Quotes from Lionel Blue

Discrimination against Jews can be read in Thomas Aquinas, and insults against Jews in Martin Luther.

Praying privately in churches, I began to discover that heaven was my true home and also that it was here and now, woven into this life.

Some of the parables of the Kingdom made wonderful sense, but the exclusivity in the New Testament put me off.

Good things come, and I'm not just referring to riding the buses.

I have ended as a Reform Rabbi, grateful to Christianity for so many good things.

During the Second World War, evacuated to non-Jewish households, I encountered Christianity at home and in school.

Early on I saw the repression and idolatry of Stalinism, and when it cracked, I was open to religion again.

I was not allowed a physical lover. Falling in love with Love was the best I could get.

I was not comfortable worshipping another Jew.

It's more fun to watch without joining in.

On the way to work good-hearted young girls sometimes offer me their seats, which I accept and bless them in return, a transaction satisfying to all concerned.

At religious instruction classes, I encountered The Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan, and the sincerity of the traveller in that book was overwhelming.

The real evidence is not practically speaking in scholarship but in how Jesus and the Christianity based on him manifest themselves in the lives of practising Christians. Their lives are the proofs of their beliefs.

In speaking of Jesus, I must speak about Christianity because I do not think it possible or profitable to divide the two.

I began to see that my problems, seen spiritually, were really my soul's plusses.

Because of my Marxism, I was not into myths or miracles, whether it was the virgin birth, the physical resurrection or casting out demons from an epileptic.

For a Christian, Jesus is the unique and only way that God has fully revealed himself. For a Jew this cannot be.

This Christian poison hasn't stopped yet.

Old friends die on you, and they're irreplaceable. You become dependent.

My mother enjoyed old age, and because of her I've begun to enjoy parts of it too. So far I've had it good and am crumbling nicely.

My mother was a modern woman with a limited interest in religion. When the sun set and the fast of the Day of Atonement ended, she shot from the synagogue like a rocket to dance the Charleston.

During the Second World War, evacuated to non-Jewish households, I encountered Christianity at home and in school.

Early on I saw the repression and idolatry of Stalinism, and when it cracked, I was open to religion again.

To my surprise, my 70s are nicer than my 60s and my 60s than my 50s, and I wouldn't wish my teens and 20s on my enemies.