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Theology Quotes

Browse 1619 quotes about Theology.

Theology Quotes

“It can be a good thing if deeper theology, or philosophy, only makes one more uncertain. It may lead to a healthy doubt; he may throw his hands up saying, 'God, I just don't know anymore. If you're out there, I'm giving it all to you.' From there, after the surrender, he is allowing God himself, rather than theories, books, and documents, to take over and lead him into all truth.”

Ifs Knows Giving May Book Philosophy Hands Doubt Theory Healthy Good Things Deeper Surrender Theology Allowing Uncertain Documents Hands Up Giving It All

Book:Killosophy

Source: Killosophy

“Beyond all sciences, philosophies, theologies, and histories, a child's relentless inquiry is truly all it takes to remind us that we don't know as much as we think we know.”

Thinking Knows Children Philosophy Theology Inquiry Relentless

Book:Killosophy

Source: Killosophy

“Ecology is the new theology. Big history is the new Genesis. Those who fail to understand that evidence is modern-day Scripture, and that the world we live in is an honorable world, betray God and humanity in the most egregious of ways.”

World Way Bigs Humanity Failing Modern Evidence Scripture Theology Betray Ecology Honorable Genesis Modern Day

Author:Michael Dowd

“The history of religions, of which Christianity is a transcendent element, awaits the deepest study. It requires Bibles to free from Bibles. Comparative theology is the best of studies for liberating one's mind from geographical and traditional limitations. Like travelling, it shows the globe in its varying climates and zones, its latitude and longitude of intelligence. When the races shall have learned each other's language, the significance of things to thoughts, one faith becomes universal, one brotherhood.”

“Steven Hawking is a brilliant physicist and when it comes to theology I can say he's a brilliant physicist.”

I Can Brilliant Theology Physicist

Author:Guy Consolmagno

“Isn't it sad, that in a time when we face so many devastating problems - poverty, HIV/AIDS, war and conflict - that in our Communion we should be investing so much time and energy on disagreement about sexual orientation? [The Communion, which] used to be known for embodying the attribute of comprehensiveness, of inclusiveness, where we were meant to accommodate all and diverse views, saying we may differ in our theology but we belong together as sisters and brothers [now seems] hell-bent on excommunicating one another. God must look on and God must weep.”

“What is wonderful about a university like LSE is that you not only receive teaching of very high quality, you also learn where to find the knowledge you are seeking. And you make unexpected discoveries; it was a Marxist professor who introduced me to the work of Cardinal Newman, a great master of English prose as well as theology.”

Wells Quality Wonderful Teaching Masters Discovery University Seeking Theology Prose Unexpected Professors Cardinals Marxist High Quality Newman

Author:Pierre Trudeau

“Theology is a part of our lives. It's unavoidable. A thoughtless theology guides our lives with just as much force as a thoughtful and informed one.”

Force Our Lives Guides Theology Thoughtful

Book:The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

Source: The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

“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.”

World Has Beens Made Hands Christian Situation Taken Exercise Method Lays Property Affair Theology Made It Fascinating Scholar Biblical Secular Priesthood Withdrawal Reformers

Author:Lesslie Newbigin

“We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel.”

Feels Words Determine Theology Word Of God Presbyterians

Author:R. C. Sproul

“In Islamic theology, the phallic symbol is very important. Your biggest phallic symbol is New York City and your tallest building will be the phallic symbol they will hit.”

Important Cities New York Building Theology Symbols Islamic New York City

Author:Isser Harel

“Moral Teleology supplies the deficiency in physical Teleology , and first establishes a Theology ; because the latter, if it did not borrow from the former without being observed, but were to proceed consistently, could only found a Demonology , which is incapable of any definite concept.”

Ifs Firsts Found Moral Concepts Theology Former Latter Consistently Incapable Definite Supplies Deficiency

Book:THE THREE CRITIQUES: The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason & The Critique of Judgment: The Base Plan for Transcendental Philosophy, The Theory of Moral Reasoning and The Critiques of Aesthetic and Teleological Judgment

Source: THE THREE CRITIQUES: The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason & The Critique of Judgment: The Base Plan for Transcendental Philosophy, The Theory of Moral Reasoning and The Critiques of Aesthetic and Teleological Judgment

“I would say that teleology is theology, and that God is not a "because," but rather an "in order to.”

