It's true that when Christianity is socially powerful, faith can look from the outside as if it is mainly a matter of membership, of participation in the vast synchronised swim of institutions. — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
If your memory was OK you could descend upon on a bookshop – a big enough one so that the staff wouldn’t hassle a… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
There have been low moments before, but Christianity is an incredibly adaptable organism, using different parts of its repertoire to mutate into new ecological… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
“Beyond the breakwater you can no longer touch bottom, but you are not afraid, for in this sea the harder you swim the stronger… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
Self-awareness is not the same thing as self-approval, any more than imagination is the same thing as day-dreaming. — Francis Spufford Copy Share
What follows is more about books than it is about me, but nonetheless it is my inward autobiography, for the words we take into… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
Despite the best efforts of apologists like William Lane Craig, the 'evidence' for Christianity's truth is, in truth, not the kind that science will… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
“You do not chuse where You bestow your Heart. Your Heart bestows Itself, will-you-nill-you, in the Midst of other Business. —” — Francis Spufford Copy Share
Anyone can be self-educated if they find the loose end of something to care about passionately. — Francis Spufford Copy Share
For a believer, Christian faith is true to the human heart, not in the sense that any old thing we fancy believing in will… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
When I'm tired and therefore indecisive, it can take half an hour to choose the book I am going to have with me while… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
“...what goes on inside believers is mysterious. So far as it can be guessed at - if for some reason you wanted to guess… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
I can always tell when you're reading somewhere in the house,' my mother used to say. 'There's a special silence, a reading silence. — Francis Spufford Copy Share
I think I have made allowances for the kind of despair which would test my faith, but you cannot know in advance what disaster… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
You don't have to become an investment banker as a way of demonstrating that education has worked for you. But librarians have to believe… — Francis Spufford Copy Share
