Quotes from Gene Edward Veith Jr.

parallelism may be the only poetic device that can be fully translated from one language to another.? Thus the Bible, translated into hundreds of languages, maintains its original poetic form and effects in every tongue, a linguistic curiosity that is clearly God's design.

Misunderstanding literary form can result in misunderstanding Scripture.

And so it can be today: Lutherans—with their understanding of creation, incarnation, God's presence in the Sacraments, His governance of the world, and His involvement in human vocations—can bring back not only belief in God but also belief in reality.

And, to be certain, God did not merely descend into creation to wallow in dust. He came to redeem a sin-shackled creation and bring eternal life in the midst of death. God put on human flesh in order to restore human flesh. He descended into the depths of a fallen world in order to lift it up out of the muck and mire of sin.

Anticipating the collapse of secular reason, Hamann thus brings us to a decidedly postmodern crossroads, at which point one can take the road of faith, which, as an inspired tradition attests, leads to ever greater enlightenment; or one can take the road of postmodern unbelief, which leads to nihilism. Simply put, the alternative is one between Hamann and postmodernity. 15

Vocation is far more than work-life integration, bridging the chasm between personal and professional; it is the integration of heaven and earth, God's work and our work, family and faith, daily life and divine power, culture and the Christian life. Vocation reveals the spirituality of everyday life.

Though personal and unique for each person ("take up his cross"), the Way of the Cross means that our spiritual life does not consist solely of victories, miracles, and success stories.

God is not impressed with grandiose accomplishments from someone who ignores his God-given calling to his wife and children.

Recovering authentic Christian spirituality does not require producing a new message. Nor does it mean joining the cacophony of our culture. Instead, recovering authentic Christianity requires increasing the clarity and power of the signal so it can be heard over the background noise.

He is not actually far from each one of us, for 'in him we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17:25, 27-28).

But the Bible is not just a text to interpret; rather, it is a text that interprets us.

The word obscene can be thought of as meaning "out of the scene" or "offstage."7

Empathy is a special application of the imagination. The ability to imagine what it would be like to experience what someone else is experiencing can be crucial to moral sensitivity.

As long as he (e.g. a shoemaker or a blacksmith) clings to these two, to the Word of faith toward God by which the heart is made clean, and to the word of understanding which teaches him how to act toward his neighbor in his station in life, everything is clean to him, even if with his hands and his whole body he deals with nothing but dirt.

Abject fear of pagan gods is little different from abject worship of them.

some readers are tempted to ignore the challenges of their own lives and to live completely in the alternative reality of books. This can be dangerous and sinful, a rejection of the real world in which God has placed us.

The habit of reading is absolutely critical today, particularly for Christians. As television turns our society into an increasingly image-dominated culture, Christians must continue to be people of the Word.