Author:Miguel de Unamuno

“If I advance new views in Philosophy or Theology, I cannot expect to have many adherents among minds altogether unprepared for such views; yet it is certain that even those who most fiercely oppose me will recognize the power of my voice if it is not a mere echo; and the very novelty will challenge attention, and at last gain adherents if my views have any real insight.”

Ifs Mind Real Philosophy Lasts Certain Voice Challenges Views Attention Gains Mere Insight Theology Echoes Novelty Unprepared

Author:George Henry Lewes

“The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we do - what we're really good at, which is - which is theology and morality.”

Thinking Church Morality Scientist Leaving Theology Better Off

Author:Rick Santorum

“Indians, of course, have no "theology," and indeed no word for the system of credulity in which the white priests arrange for God, who must be entirely bewildered by it, a series of excuses for his failures.”

Courses White Series Excuse Theology Priests Credulity Bewildered

Author:Sinclair Lewis

“Science may be weird and incomprehensible--more weird and less comprehensible than any theology--but science works. It gets results. It can fly you to Saturn, slingshotting you around Venus and Jupiter on the way. We may not understand quantum theory (heaven knows, I don't), but a theory that predicts the real world to ten decimal places cannot in any straightforward sense be wrong.”

Knows World Way May Real Heaven Results Theory Ten Theology Working It Real World Quantum Straightforward Venus Jupiter Quantum Theory Saturn Decimals

Author:Richard Dawkins

“In too many modern churches there is no emphasis on theology at all. There is a kind of justification by works or by keeping up with modern trends anything that will drag in a few more people.”

People Kind Church Modern Theology Trends Drag Justification Emphasis

Author:Robertson Davies

“Aristotle especially, both by speculation and observation... reached something like the modern idea of a succession of higher organizations from lower, and made the fruitful suggestion of "a perfecting principle" in Nature. With the coming in of Christian theology this tendency toward a yet truer theory of evolution was mainly stopped, but the old crude view remained.”

Source: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom: From Creation to the Victory of Scientific and Literary Methods

“Contemporary Christian proclamation is faced with the question whether, when it demands faith from men and women, it expects them to acknowledge this mythical world picture from the past. If this is impossible, it has to face the question whether the New Testament proclamation has a truth that is independent of the mythical world picture, in which case it would be the task of theology to demythologize the Christian proclamation.”

“The states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to do her work with. Metaphysics or theology may prove the Soul to exist; but for psychology the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of unity is superfluous.”

Needs May Soul States Consciousness Principles Psychology Prove Unity Theology Metaphysics Hypothesis Superfluous States Of Consciousness

Book:Psychology, Briefer Course

Source: Psychology, Briefer Course

“Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine. Since the relation may be either moral, physical, or ritual, it is evident that out of religion in the sense in which we take it, theologies, philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow.”

Men May Mean Philosophy Feelings Asks Individual Grows Moral Divine Solitude Organization Relation Theology Ritual Evident

Book:James and Dewey on Belief and Experience

Source: James and Dewey on Belief and Experience

“I firmly believe that the method which sets theological theories against scientifically ascertained facts, is fatal to the current theology and injurious to the spirit of religion; and that the method which frankly recognizes the facts of life, and appreciates the spirit of the scientists whose patient and assiduous endeavor has brought those facts to light, will commend the spirit of religion to the new generation, and will benefit--not impair--theology as a science, by compelling its reconstruction.”

Source: The Theology of an Evolutionist

“Like all great theologies, Bill [O'Reilly]'s can be boiled down to one sentence: There must be a god, because I don't know how things work.”

Knows Religion Know How Bills Sentences Theology One Sentence Bill O Reilly

Author:Stephen Colbert

“Philosophy finds itself to be no longer anything but the heir to a fabulous mystical theology, but missing a God and wiping the slate clean.”

Philosophy Missing Clean Theology Mystical Fabulous Heirs Slate

Author:Georges Bataille

“There is a notion that complete impartiality is the most fitting and indeed the normal disposition for true exegesis , because it guarantees complete absence of prejudice. For a short time, around 1910, this idea threatened to achieve almost a canonical status in Protestant theology. But now, we can quite calmly describe it as merely comical.”

