---
title: "Great Theology Words"
description: "Browse 1,532 Theology quotes by 791 authors. Discover the best Theology sayings and thoughts."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5cc/edward-o-wilson-12084_creation-stories_meanwhile-it-needs-to-be-recognized-and_3029377.jpg"
---

> [“Meanwhile, it needs to be recognized, and talked about more frankly, that for philosophy the elephant in the kitchen is organized religion.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-o-wilson/meanwhile-it-needs-to-be-recognized-and-talked-about-more-frankly/)

[Edward O. Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-o-wilson/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5cc/edward-o-wilson-12084_creation-stories_meanwhile-it-needs-to-be-recognized-and_3029377.jpg)

> [“...What I have denied and what my reason compels me to deny, is the existence of a Being throned above us as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-a-edison/what-i-have-denied-and-what-my-reason-compels-me-to-deny-is-the/)

[Thomas A. Edison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-a-edison/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b7/thomas-a-edison-866_atheism_what-i-have-denied-and-what-my-reason-co_3057454.jpg)

> [“An interesting contrast between the geology of the present day and that of half a century ago, is presented by the complete…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-henry-huxley/an-interesting-contrast-between-the-geology-of-the-present-day-and/)

[Thomas Henry Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-henry-huxley/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/59a/thomas-henry-huxley-14414_charles-lyell_an-interesting-contrast-between-the-geol_2721120.jpg)

> [There's two kinds of thinking. There is conjunctive thinking and there's disjunctive thinking. Disjunctive thinking says it has to be either/or. Now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-warren/there-s-two-kinds-of-thinking-there-is-conjunctive-thinking-and-there/)

[Rick Warren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-warren/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1c0/rick-warren-230_believe_there-s-two-kinds-of-thinking-there-is-c_761637.jpg)

> [Once upon a time, science, philosophy, and theology were disciplines largely undifferentiated from one another, and proving the existence of God was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-wittes/once-upon-a-time-science-philosophy-and-theology-were-disciplines/)

[Benjamin Wittes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-wittes/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8c3/benjamin-wittes-9097_discipline_once-upon-a-time-science-philosophy-and_1130899.jpg)

> [The difficulty in today's world is our technology and science has outrun our theological advances. The reason for that is in technology…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ricky-ray/the-difficulty-in-today-s-world-is-our-technology-and-science-has/)

[Ricky Ray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ricky-ray/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8b8/ricky-ray-47206_difficulty_the-difficulty-in-today-s-world-is-our-t_1848089.jpg)

> [“Centuries of dire prophecy have taught us all to be, well, unconvinced. And there have been decades, entire scores of years when,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/scott-cairns/centuries-of-dire-prophecy-have-taught-us-all-to-be-well-unconvinced/)

[Scott Cairns](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/scott-cairns/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bea/scott-cairns-55516_apocalypse_centuries-of-dire-prophecy-have-taught-u_1429395.jpg)

> [“...only in the late 1100s and 1200s did scholars in Sicily and Spain translate Aristotle's greatest philosophical and scientific texts. These translations…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-c-placher/only-in-the-late-1100s-and-1200s-did-scholars-in-sicily-and-spain/)

[William C Placher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-c-placher/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f8b/william-c-placher-79493_doctrinal-history_only-in-the-late-1100s-and-1200s-did-sch_1755757.jpg)

> [The theology of the hammer embraces wholeheartedly the idea that the love of God and love of man must be blended. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/millard-fuller/the-theology-of-the-hammer-embraces-wholeheartedly-the-idea-that-the/)

[Millard Fuller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/millard-fuller/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb4/millard-fuller-27616_and-love_the-theology-of-the-hammer-embraces-whol_1997774.jpg)

> [One classical role of the pulpit in Protestantism has been to 'preach sermons' which imply indoctrination more than education. Within this from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-h-schuller/one-classical-role-of-the-pulpit-in-protestantism-has-been-to-preach/)

[Robert H. Schuller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-h-schuller/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5a7/robert-h-schuller-2371_communication_one-classical-role-of-the-pulpit-in-prot_1522548.jpg)

> [Protestantism, of course, is much more explicitly divided into different traditions - the Pentecostals, the Anglicans. But there is the main tradition…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marilynne-robinson/protestantism-of-course-is-much-more-explicitly-divided-into/)

[Marilynne Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marilynne-robinson/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/711/marilynne-robinson-602_courses_protestantism-of-course-is-much-more-exp_1067298.jpg)

> [“The 144,000 have the patience of the saints; they keep the commandments of God, and they also have the faith of Jesus.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-l-andreasen/the-144-000-have-the-patience-of-the-saints-they-keep-the/)

