TRUE POWER

'To refrain, to put aside power is Godlike.'
Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.217.

GRACE MAKES US SUSPICIOUS

'Grace, being apart from the calculus of deserving, is often suspect.'
Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.215.

GOD'S EMOTIONS

'There is a long tradition in theology of divine "impassibility," which teaches that God has no emotions, since if He were capable of anger or pleasure that would mean He was capable of change, including change caused by something outside Himself. The Hebrew Flood narrative is interesting as a meditation on this question. It tells that God can be grieved and angered, and at the same time that God is and will be faithful, to earth and to Adam. He can change and not change. Immutability is not an inevitable consequence of His nature, as if options were denied Him by philosophical consistency. Rather, as the Psalmist says, His steadfast love endures forever.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.65.

GOD'S GRACE

'God's great constancy lies not in any one covenant but in the unshakeable will to be in covenant with willful, small-minded, homicidal humankind.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.53.

THE REALITY OF THE BIBLE

'...the Bible does not exists to explain away mysteries and complexities but to reveal and explore them with respect and restraint that resists conclusion.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.19.

THE HUMAN AUTHORS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

'...the Bible itself indicates no anxiety about association with human minds, words. lives, and passions. This is a notable instance of our having a lower opinion of ourselves than the Bible justifies.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.5.

THE BIBLE AS THEODICY

'The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil. This being true, it must take account of things as they are. It must acknowledge in a meaningful way the darkest aspects of the reality we experience, and it must reconcile them with the goodness of God and of Being itself against which this darkness stands out so sharply. This is to say the Bible is a work of theology, not simply a primary text upon which theology is based.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.3.

DISCERNMENT GIFTS

'The good news is that nearly everyone develops talents as they grow up, although sometimes they are a little harder to identify due to certain life experiences. Another way of thinking of these talents is that they aren't what you can do, but what you can't help yourself doing.'

James Lawrence in Nay Dawson, She Needs: Women flourishing in the church, p.20.

THE CHRISTIAN AS A HOLY OBJECT

'...If you wish to boast of a holy object, why do you not praise the holy object that Jesus Christ, God's Son, has touched with His own body? What does He touch? My living and dying; my walking, standing; my suffering, misfortune, and trials - all of which He experienced, bore, and passed through.'

Martin Luther in John W Kleinig, Wonderfully Made, p.68.

LUTHER ON MALE & FEMALE

'God divided mankind into two classes, namely male and female, or a he and she... Therefore each of us must have the kind of body God has created for us. I cannot make myself a woman, nor can you make yourself a man; we do not have that power. But we are exactly as he created us; I am a man and you are a woman. Moreover, he wills to have his excellent handiwork honored as his divine creation, and not despised. The man is not to despise or scoff at the woman or her body, nor the woman the man. But each should honor the other's image and body as a divine and good creation that is well pleasing unto God himself.'

Martin Luther in John W Kleinig, Wonderfully Made: A Protestant Theology of the Body, p.23.