#myst

The argument is made that naming God is never really naming God but only naming our understanding of God. To take our ideas of the divine and hold them as if they correspond to the reality of God is thus to construct a conceptual idol built from the materials of our mind. ↗

— Peter Rollins

#religion #spirituality #religion

The mystery religions were instituted in order to protect the marvels of the commonplace from those who would devalue them. ↗

— Peter Redgrove

#magic #magick #mystery-religions #mysthology #occult

For glory befits God because of His majesty,while lowliness befits man because it unites us with God. ↗

— St. Diadochos

#humility #mysticism #religion #religion

God created hand, head, and heart; the hand for the deed, the head for the world, the heart for mysticism. ↗

— Abraham Kuyper

#god #intellect #mysticism #religion #soul

the mystic must be steadily told,—All that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,—universal signs, instead of these village symbols,—and we shall both be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the organ of language. ↗

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#mysticism #religion #symbol #religion

But personally, I think [sainthood] is not so much the growth of virtue, as simply the replacement of prior vices with an addiction to one's god. ↗

— Lois McMaster Bujold

#religion #saints #religion

A mystery is not a puzzle waiting to be solved, but rather something for which there is no human solution. Mystery's offspring is not frustration but awe, and that sense of awe grows in tandem with knowledge. ↗

— Eric Weiner

#knowledge #mystery #religion #religion

Jimmy Sadd is the most evil man I’ve ever known. I mean really evil. I’m not talking about tough, or cruel – all the bosses are tough and cruel. You’ll never get anywhere in our world if you’re not respected. But Jimmy ... God damn, Bruno, getting involved with Sadd ... I’d rather do a deal with the devil himself. Sadd is worse. You’ll never get out.” George Hanson In The Shadow of Sadd. ↗

— Steen Langstrup

#gangsters #jimmy-sadd #scandinavian-mysteries #respect

Monsieur Bienvenu was simply a man who accepted these mysterious questions...and who had in his soul a deep respect for the mystery which enveloped them. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#questions #respect

Sick is a relative concept. We’re all sick. The question is, what degree of functionality do we have with respect to the rules society sets for desirable behavior? No actions are in themselves symptoms of sickness. You have to look at the context within which these actions are performed. ↗

— Jo Nesbø The Redbreast

#fiction #harry-hole #scandinavian-mysteries #respect