THEOLOGY & PRAYER

'If you are a theologian, you will truly pray; and if you pray truly, you will be a theologian.'

Evagrius in Erik Varden, Healing Wounds, p.39,

WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT

'As important as beautifully formulated theological propositions are to the Christian faith, they are no substitute for learning to live in the presence of God, who is present in all times and places.'

Marsh Moyle, Rumours of a Better Country, p.129.

THE REACH OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS

'Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works....'
John Newton in Tony Reinke, Newton on the Christian Life, p.258.

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.

WE NEED THEOLOGIANS & POETS

'...when we seek to enter into the mystery of our faith we must call the poets to the table as well as the theologians.'

Malcolm Guite, Lifting the Veil, p.51

DIVINE REVELATION THROUGH CREATION

'The God of the Sahara must be vast, boundless, and expansive. The God of quarks must have an unimaginable eye for detail. The God of wombats must have a sense of humor. Everything in creation has theological implications, and one of the joys of being human is figuring out what they are.'

Andrew Wilson, God of All Things: Rediscovering the sacred in an everyday world, p.3.

KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS GRACE FROM GOD

'The knowledge of God is a gift not an achievement.'
Mark D Thompson, A Clear and Present Word, p.134.

THE DANGER OF THEORISTS

'...one of those theorists who so love their theory that they forget the purpose of the theory - its application in practice; in his love for theory, he hated everything practical and did not want to know about it. He was even glad of failure, because failure, proceeding from departures from theory in practice, only proved to him the correctness of his theory.'

Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, p.640.

THEOLOGY

'...a mystery discerning exercise...'
Thomas Weinandy in Richard J Mouw, Restless Faith: holding evangelical beliefs in a world of contested labels, p.96. 

THE CENTRALITY OF THE TRINITY

'Is there are great Christian theology that does not have the Trinity at its center? Does the highest sense of the sacred abide where the Trinity as a concept is isallowed? Well, I think not, for what it's worth.' 

Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things, p.210. 

THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE IN PRACTICE

'Since Scripture is our only final and authoritative source in understanding truths about God and his relation to the created order, two things are required of us. First,we must submit to and embrace all that Scripture does teach, despite its agreement or disagreement with the values and teaching of our culture. If the authority of Scripture means anything, it means that our mistaken ideas must change to conform to Scripture's teachings, and we must resist at every turn the temptation to conform Scripture's teaching to what seems so clear and true to us from our culture. Granted, this is easier said than  done. Nonetheless, this must be our goal and earnest desire if we are to honor God and his Word in the process of our theological formulation. Second, we must also be ready to stop our theological formulations at the point that Scripture's revealed truth stops. We can violate the authority of Scripture as much by going beyond what it says into areas wherein Scripture is silent as we can by distorting and reshaping what it actually does say to fit the mindset of our culture. In other words we must discipline our minds and our theology to conform to Scripture and to be content to say what it says and remain silent where it is silent.' 

Bruce Ware, God's Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith, p.99. 

THE DANGERS OF CHURCH PURITY

'...once the Machenites found themselves in a "true Presbyterian church" they were unable to moderate their martial impulses. Being in a church without liberals to fight, they turned on one another.' 

John Frame, 'Machen's Warrior Children' in Alister E McGrath & Evangelical Theology: A Dynamic Engagement, p.143. 

THE LIMITATIONS OF LANGUAGE WHEN SPEAKING OF GOD

'We have got so beyond those things for which language was initially contrived, that, unless we use extreme caution, we cannot speak, unless we speak exceeding unintelligibly, without literally contradicting ourselves - Coroll. No wonder therefore, that the high and abstract mysteries of the Deity, the prime and most abstract of all beings, imply so many seeming contradictions.' 

Jonathan Edwards in Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things, p.89. 

THEOLOGY

'Theology is not itself if it is not also praise.'
Fred Sanders, The Triune God, p.28. 

DON'T FORGET THE MYSTERY

'Every aspect of God's reality and work, without exception, is mystery. The eternal Trinity; God's sovereignty in creation, providence, and grace; the incarnation, exaltation, present reign and approaching return of Jesus Christ; the inspiring of the Holy Scriptures; and the ministry of the Spirit in the Christian and the Church - each of these (to look no further) is a reality beyond our full fathoming, just as the cross is. And theories about any of these things which used human analogies to dispel the dimension of mystery would deserve our distrust, just as rationalistic theories about the cross do.' 

JI Packer, 'What Did the Cross Achieve?' in Celebrating the Saving Work of God, p.89. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY IN THEOLOGY

'Every theological question has behind it a history of study, and narrow eccentricity in handling it is unavoidable unless the history is taken into account.' 

JI Packer, 'What did the Cross Achieve' in Celebrating the Saving Work of God, p.85. 

KNOWING GOD

'Doctrines and structures are basically nothing but the fences around the garden where we can meet God.'

Henri JM Nouwen, Love, Henri, p.235.

THE DANGER OF THINKING YOU UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY

'Understanding makes the mind lazy.'

Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop, p.101.

THEOLOGICAL DISAGREEMENT

'We learn most, it seems, from those with whom we differ. They may see what we have missed. They may see correctly what we have misperceived. And even when we are convinced that the misconceptions are theirs, the raising of fresh questions invigorates our reading of familiar texts...' 

Stephen Westerholm, Justification Reconsidered, p.vii. 

THE DANGERS IN THE TRUTH

'Truth seduces us very easily into a kind of joy of possession: I have comprehended this and that, learned it, understood it. Knowledge is power. I am therefore more than the other man who does not know this and that. I have great possibilities and also greater temptations. Anyone who deals with truth - as we theologians certainly do - succumbs all too easily to the psychology of the possessor. But love is the opposite of the will to possess. It is self-giving. It boasteth not in itself, but humbleth itself.' 

Helmut Thielicke in Jared C Wilson, The Pastor's Justification, p.62.