#theo

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. ↗

— John D. Caputo

#faith #orthodoxy #theology #faith

Reason and Faith are not antithetical, but rather synergistic". ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#faith-orthodoxy-theology-doubt #reason #reasoning #faith

Faith without reason produces a mindless Christianity which is less than useless; the focus on justice in this world produces a theology that chases its own tail." ~R. Alan Woods [2013] ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#justice #r-alan-woods #reasoning #theology #faith

Oh, sometimes I like to put the sand of doubt into the oyster of my faith." (Br. Cadfael) ↗

— Ellis Peters

#mystery #religion #spirituality #theology #faith

It is natural to speak of hymns as "poems," indiscriminately, for they have the same structure. But a hymn is not necessarily a poem, while a poem that can be sung as a hymn is something more than a poem. Imagination makes poems; devotion makes hymns. There can be poetry without emotion, but a hymn never. A poem may argue; a hymn must not. In short to be a hymn, what is written must express spiritual feelings and desires. The music of faith, hope and charity will be somewhere in its strain. ↗

— Hezekiah Butterworth

#theology #faith

A time will come in your life, William, where your faith will be tested... and you must stay faithful to the word and vision that the All-Father has given to you. ↗

— M.J. Chrisman

#christianity #fantasy #fiction #inspirational #m-j-chrisman

Ultimately, totalitarianism is the only sort of politics that can truly serve the sky-god's purpose. Any movement of a liberal nature endangers his authority and that of his delegates on earth. One God, one King, one Pope, one master in the factory, one father-leader in the family at home. ↗

— Gore Vidal

#god #liberalism #politics #religion #theocracy

The negative penalties of the Old Testament case laws were not harsh but just, not a threat to society but rather the necessary judicial foundation of civic freedom… the Old Testament was harsh on criminals because it was soft on victims. ↗

— Gary North

#law #reconstructionism #society #theonomy #freedom

One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; (2) He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#food

Limited government is not a means to liberty, it is an end. That is to say, there are always going to be a group of citizens who cannot meet their basic needs, and there most assuredly will always be politicians willing to promise that they will meet them. The difference between liberty and tyranny by popular support, or correctly termed “democratic despotism, ” is little more than the vehicle a free society chooses to use in order to meet those needs. ↗

— Richard D. Baris

#political-parties #political-philosophy #political-science #political-theory #religion-and-science