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Shall I tell you something that sounds like what they call a paradox? Sometimes it is a joy in the very heart of hell to tell the truth. And, above all, to tell it so that everybody misunderstands it. —G. K. Chesterton, “The Worst Crime in the World” in The Secret of Father Brown in The Complete [...]

With the exception of thunder from heaven (12:29), John records exclusively miracles that help people—and help outsiders more often than insiders. —Miroslav Volf, Captive to the Word of God: Engaging the Scriptures for Contemporary Theological Reflection, 118.

If “all things came into being through him [the Word], and without him not one thing came into being” (1:3), plurality as a social fact, along with plurality as a metaphysical fact, is not only obviously affirmed but is also traced back to God’s creative activity. —Miroslav Volf, Captive to the Word of God: Engaging [...]

Faith that is not accompanied by works ceases to be. —Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James (The Pillar New Testament Commentary), 144.

There is something morally repulsive about modern activistic theories which deny contemplation and recognize nothing but struggle. For them not a single moment has value in itself, but is only a means for what follows. —Nicolas Berdyaev in Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 48.

I have never said that we worship because we feel like it. Feelings are great liars. If Christians worshiped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith. … Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not [...]

Jesus is the space and time in which humanity gets caught up into the movement of God. —Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola, Jesus: A Theography, 14-15.

Every word of the God-breathed character of Scripture is meaningless if Holy Scripture is not understood as the witness concerning Christ. —G. C. Berkouwer in Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola, Jesus: A Theography, 1.

Jesus is the human face of God. —Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola, Jesus: A Theography, 6.

God, the NT suggests, delights especially to shower his grace on those whom the world has discarded and on those who are most keenly aware of their own inadequacy. —Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James: The Pillar New Testament Commentary, 108.