Quotes from Diana Butler Bass

We must abandon the external height images in which the theistic God has historically been perceived and replace them with internal depth images of a deity who is not apart from us, but who is the very core and ground of all that is. —Paul Tillich

The overarching narrative of the Bible is that of humanity searching for home.

When someone asks me what kind of Christian I am," says Brent Bill, a Quaker writer, "I say I'm a bad one." He goes on to say, "I've got the belief part down pretty well, I think. It's in the practice of my belief in everyday life where I often miss the mark." Finally, he states, "I see myself as a pilgrim—traveling the faith path to the destination of being a good Christian—and into the eternal presence of God.

The deepest and most important spiritual lessons I ever learned came from a circle of drunks, fighting desperately not to drink today, whom I initially viewed as low-life losers, and who ultimately came to be for me the oracles of God. The Twelve Steps in no way diminished my appreciation for the gospel of Jesus Christ—quite the contrary—I am more convinced than ever of the reality of the gospel story.

The contemplative tradition has most deeply influenced my spiritual growth and my identity. My Christian action flows from my life of prayer." Aaron McCarroll Gallegos agrees: "An authentic prayer life has become one of the most important Christian practices for me…. Without a vital inner spiritual life, I believe it is almost certain that one will lose their way.

The moment that we think we know, we've lost our perspective on wisdom.

Throughout the first five centuries people understood Christianity primarily as a way of life in the present, not as a doctrinal system, esoteric belief, or promise of eternal salvation. By followers enacting Jesus's teachings, Christianity changed and improved the lives of its adherents and served as a practical spiritual pathway. This way—and earliest Christians were called "the People of the Way"—bettered existence for countless ancient believers.

Part of universal hospitality is in the practice of befriending other religious traditions and practices, while remaining deeply grounded. Brent Bill thinks Christians need to engage in "theological hospitality," that we "should be open and welcoming…instead of starting with the theological differences that divide us.

Spirituality is not just about sitting in a room encountering a mystical god in meditation or about seeing God in a sunset. Awe is the gateway to compassion. It is a deep awareness that we are creators, creators who work with the Creator, in an ongoing project of crafting a world. If we do not like the world or are afraid of it, we have had a hand in that. And if we made a mess, we can clean it up and do better. We are what we make.

What we need is here. —Wendell Berry

Thus Christianity becomes a story of accumulated human experience of God that reveals a certain kind of wisdom in the world: To love God and love one's neighbor constitutes the good life. Love is, as the apostle Paul wrote, the greatest of all things. Without love we are, as the good apostle said flatly, "nothing" (1 Cor. 13). Without love, Christianity is either a pretty bad joke or a twisted political agenda.

I learned new things about myself, about God, about life—all of it possible only because I was fired. I feel thankful.

Conversion is not a single prayer. Conversion is pilgrimage.

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. —John F. Kennedy

Christians struggled with Jesus's Great Command to love God (devotion) and love their neighbor (ethics).

In normal life one is not at all aware that we always receive infinitely more than we give, and that gratitude is what enriches life.

That's the best thing about little sisters: they spend so much time wishing they were elder sisters that in the end they're far wiser than the elder ones could ever be. —Gemma Burgess

Much of what passes for gratitude today appears to be a sort of secular prosperity gospel.

The baby, the star, and the wise men: a story of gifts and radical gratitude. Joy to the world!

It is just mortifying to be a Christian, except for the Jesus part. —Anne Lamott

Grace—gifts given without being earned and with no expectation of return—

Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefulness, and gratefulness is a measure of our aliveness. —DAVID STEINDL-RAST

St. Teresa of Ávila once said, "God has no hands but yours. . . . Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.

Fear brings out the basest instincts," writes British political scientist Sue Goss, "and narrows our sense of belonging to self-preservation."16