"Belief cannot argue with unbelief, it can only preach to it."
-Karl Barth
“Preach the Gospel always; use words when necessary.”
-St.Francis of Assisi
“Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.”
-Paul Tillich
“Judge yourself; if you do that you will not be judged by God, as St. Paul says. But it must be a real sense of your own sinfulness, not an artificial humility.”
-Johannes Tauler
peace, wayf
"“Judge yourself; if you do that you will not be judged by God, as St. Paul says. But it must be a real sense of your own sinfulness, not an artificial humility.”
If one judges one's misdeeds honestly and finds a valid reason for forgiveness, then it will not be necessary to be judged by God.
I really think that's what God wants from us.
If we judge ourselves in this way, we won't have time to be judging others...
peace, wayf
just wondering
ice
I am not familiar with Tauler, but I am familiar with the other 3 - I have some of their writings in my library.
I should post some Karl Barth material sometime.
ron
I can't speak for Whit, but I am convinced that God is real.
peace, wayf
Tauler was from Germany in the 1300's, I believe. I have a book of some of his sermons, perhaps I will post some excerpts from them sometime. I like his style!
I am really not too familiar with Barth. I like Tillich alot, though.
St. Francis is absolutely one of my favorite Christians of all time.
peace, wayf
I love to collect good quotes. You have several good ones here.
Huggggggggggggggggggggz,
Taylor
Good to see you blogging again. I resonate with Paul Tillich's primary understanding that God is the ground of Being and all other commentary about God is symbolic, including some of your quotes here.
woodsman
Glad you liked these.
peace, wayf
St. Francis was/is an amazing man. Such a profound thinker, and yet the picture of humility.
Have you ever seen the picture that depicts St. Francis preaching to the birds? I love that image.
You? A radical? Of course you are! That's why we love ya so much, June!
peace, wayf
One of my favorite observations on God by a theologian was Meister Eckhart's assertion that "you shouldn't talk about God, because if you do, you're telling lies and sinning." Of course, even Eckhart couldn't heed his own advice, and ended up becoming a very controversial figure within the Church.
I, too, love Tillich's observations, and they resonate truth with me. However, I think the nature of the things Tillich said (and how he said it) has lead a lot of people to misconstrue his main ideas. With Tillich, I believe that all language is symbolic, and I believe that God is best viewed as the ground of being, but, I think we must be careful to not adopt the whole "watch-maker" view of God.
I can not subscribe to the view that God created the world and then went away. The way I see it, God is still creating the world, in the present now, and "in His own image". Of course, each person will have his own view of God, and I see that there's nothing wrong with that, so long as God is always the central focus of our thought.
I suppose that I would say that God transcends anything that any of us could possibly say about Him, but, even by saying that, I have put a sort of constraint on God--symbolically speaking. Anyway, I believe in a God that is in fact the ground of Being, but I also believe that God is not as removed from us as we tend to want to think.
I don't see God as being "out there", but "right here, right now".
Sorry for rambling...
peace, wayf