better an egalitarian infidel, Than a dogmatizing evangelist. All dogmas are born in the mind, So is the duster to wipe them. It is up to you what will you be, Vessel of dogma or the duster untamed! Convert none, help all, without imposition. Let uplift be the motive behind all conviction.”

“There is eternal relief, rest and refuge in Jesus. Not because of works done in righteousness, but according to his own merey (Tit. 3:5). There is nothing in your past that makes him love you less. Your present is not a daily striving - frantically ticking jobs off a list. And your future is not made up of goals and successes you need to achieve for his approval and delight. Every spinning plate can fall. Every ball can hit the floor. You add nothing to your salvation. Rest in Christ alone.”

“From the very beginning of the movement in the sixteenth century, Anabaptists shared a deep suspicion of the so-called Schriftgelehrten - the university-trained scholars who, they claimed artfully dodged the clear and simple teachings of Jesus by appealing to complex arguments and carefully crafted statements of doctrine. In other words, they confused theological discussions with lived faith.”

“Throughout history, Christians have faced the persistent temptation of confusing the language we use to talk about God with the essence of Christian faith. This stubborn human tendency to turn doctrine into an idol - to confuse a human creation with the truth itself - can easily lead people to wield doctrinal claims as a weapon against minority or dissenting perspectives. Thus, anyone who does not line up with a certain formulation of Christian faith is not only wrong, but also a heretic and therefore worthy of punishment or death.”

“My definition of Theology My proverb of theology is a doctrine study of overall foundation of biblical notions, transcendence, an scriptures relativist, researcher and conservative of the Word of God with sensible and measured pursuit of infinite growth, a marriage of the spiritual knowledge (Gnosis), and unutterable love for the faith in constant pursuits and mission for truths with devoutness to prowess faith and love from faith’s vocation and noetic that’s flamed within that gives us the calling (vocation) of theologian. For theology pursues and endless journey of the Lord’s knowledge while maintaining the faith and is the strength hold of creed that manifest purpose, ontology and guardianship of the soul and wisdom, in a relation, a sound mind for divinity. . .”

“Doing God's work and doing God's propaganda are two different things. And the world has enough propaganda as it is - what the world needs is God's work - what this world needs is service - service not to the idea of God, but to the helpless and destitute - service to those who have nowhere to turn to. This, my friend, is called practical divinity.”

“Theologians are to look to the _beyond_-community–– _beyond_ nationality; skin-color, gender; sexual orientation, citizenship, religious affiliation––because God, the Divine, who is the primary frame of reference for theologians, is for, with, in, among those individual human beings. It is to reaffirm the sheer truth: No one is better or worse, superior or inferior than any other; and, 'Ich bin du, wenn Ich Ich bin' [I am you, when Iam I.]”

“To illustrate the nature of this theandric reciprocity, Thomas invokes, as an example, the physical touch of Jesus’s hand: “he wrought divine things humanly, as when he healed the leper with a touch.” The touch of a human being is not in itself miraculous, and even in Jesus this human action is not humanly healing. The miraculous fact of the healing power of this human touch, rather, as Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange puts it, “proceeds from God as the principal cause and from Christ’s human nature as the instrumental cause.” Jesus works divine things humanly. More ultimately, Jesus wills the divine will of salvation humanly. And so he wills theandrically in the sense that what he wills has an “infinite value” that “derives from the divine suppositum that is the agent which operates”. The deifying effects of the Incarnation are thus contingent on the theandric fact of the interpenetrating unity of divine-human operations.”

“No literature is infallible, but while errors in scientific literature are proudly mended by later scientists, errors in religious literature are rarely mended - they are interpreted, reinterpreted, and justified in a million ways, but never questioned, as very few persons of faith have got the brain and backbone to acknowledge errors, let alone correct them - this is not holiness, it's blindness most primitive.”

“Even at that age I already believed in you, and so did my mother and the whole of my household except for my father. But, in my heart, he did not gain the better of my mother's piety and prevent me from believing in Christ just because he still disbelieved himself. For she did all that she could for me to see that you, my God, should be a father to me rather than he. In this you helped her to turn the scales against her husband, whom she always obeyed because by obeying him she obeyed your law, thereby showing greater virtue than he did.”

“To understand our faith -- to theologize in the Catholic tradition -- we need philosophy. We must use the philosophical language of God, person, creation, relationship, identity, natural law, virtues, conscience, moral norms if we are to think about religion and defend it. Theology has some terms and methods of its own, but its fundamental tools are borrowed from philosophy. The growth of religious fundamentalism and the collapse of religious education mean theology is more urgently needed in universities -- especially Catholic ones -- than ever before.”

“Not only is a person bound to accept all parts of the Deposit of Faith and all of the irreformable doctrines declared by the councils and popes, but one is also bound to accept the teaching contained in and the legitimacy of all monuments and teachings of the Church which do not contain novelty or contradict the teachings of the Church. This means that if one were to reject the Ancient Rite as evil or heretical, he would be subject to this anathema.”

“Some callings come to you only in memory. Some come only on the mouth of someone you trust. Some don’t need to be heard in order to be lived. And not all calls come from outside of you.”

“We are poorly attuned to one another's bodies. It is a latent evil. To know your own body is a spiritual care and protection. To know the body of another is a spiritual union and conciliation. We must become so acquainted with the physical good that when evil, affliction, sickness, and pain come, we can name them with the urgency they demand. These hands may move, but not the way my hands move. There are times when the sacred fidelity to self—fully embodied soul-self—may keep us from death itself.”

“We don’t yet have a body of scientific knowledge about evil to be called a facet of psychology. Therefore, religious reasoning for actions will always be at the discretion of the psychologist, thus making them the judge and jury over what is delusion and what is a spiritual experience that has to be sedated.”

“Hope trusts in the promises of God. Hope seeks the action of God that brings forth a new reality. Optimism stands in the current reality, wishing to make the best of each individual experience. But hope stands knee deep in the history of this reality by yearning for the action of God to bring forth a new reality in which everything in this reality is reconciled and redeemed.”

“Grace is costly because it calls us through our person to the person of Jesus Christ. And when we follow the person of Jesus Christ, when we follow his call through our person, we're sent to act for the concrete person of our neighbor in the world.”

“Conventional, organized religion, in its most decadent form, is an inert parody of the genuine religious experience as much as modern occult organizations are degenerate parodies of forgotten religions.”