Ideas Achieve Normal Prejudice Notion Absence Theology Guarantees Threatened Disposition Fitting Protestants Short Time Comical Impartiality Exegesis

Book:Church Dogmatics: The doctrine of the word of God (2 pts.)

Source: Church Dogmatics: The doctrine of the word of God (2 pts.)

“The Roman Christian mythology (and theology) discourages the vice of licentiousness, and so this is better than the heathen, but it encourages bigotry, hypocrisy, cant, and many another vice which the older Mother of Abominations kept clear from.”

Christian Mother Clear Vices Mythology Theology Hypocrisy Bigotry Cant Discouraging Heathen Abomination

Author:Theodore Parker

“The capacity for the accomplishment of religious virtuosos the "intellectual sacrifice" is the decisive characteristic of the positively religious man. That this is so is shown by the fact that in spite of (or rather in consequence) of theology (which unveils it) the tension between the value-spheres of "science" and the sphere of "the holy" is unbridgeable.”

Men Facts Values Religious Sacrifice Holy Intellectual Consequence Capacity Theology Accomplishment Tension Characteristics Spite Spheres Positively

Book:From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology

Source: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology

“Theology recognizes the contingency of human existence only to derive it from a necessary being, that is, to remove it. Theology makes use of philosophical wonder only for the purpose of motivating an affirmation which ends it. Philosophy, on the other hand, arouses us to what is problematic in our own existence and in that of the world, to such a point that we shall never be cured of searching for a solution.”

World Humans Ends Philosophy Use Hands Purpose Existence Wonder Solutions Philosophical Theology Remove Affirmation Human Existence Contingency

Book:In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays

Source: In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays

“The question rather is how we should do science and theology in light of the impending collapse of Enlightenment rationalism and scientific naturalism. These ideologies are on the way out. They are on the way out.”

Way Should Light Enlightenment Theology Ideology Collapse Naturalism Rationalism

Book:Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology

Source: Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology

“I think the opportunity to deal with students and getting them properly oriented on science and theology and the relation between those is going to be important because science has been such an instrument used by the materialists to undermine the Christian faith and religious belief generally.”

Thinking Has Beens Important Christian Used Opportunity Belief Religious Deals Students Relation Instruments Theology Christian Faith Religious Belief

Author:William A. Dembski

“It seldom seems to strike the ultra-Darwinists that theology might have its own richness and subtleties, and might strange thought actually tell us things about the world that are not only to our real advantage, but will never be revealed by science.”

World Real Seems Might Strange Advantage Strikes Theology Richness Subtlety Ultras

Book:Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe

Source: Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe

“Rationally considered, nothing can be more absurd than the baptism of infants under any circumstances. No statement, no matter by whom it may be said to have been uttered, can make that true which is radically false. If an innocent child, unconscious of good or evil, irresponsible to God and man, incapable of thought or action, is not already, in accordance with Christian theology, a member of Christ, then no vicarious promise or priestly ablution can make him one. For if this were so, a similar ceremony under devil worship could make him a member of Satan.”

“Christianity in our country is a lot like what the Ducksters profess. No longer doctrinaire or demanding, the mishmash of pop-religion practiced in churches across America is an extension of the therapeutic culture: festooned with feelings, mostly misdirected. Untempered by intelligent interpretation of scripture... American pop-theology: light on doctrine, heavy on hellfire and damnation.”

Country Feelings Light America Culture Church Christianity Intelligent Heavy Pops Scripture Theology Doctrine Our Country Interpretation Extensions Therapeutic Damnation

Author:Ilana Mercer

“The problem is that, regardless of what our theologies tell us about the purpose of the clergy, the actual effect of the clergy profession is to make the body of Christ lame. This happens not because clergy intend it (they usually intend the opposite) but because the objective nature of the profession inevitably turns the laity into passive receivers.”

Problem Body Happens Purpose Turns Christ Effects Opposites Profession Theology Objectives Passive Lame Clergy Receiver Body Of Christ

Author:Christian Smith

“Margaret Miles offers a stunning treatment of human experience, coaxing humans to leave dualisms behind and embrace our intelligent bodies. In a foundational text, she draws on the arts, philosophy and theology, and her experience as a hospice volunteer to explore concrete alternatives to privileging the rational mind. Her erudition, wisdom, and graceful writing are compelling proof of the intelligent body.”

