John Drury 2002
Quote List
“God is light; but he is unlike
any other light we know.” - Irenaeus
“For without a pure mind and a
modeling of the life after the saints a man could not possible comprehend the
words of the saints.” - Athanasius, On
the Incarnation 110.
“For what
learning has he received from the sacred pages of the New and Old Testaments,
who does not so much as understand the very beginning of the Creed?” - The Tome of Leo
“The purpose of theology is to
make us better readers of scripture."
- George Hunsinger
"Doctrines are conceptual
re-descriptions of the Biblical narratives." - Hans Frei
“Does the
Gospel I preach and teach have a natural tendency to cause people who hear it
to become full-time students of Jesus? Would
those who believe it become his apprentices as a natural ‘next step’? What can we reasonably expect would result
from people actually believing the substance of my message?” - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy
58.
"Don't ever, ever use your knowledge
of the original language to cause lay people to distrust their
Bibles." -
Scott Jones
“The
interpretation which best advances charity is the correct interpretation.” - Augustine, On
Christian Doctrine
"The bible tells a story
which is the story, the story of which our human life is a part.
It is not that stories are a part of the human life, but that human life is
part of a story." - Leslie Newbigin, Open Secret 92
“I cannot therefore by any means receive this assertion …
because it is contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture; secondly, because it is
contrary to the experience of the children of God; thirdly, because it is
absolutely new, never heard of in the world till yesterday; and lastly, because
it is naturally attended with the most fatal consequences.” - John Wesley, “Sin in Believers”
"The Incarnation of God in
Christ does not belong to a general ‘meaning’ class, including ‘paradox’ ... it
is not a logical contradiction--How it is possible for a person to be
once human and divine is not intrinsically irrational, but the condition
of its possibility, or rationality, is one we cannot know in this present
finite state" - Hans Frei, Types of Christian
Theology 81
“And as
God swears by his name, so he does also by his holiness, that is, by
himself.” - John Wesley, comment on Rev.
4:8 in Explanatory Notes on the New Testament
“I am not going to tell you my
name, not yet at any rate… For one thing it would take a long while: my name is
growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long
time; so my name is like a story. Real
names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old
Entish as you might say. It is a lovely
language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do
not say anything in it unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to
listen to.” - Treebeard (LOTR
III: 81)
“For he was
humanized that we might be divinized; and he manifested himself by a body that
we might receive the idea of the unseen father; and he endured the insolence of
men that we might inherit immortality.” - Athanasius, On the Incarnation 107.
“So that
the salvation which is here spoken of might be extended to the entire work of
God, from the first dawning of grace in the soul, till it is consummated in
glory.” - John Wesley, “The Scripture
Way of Salvation”
“Christ is no afterthought; He is
the original meaning of humanity.” -
Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms 16.
“The divine
judgment itself in its reality is only what happened at
“But to be quite frank, grace is cheap
from the point of view of those who need it.
That is why attacks on ‘cheap grace’ never make much difference. To try to rule out unheroic Christianity by
making grace expensive will only add confusion about matters of vast
importance. And if a fire is likely, it
would not be a mark of wisdom to forgo insurance that is really
available.” Dallas Willard, The Divine
Conspiracy 37.
“The third incomparable benefit of faith is
that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom...
Now just as Christ by his birthright obtained these two prerogatives, so he
imparts them and shares them with everyone who believes in him according to the
law of the above mentioned marriage, according to which the wife owns whatever
belongs to the husband." - Martin Luther, The
Freedom of a Christian
“For each
‘form’ [divine and human] does the acts which belong to it, in communion with
the other.” - The Tome of Leo
“No one need worry
about our getting the best of God in some bargain with him, or that we might
somehow succeed in using him for our purposes.
Anyone who thinks this is a problem has seriously underestimated the
intelligence and agility of our Father in the heavens. He will not be tricked or cheated. Any arrangement God has established will be
right for him and right for us. We can
count on it.” Dallas Willard, The
Divine Conspiracy 38.
"For
the Christians have changed their swords and their lances into instruments of
peace, and they know not how to fight."
- Irenaeus
“Many that live deserve death. And
some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager
to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all
ends.” - Gandalf the Grey (LOTR
I: 85)
"Jesus is not for one against
the other. He is against all for the sake of all" - Leslie
Newbigin, Open Secret 56