Quotes About Theology

The difference between us and the papists is that they do not think that the church can be 'the pillar of the truth' unless she presides over the word of God. We, on the other hand, assert that it is because she reverently subjects herself to the word of God that the truth is preserved by her and passed on to others by her hands.

Therefore, it is blasphemous to give the title Son to anyone but Christ.

They do not therefore apprehend God as he offers himself, bbut imagine him as they have fashioned him in their own presumption.

Adam did not take away the will, but made it a slave where it was free. It is not only prone to sin, but is made subject to sin.

whenever God revealed himself to be seen by the fathers, he never appeared as he is in himself but as he could be understood by human minds. Since

Hence the unskilful   rashly infer, that man did not sin by free choice.

Augustine is so wholly with me, that if I wished to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with all fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings.

But it is none the less true that men do not come to God by way of their own reason; neither do they in this way get near to him, because all their intelligence is but vanity. Whence

The decree is dreadful indeed, I confess.

We should forever keep in mind that we must not brood on the wickedness of man, but realize that he is God's image bearer.

Now, if any one should object, that it is unjust for the innocent   to bear the punishment of another's sin, I answer, whatever gifts God   had conferred upon us in the person of Adams he had the best right to   take away, when Adam wickedly fell.

But he immediately adds another clause, to teach us, that if anything in us tends to life, it is what the Spirit produces; for no spark of life proceeds from our flesh.

But we ever find, that even those who have not been deficient in their zeal for piety, nor in reverence and sobriety in handling the mysteries of God, have by no means agreed among themselves on every point; for God hath never favored his servants with so great a benefit, that they were all endued with a full and perfect knowledge in every thing; and, no doubt, for this end — that he might first keep them humble; and secondly, render them disposed to cultivate brotherly intercourse.

How childish is   the attempt to meet this argument by the following sophism! "We were   chosen because we were worthy, and because God foresaw that we would be   worthy." We

God did not look for a cause outside himself, but predestined us because it was his will to do it. But

the word predestinate refers not to election but to that decree or purpose of God by which he has ordained that his own bear the cross. In

Indeed, men who have either quaffed or even tasted the liberal arts penetrate with their aid far more deeply into the secrets of the divine wisdom." - John Calvin

He is the way because he leads us to the Father. He is the truth and the life because in Him we apprehend the Father. Therefore all theology separated from Christ is not only empty but also mad, deceiving and counterfeit.

those for whom prophetic doctrine is tasteless ought to be thought of as lacking taste buds.

for although the papists say something in passing about faith in Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit, it is clear that they are much nearer to the heathen philosophers than to Christ and his apostles. As

The God-given vocation of theology is to be a servant of the Truth, never his self-appointed master.

I'm Episcopalian. I believe in everything.

would you rather stand before God as a learned theologian who is full of pride or an unlearned man with a head full of superstition who worships in spirit and in truth?

I am wounded by theology, unhinged and uprooted by the blow it has delivered to my heart. Theology is my weakness, the way one has a weakness for sex or money, what I secretly desire, or maybe not so secretly, even as it desires everything of me. Still, with all due deference, like Johannes Climacus speaking of being a Christian, I would say that on my best days I am working at becoming theological.