Jesus was victorious not because he never flinched, talked back, or questioned, but having flinched, talked back, and questioned, he remained faithful. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Childlike surrender and trust, I believe, is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can't save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The ancient spiritual tradition is that God gives himself fully to us in silence and solitude. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The tendency in legalistic religion is to mistrust God, to mistrust others, and consequently, to mistrust ourselves.” — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“Whenever religion shows contempt or disregards the rights of persons, even under the noblest pretexts, it draws us away from reality and… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The question had become not “What does Jesus say?” but “What does the Church say?” This question is still being asked today.… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don't need to… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“There is a myth flourishing in the church today that has caused incalculable harm: once converted, fully converted. In other words, once… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“...the institutional church, which exists to serve the people of God, is never to be confused with the church as mystery -… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The confessing church of American Ragamuffins needs to join Magdalene and Peter in witnessing that Christianity is not primarily a moral code… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The anything-goes passiveness of the religious and political Left is matched by the preachy moralism of the religious and political Right. The… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Won't the awareness God loves us no matter what lead to spiritual laziness and moral laxity? Theoretically, this seems a reasonable fear,… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The bending of the mind by the powers of this world has twisted the gospel of grace into religious bondage and distorted… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The sinners to whom Jesus directed His messianic ministry were not those who skipped morning devotions or Sunday church. His ministry was… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own. We listen to people in… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Authentic faith leads us to treat others with unconditional seriousness and to a loving reverence for the mystery of the human personality.… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“On a blustery October night in a church outside Minneapolis, several hundred believers had gathered for a three-day seminar. I began with… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The spirit of Caiaphas lives on in every century of religious bureaucrats who confidently condemn good people who have broken bad religious… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“Is there anyone I can level with? Anyone I dare tell that I am benevolent and malevolent, chaste and randy, compassionate and… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“His consistent banging on the drums of God’s unconditional love sounded at a time when many of us had about “had it… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“Henri Nouwen wrote of the spiritual work of gratitude: To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The way you are with others every day, regardless of their status, is the true test of faith. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
When absolute control and rigid obedience pose as love within the family and the local faith-community , we produce trained cowards rather… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The gospel will persuade no one unless it has so convicted us that we are transformed by it. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust — not only for all the gifts… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The spiritual future of ragamuffins consists not in disavowing that we are sinners but in accepting that truth with growing clarity, rejoicing… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The difference between faith as “belief in something that may or may not exist” and faith as “trusting in God” is enormous.… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
While the impostor draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness.… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The New Testament has many examples of men and women who started out well and then faltered along the way. Yet on… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“The gospel of grace calls us to sing of the everyday mystery of intimacy with God instead of always seeking for miracles… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Justification by grace through faith' is the theologian's learned phrase for what Chesterton once called 'the furious love of G-d.' He is… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
The North American Church is at a critical juncture. The gospel of grace is being confused and compromised by silence, seduction, and… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
I've decided that if I had my life to live over again, I would not only climb more mountains, swim more rivers,… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Accepting the reality of our sinfulness means accepting our authentic self. Judas could not face his shadow; Peter could. The latter befriended the impostor… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Genuine self-acceptance is not derived from the power of positive thinking, mind games or pop psychology. IT IS AN ACT OF FAITH in the… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“It is not objective proof of God’s existence that we want but the experience of God’s presence. That is the miracle we are really… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
“He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don't need to apply spiritual… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Grace abounds in contemporary movies, books, novels, films and music. If God is not in the whirlwind, He may be in a Woody Allen… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
My trust in God flows out of the experience of his loving me, day in and day out, whether the day is stormy or… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
I you think you've done it, then you're wrong. Because you're not finished until you have achieved everything that you never thought you could. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience… — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
Our identity rests in God's relentless tenderness for us revealed in Jesus Christ. — Brennan Manning Copy Share Image
