FROM CHURCH CHOIRS TO WORLD WARS

'The historian Herbert Butterfield is supposed to have said that if we take the animosity present in an average church choir and give that animosity a history by extending it over time, we will have an adequate explanation of all the wars ever fought in human history.'

Gilbert Meilaender, Thy Will Be Done, p.64.

SIN IS INGRATITUDE

'Radically and basically all sin is simply ingratitude.'
Karl Barth in Gilbert Meilaender, Thy Will Be Done, p.56

WHAT SEXUAL ETHICS ARE ALL ABOUT

'...a "crisis" in sexual ethics is never simply that; it is a crisis in our understanding of what it means to be a person. Are we beings characterized most of all by will and choice, beings who confer meaning and value on our acts by our choices? Or are we beings who discover meaning and value in the embodied life God has created? Because the latter is the truth, the church can offer to the world something more hopeful than the idea that what is good depends largely on our own choosing.'

Gilbert Meilaender, Thy Will Be Done: The Ten Commandments and the Christian Life, p.21.

WHAT CHILDREN SENSE

'Unconsciously, everyone under the age of ten knows everything. Under-ten can come into a room and sense at once everything felt, kept silent, held back in the way of love, hate and desire, though he may not have the right words for such sentiments. It is part of the clairvoyant immunity to hypocriosy we are born with and that vanishes just before puberty.'

Mavis Gallant, 'The Doctor' in The Latehomecomer: Essential Stories, p.173.

HUMILITY

'Humility is the proper ordering of worth in life.'
Marsh Moyle, Rumours of a Better Country, p.221.

INTIMACY WITH YOURSELF THROUGH INTIMACY WITH OTHERS

'Personhood develops in relationships. In turning to face each other, we see ourselves through new eyes, learning about our assumptions, fears, dreams and desires. As the other person draws out what is unique to me, I learn to become myself. Others experience me and tell me what they experience, freeing me to explore the external world in a new light. The encounter will be as rich as the honesty and generosity of hearts that accompany it. Other people confirm our existence and validate our worth by accepting and enjoying our presence.'

Marsh Moyle, Rumours of a Better Country, p.178.

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.

HOW TO SPOT AN IDOL

'An object is free of idolatry when we associate with it only those attributes it actually has, no more and no less.'

Marsh Moyle, Rumours of a Better Country, p.69.

THE TRINITY & INTIMACY

'God is simultaneously three and one. We reflect God's image in being in communion with each other while simultaneously being unique. The invitation to intimacy is to a communion of unique persons; to each other and to all. Both the communion and the unique persons are important.'

Marsh Moyle, Rumours of a Better Country, p.64.

TRUE FREEDOM

'...Christian freedom...is the essential freedom of human beings to develop themselves as human creatures.'

Hans Rookmaaker in Marsh Moyle, Rumours of a Better Country: Searching for trust and community in a time of moral outrage, p.53.