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Ellul’s The Subversion of Christianity is just too good to contain within one Weekend Wisdom post. Here’s the fourth of five good quotes: Freedom is hard to live with. It is terrible. It is a venture. It devours and demands. It is a constant battle, for around us there are always traps to rob us [...]

Ellul’s The Subversion of Christianity is just too good to contain within one Weekend Wisdom post. Here’s the third of five good quotes: Today, as under Constantine, Christians do exactly the same. They first take up political or moralistic positions and then toss in some theology to justify themselves, to give themselves a good conscience, [...]

Ellul’s The Subversion of Christianity is just too good to contain within one Weekend Wisdom post. Here’s the second of five good quotes: God does not reveal by means of a philosophical system or a moral code or a metaphysical construction. He enters human history and accompanies his people. —Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, [...]

Ellul’s The Subversion of Christianity is just too good to contain within one Weekend Wisdom post. Here’s the first of five good quotes: Each generation thinks it has finally discovered the truth, the key, the essential nub of Christianity by veneering itself with the dominant influence or modeling itself on it. —Jacques Ellul, The Subversion [...]

We tend to magnify failure, in others as well as in ourselves, because we so often look at the effects of sin rather than at the wonder of grace. —Ray S. Anderson, Judas and Jesus: Amazing Grace for the Wounded Soul, 27.

The theologians do not thrill when the prophet cries, ‘Thus saith the Lord!’ They first examine his credentials. —Clifton Wolters, Introduction to Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love, 12. (Your reaction to this quote should immediately tell you whether you’re more theologian or prophet!)

The church has . . . often attempted to outlaw both sex and drink, but when it has sought to do so, it has had difficulty in living with Scripture, either with a story about Jesus facilitating drinking at a wedding or with poems about sexual love, which it rendered harmless by means of typology [...]

Pilgrimage, done properly, is one of the best-known antidotes to gnosticism. Gnosticism runs screaming at the sight of a muddy boot. —Charles Foster, The Sacred Journey, 19.

Every man who delights in a multitude of words, even thou he says admirable things, is empty within. If you love truth, be a lover of silence. —Isaac of Niniveh in Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer, 30.

While we sat in darkness, Lord Jesus Christ, you interrupted us with your life. Make us, your people, a holy interruption so that by your Spirit’s power we may live as a light to the nations, even as we stumble through this world’s dark night. Amen. —Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro, Common Prayer, [...]