WHAT THE CROSS REVEALS

'...the cross is our best picture of who God is: God providing from within his own life the gift of bringing us back into his life.' 

Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ, p.111. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF UNION WITH CHRIST

'Being in Christ, and united to him, is the fundamental constitution of a Christian.' 

Thomas Goodwin in Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ, p.107. 

THE SILVER BULLET OF UNION WITH CHRIST?

'The church is in desperate need of a way to express the grace of the gospel and the demand of the gospel in a way that enhances both without canceling either. If you have ever asked these questions, union with Christ is your answer.' 

Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ, p.93. 

UNION WITH CHRIST AS A MARRIAGE

'...becoming a Christian means more than believing Christ did certain things for you long ago. It means that Christ joins his life to yours in such an intimate and comprehensive way that the prevailing metaphor for this union in the Bible is marriage (Eph. 5:32). It's a metaphor, but it's not only a metaphor because the Holy Spirit, the bond of this connection, it is not metaphorical. The Holy Spirit is real, which means if you are "in Christ," Christ has truly made himself one with you.' 

Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ: The Way to Know and Enjoy God, p.71. 

WHEN TALK OF DUTY HELPS

'We often use "care" or "carer" for people who would once have thought that what they were doing in say, looking after incapacitated relatives, was a duty. To call the act of changing someone's soiled underclothing an act of caring can make you feel as if you should be doing it because you want to do it, whereas the idea that you're doing it because it's your duty makes it more impersonal and therefore - to my mind, anyway - a lighter burden. It leaves you free to dislike what you are doing while still feeling you are doing the right thing in doing it.' 

John Lanchester in Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun, p.248. 

JOY

'Joy is connection.'
George Vaillant in Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun, p.242. 

TRUE LIBERALISM

'...liberalism is not a partisan claim for the universal authority of a particular morality, but the search for terms of coexistence between different moralities. In this alternative view, liberalism has to do with handling the conflicts of cultures that will always be different, not founding a universal civilization.' 

John Gray in Adam Phillips, On Balance, p.56. 

WHAT EXCESS MOST APPALS YOU?

'There is nothing more telling, nothing more revealing of one's character and history and taste, than one's reaction to other people's excess. Tell me which kinds of excess fascinate you, tell me which kinds of excess appal you and I will tell you who you are. This would be one, excessive, way of putting it. Or one could more sensibly say: notice which excesses you are drawn to (and there is, of course, an excess of excesses to choose from now - road rage, fundamentalism, self-improvement, shopping), the ones you can;'t stop complaining about, the ones that make you speak out, or the ones that just give you some kind of secret, perhaps  slightly embarrassing pleasure, and try to work out what about them is so compelling.' 

Adam Phillips, On Balance, p.8.  

THE POWER OF BOOKS

'Books connect you to others. It sounds trite but it is true. You are kept company by characters, by a story and by the consciousness - held literally in the hand, seemingly entire - that wrote the book. They all speak to you now across time and space, a commonality of minds, a sharing of experience, a proffering of thoughts and philosophies effortlessly spanning dimensions that would otherwise defeat all such efforts. They are insurmountable proof that the bundle of flaws, fancies, idiocies, instincts, anxieties and aptitudes that is you is neither unique or alone.' 

Lucy Mangan, Bookworm, p.306. 

THE PLUS OF PESSIMISM

'What people forget about pessimists is that although we're often anxious, we're also very easily pleased.' 

Lucy Mangan, Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, p.117.