DISTINTIVE CHRISTIANITY

'[Christians] dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all.'

Anonymous in 'The Epistle to Diognetus' from Adam Ramsey, Faithfully Present, p.149.

IDENTITY, PEOPLE & PLACE

'We necessarily live much of our lives in exile, so to be able to spot the people and places that re-establish our true identity is so important.' 

Eugene Peterson, in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.304. 

BIBLE READING

'To open the Bible is to open a window toward Jerusalem, as Daniel did (6.1)) no matter where our exile might have taken us.' 

Tom Wright, Virtue Reborn, p.224. 

THE CHURCH IN EXILE

'The experience that faced the Jewish exiles mirrors the church's experience today. In fact, the biblical metaphor that best suits our current times and faith situation is that of exile. Just like the Jewish exiles, the church today is grieving its loss and is struggling with humiliation.' 

Michael Frost in David Kinnaman, You Lost Me, p.76. 

EXILE

'...there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of "exile."'

JRR Tolkien in Humphrey Carpenter, The Letters of JRR Tolkien, p.110.

FISH OUT OF WATER

'We are born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water.'

JRR Tolkien in Humphrey Carpenter, The Letters of JRR Tolkien, p.64.

EXILE

'Exile. It is not simply being homeless. Rather it is knowing that you do have a home, but that your home has been taken over by enemies.

Exile. It is not being without roots. On the contrary, it is having deep roots which have now been plucked up, and there you are, with roots dangling, writhing in pain, exposed to a cold and jeering world, longing to be restored to native and nurturing soil. Exile is knowing precisely where you belong, but knowing that you can't go back, not yet.'

Tamara Eskenazi in Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel, p.48.