Quotes from Thomas C. Oden

From beginning to end, the biblical story is the story of the creation of humanity, the fall of humanity, and the redemption of humanity.

Neither male nor female language adequately grasps the fullness of the divine reality (Gregory Nazianzus, Orat. 27; John of Damascus, OF 1.4–8).

Rightly known, God illumines all reality, all human experience, all revelation, and all religion

God is the uncreated source and end of all things; one; incomparably alive; insurmountable in presence, knowledge, and power; personal, eternal spirit, who in holy love freely creates, sustains, and governs all things.

no human wisdom is more reliable than the actual history in which God is omnipresent.

One need not disavow the gifts of intellect in giving thought to their Giver

Sins of ignorance or infirmity are to be admonished in a different way than intentional sins of malice of intention. The assurance of forgiveness is not to be offered carelessly by those whose conscience is seared, but to penitents who come contritely to the table of the Lord.

Eternal God, the refuge of all your children, in our weakness you are our strength, in our darkness our light, in our sorrow our comfort and peace. May we always live in your presence, and serve you in our daily lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Boniface FURTHER

The deeper irony is that the evidence of sin that are always found in and around the body of Christ may become indirect intimations of its holiness. It could not be a holy church if it had clean hands, as if severed from its task of saving sinners and healing human hurt.

God has left a trail of language behind a stormy path of historical activities. That language is primarily the evidence with which theology has to deal—first with Scripture, then with a long history of interpretation of Scripture called church history and tradition, and finally with the special language that emerges out of each one's own personal experience of meeting the living God

Christianity does not limit revelation to Christ, but through Christ sees God's revelation as occurring elsewhere and finally, echoing everywhere.

The theater in which God has chosen to meet rational creatures quietly is the inward realm of conscience, moral reasoning, prayer, and study, especially study of the revealed Word.

Christ is the unparalleled and unrepeatable Revealer through whom other revelations are best understood

There is no Christian theology without the Bible. There is no Bible without an inspirited community to write, remember, and translate it, to guard it and pass it on, study it, live by it, and invite others to live by it.

The faithful have no dread of using the traditional language of the church. Terms like incarnation and resurrection need to be explained, not avoided.

early modern Christianity is often portrayed as an essentially European religion. This is regrettable because classic Christianity has its pre-European roots in cultures that are far distant from Europe and that preceded the development of early modern European identity, and some of its some of its greatest minds have been African.

Humanity is God's constant preoccupation throughout the Bible. The Christian study of God cannot neglect God's own prevailing interest—the redemption of humanity. No Christian theology can speak only of God and never of human beings.

Revelation is for human salvation, the mending of human brokenness (Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word 3).

God loves us toughly enough not to allow us to be happy with our sins. The recollection of sin rightly brings misery of conscience. How else could moral awareness be saved from sentimentality? The deepest human happiness, we learn, is grounded in holiness - God's holy love and our responsive attempts to reflect it fittingly.

Human reasoning is created by God with a capacity for reaching toward God by thinking, choosing, and speaking.

Human freedom is created by God with a capacity for responsiveness to God.

Human personality is created with the restless yearning for communion with the unseen but present personal God (Augustine, Conf. 1.1).

Human love is created with some capacity, however distorted, to love God and to love creatures through God.

The Christ event did not in that sense CHANGE the will of God, but rather it more clearly expressed God's eternal will toward the whole of history.