“Science tells us what we can know but what we can know is little and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive of many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe. Uncertainty in the presence of vivid hopes and fears is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales.”

Source: History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition

“As far as I know, Clifford Pickover is the first mathematician to write a book about areas where math and theology overlap. Are there mathematical proofs of God? Who are the great mathematicians who believed in a deity? Does numerology lead anywhere when applied to sacred literature? Pickover covers these and many other off-trail topics with his usual verve, humor, and clarity. And along the way the reader will learn a great deal of serious mathematics.”

“The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitiousfabricated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the boundaries of that province, they must be content with imagination, with hope, and with ignorance”

People Hands Certain Imagination Religious Forget Clear Ignorance Intellectual Boundaries Theology Branches Science And Religion Comprehension Provinces Susceptible Antagonism Short Sighted

Book:Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions

Source: Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions

“Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song.”

Giving Song Next Honor Highest Saint Theology Verses Rhyme Godly

Author:Martin Luther

“The more I read, the less I admire modern theology. the more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writings. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the 'broader and kinder systems', as they are called, which to my mind stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy.”

“To escape the power of the unknown, to prove to yourself that you don't believe in it, you accept its spells. Like an avowed atheist who sees the Devil at night, you reason: He certainly doesn't exist; this is therefore an illusion, perhaps a result of indigestion. But the Devil is sure that he exists, and believes in his upside-down theology. What, then, will frighten him? You make the sign of the cross, and he vanishes in a puff of brimstone.”

Believe Book Reason Night Language Results Accepting Prove Illusion Devil Crosses Don't Believe Atheist Theology Spells Upside Down Puff Indigestion

Book:Foucault's Pendulum

Source: Foucault's Pendulum

“There is superstition in science quite as much as there is superstition in theology, and it is all the more dangerous because those suffering from it are profoundly convinced that they are freeing themselves from all superstition.”

Suffering Politics Economy Dangerous Convinced Theology Liberalism Superstitions

Book:History as Literature and Other Essays

Source: History as Literature and Other Essays

“This whole Christian theology thing is that god came down to experience life through his son. Well, how's he experiencing life if he doesn't get laid? Give me a break. And why would he not get laid, as he created the apparatus in the first place?”

Ifs Giving Firsts Wells Whole Christian Break Atheism Son Give Me Positive Atheism Theology Getting Laid Christian Theology

Author:Tori Amos

“The spirit of dogmatic theology poisons anything it touches.”

Spirit Atheism Positive Atheism Theology Poison Dogmatic

Author:Jeremy Bentham

“Liberty's chief foe is theology.”

Liberty Atheism Positive Atheism Theology Chiefs Foe

Author:Charles Bradlaugh

“Obsolete misleading theologies bear the same relation to the essence of true religion that scarlet fever, mumps, and measles do to education.”

Atheism Bears Essence Relation Positive Atheism Theology Fever Mislead Obsolete Scarlet True Religion Measles

Author:Luther Burbank

“Even if nothing worse than wasted mental effort could be laid to the charge of theology, that alone ought to be sufficient to banish it from the earth, as one of the worst enemies of mankind.”

Ifs Earth Effort Enemy Atheism Worst Mankind Ought Positive Atheism Theology Sufficient Worst Enemy

Author:Lydia M. Child

“Proclaim a theology of divine righteousness which demands justice, respect, tolerance, compassion, inclusiveness, trust in the ultimate efficacy of divine zeal, and the rigorous pursuit of peace in the midst of competing interests and faith claims.”

Interest Justice Compassion Atheism Divine Demand Ultimate Claims Positive Atheism Tolerance Pursuit Theology Midst Righteousness Competing Zeal Efficacy Inclusiveness

Author:James A. Forbes

“The church has contributed nothing to civilization. It has progressed somewhat, and it has become a little more decent, in reflection of the movements of civilization that have taken place outside of the church and usually in the face of the strong opposition of the church. But the church has always resisted the process of civilization. It has struggled to the last ditch, by fair means and foul, to preserve as long as it could the vestiges of ancient and medieval theology, with all the puerile moralities and harsh customs and medieval styles of belief.”