Quotes About Theology

Voltaire once said that God was merely a comedian playing before an audience that was afraid to laugh?

Theology does not come easily. Better put, faithful theology comes by grace or not at all, while idolatry comes quite naturally to those of us who make our bed east of Eden.

The central theological principle of the Bible [is] the rejection of idolatry.

Many Christians have put the political cart before the theological horse.

You can't prove your conclusions.' This was another indictment levelled against us by interviewers and theological critics – as if we might have been expected to produce a sworn affidavit signed by Jesus himself, duly witnessed and duly notarised. Of course we couldn't 'prove' our conclusions. As we stressed repeatedly in the book itself, we were simply posing an hypothesis.

Our Christian and human lives are united because redemption restores creation.

God does not create the universe. Precisely the reverse is true. The universe creates God.

The relation of science to metaphysics and theology is not fundamentally a scientific question, nor is it fundamentally an empirical, historical, sociological, or even philosophical question, though of course it is all of these. Rather it is fundamentally a theological question, logically consequent upon the question of the relation between God and the world.

Metaphysical judgments are inherent in what counts as empirical evidence, and these judgments mediate between science and theology proper.

The notion of a "pure" science free from metaphysical and theological contamination is a fiction and therefore already the expression of a theology.

science is intrinsically related to theology because one cannot identify the object of scientific inquiry—namely, nature—without simultaneously distinguishing it from that which is not nature—namely, God—and without giving tacit specification to the character of this "not.

Theology, not morality, is the first business on the church's agenda of reform, and the church, not society, is the first target of divine criticism.

At the same time, like biblical prophecy, "its goal is not speculative foresight, but theological insight

it is the only New Testament book on which Calvin did not write a commentary.

by "responsible" I mean theologically responsible, which entails paying attention to the book's original historical and literary contexts, its relationship to the rest of Scripture, its relationship to Christian doctrine and practice, and its potential to help or harm people in their life of faith.

A theology that endangers life rather than "giving life" is one that cannot accept the title of being adequately Christian.

It is, of course, essential to remember that theology is not merely a matter of intellect, but also of experience. Theology is concerned with spiritual realities, and must include personal experience as well as ideas ... The feeling equally with reason must share in the consideration of theology, because theology is of the heart, and the deepest truths are inextricably bound up with personal needs and experiences.17

Expressed in theological terms, "In justification our own works have no place at all, and simple faith in Christ is the one thing needful. In sanctification our own works are of vast importance and God bids us fight, and watch, and pray, and strive, and take pains, and labour."34

Ironically, those with the least to say usually say the most and the most outwardly religious were often the most theologically unsophisticated.

The issue that captured the church was the issue of ensoulment and when it occurred during development. A church council decided to call it at conception, instead of the time frame St. Thomas Aquinas had argued in the thirteenth century, which was at around three months of gestation.

What kind of a God makes bodies and forbids you to use them?

As the medieval historian Richard Kieckhefer notes, the people of medieval Europe thought of magic as rational for two reasons: "first of all, that it could actually work (that its efficacy was shown by evidence recognized within the culture as authentic) and, secondly, that its workings were governed by principles (of theology or of physics) that could be coherently articulated.

Consideration of the method used in diverse orders of knowledge allows for the concordance of two points of view which seem irreconcilable. The sciences of observation describe and measure with ever greater precision the multiple manifestations of life … while theology extracts … the final meaning according to the Creator's designs.

The theologian and the executioner have been intimates throughout history.