RITUAL

'The purpose of any ritual is to deepen one's commitment, to move a person deeper into a certain view of the world. Addictive rituals also have this purpose, pushing a person deeper into the the addictive process.'  

Craig Nakken, The Addictive Personality, p.44. 

THE NEED TO BE OUT OF CONTROL

'Addicts chase control - they believe they will find peace and happiness through total or perfect control. However, it's human to be imperfect and powerless, and chasing the illusion of control is really running away from the reality of being human. Addicts seek perfection instead of humanity.' 

Craig Nakken, The Addictive Personality, p.33. 

INTIMACY IS A SLOW BURNER

'Intimacy is something that is slowly built over time.'
Craig Nakken, The Addictive Personality, p.17. 

INTENSITY VS. INTIMACY

'Emotionally, addicts get intensity and intimacy mixed up.'

Craig Nakken, The Addictive Personality, p.15. 

ADDICTION & INTIMACY

'Addiction is an emotional relationship with an object or event, through which addicts try to meet their needs for intimacy.' 

Craig Nakken, The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior, p.8. 

THE NEED FOR PERFECTION

'One of the fundamental truths of Christianity is that progress towards a lesser imperfection is not produced by the desire for lesser imperfection. Only the desire for perfection has the virtue of being able to destroy in the soul some part of the evil the defiles it.' 

Simone Weil, The Need for Roots, p.208. 

A BROAD EDUCATION

'The soul of a child, as it reaches out towards understanding, has need of the treasure accumulated by the human species throughout the centuries. We do injury to a child if we bring it up in narrow Christianity which prevents it from ever becoming capable of perceiving that there are treasures of the purest gold to be found in non-Christian civilizations. Lay education does an even greater injury to children. It covers up these treasures, and those of Christianity as well.' 

Simone Weill, The Need for Roots, p.87. 

WHY SONG OF SONGS?

'What is the Song's contribution within the whole of Scripture? The answer this time is very simple...the Song, after its way through theological allegory, provides the chief biblical resource for a believing understanding of human sexuality, of the lived meaning of "Male and female he created them."' 

Robert W Jenson, Song of Songs, p.14. 

A LACK OF ROOTS

'Whoever is uprooted himself uproots others. Whoever is rooted himself doesn't uproot others.' 

Simone Weil,. The Need for Roots, p.45. 

THE NEED FOR ROOTS

'To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. A human being has roots by virtue of his real, active and natural participation in the life of a community which preserves in living shape certain particular treasures of the past and certain particular expectations of the future. This participation is a natural one, in the sense that it is automatically brought about by conditions of birth, profession and social surroundings. Every human being needs to have multiple roots. It is necessary for him to draw wellnigh the whole of his moral, intellectual and spiritual life by way of the environment of which he forms a natural part.' 

Simone Weil, The Need for Roots, p.41.