[M.L. Andreasen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/m-l-andreasen/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a47/m-l-andreasen-177557_adventist_the-144-000-have-the-patience-of-the-sai_209568.jpg)

> [“If God made everything, did He make the Devil?' This is the kind of embarrassing question which any child can ask before…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothy-l-sayers/if-god-made-everything-did-he-make-the-devil-this-is-the-kind-of/)

[Dorothy L. Sayers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothy-l-sayers/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ffb/dorothy-l-sayers-738_problem-of-evil_if-god-made-everything-did-he-make-the-d_1155535.jpg)

> [“Towards the end of the Second World War, when I was sixteen years old, I was taken out of school and forced…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-baptist-metz/towards-the-end-of-the-second-world-war-when-i-was-sixteen-years-old/)

[Johann Baptist Metz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-baptist-metz/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef8/johann-baptist-metz-22840_business_towards-the-end-of-the-second-world-war_2370643.jpg)

> [If belief in the miraculous revelation of the Old Testament and the New is required to make a man religious, then Franklin…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodore-parker/if-belief-in-the-miraculous-revelation-of-the-old-testament-and-the/)

[Theodore Parker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodore-parker/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17f/theodore-parker-4457_belief_if-belief-in-the-miraculous-revelation-o_1690860.jpg)

> [Would it not be prudent to get our civilization tools together, and see how much stock is left on hand in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/would-it-not-be-prudent-to-get-our-civilization-tools-together-and/)

[Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/031/mark-twain-22_balance_would-it-not-be-prudent-to-get-our-civil_2674141.png)

> [It is part of our "Mormon" theology that the Constitution of the United States was divinely inspired; that our Republic came into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-o-mckay/it-is-part-of-our-mormon-theology-that-the-constitution-of-the-united/)

[David O. McKay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-o-mckay/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e00/david-o-mckay-2062_believe_it-is-part-of-our-mormon-theology-that-t_741463.jpg)

> [I think Jesus is a fact of history. I think a man named Jesus of Nazareth lived and was crucified. I think…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-shelby-spong/i-think-jesus-is-a-fact-of-history-i-think-a-man-named-jesus-of/)

[John Shelby Spong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-shelby-spong/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/john-shelby-spong-1488_calling_i-think-jesus-is-a-fact-of-history-i-thi_2518253.jpg)

> [If I advance new views in Philosophy or Theology, I cannot expect to have many adherents among minds altogether unprepared for such…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-henry-lewes/if-i-advance-new-views-in-philosophy-or-theology-i-cannot-expect-to/)

[George Henry Lewes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-henry-lewes/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/65e/george-henry-lewes-4544_attention_if-i-advance-new-views-in-philosophy-or_1935903.jpg)

> [“Many in the church have turned their back on serious study, and have embraced an anti-intellectualism which refuses to learn anything from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/n-t-wright/many-in-the-church-have-turned-their-back-on-serious-study-and-have/)

[N.T. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/n-t-wright/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ae8/n-t-wright-1173_bible_many-in-the-church-have-turned-their-bac_2622147.png)

> [“All discourses and disciplines proceed from commitments and beliefs that are ultimately religious in nature. No scientific discourse (whether natural science or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-k-a-smith/all-discourses-and-disciplines-proceed-from-commitments-and-beliefs/)

[James K.A. Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-k-a-smith/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/24d/james-k-a-smith-11405_christianity_all-discourses-and-disciplines-proceed-f_2257777.png)

> [Calvinism is an all-embracing system of principles... It is rooted in a form of religion which was peculiarly its own, and form…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-kuyper/calvinism-is-an-all-embracing-system-of-principles-it-is-rooted-in-a/)

[Abraham Kuyper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-kuyper/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/625/abraham-kuyper-15926_calvinism_calvinism-is-an-all-embracing-system-of_1868480.png)

> [“As I see it the world is undoubtedly in need of a new religion, and that religion must be founded on humanist…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julian-huxley/as-i-see-it-the-world-is-undoubtedly-in-need-of-a-new-religion-and/)

[Julian Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julian-huxley/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce8/julian-huxley-14028_beliefs_as-i-see-it-the-world-is-undoubtedly-in_147732.png)

> [“We were fortunate his brief psychic vision distracted him from what his fingertips could have told him about my face. Of course…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-koontz/we-were-fortunate-his-brief-psychic-vision-distracted-him-from-what/)

[Dean Koontz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-koontz/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6f8/dean-koontz-118_dreams_we-were-fortunate-his-brief-psychic-visi_2135265.jpg)

> [Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/upon-this-theology-he-rarely-pondered-the-kernel-of-his-practical/)

[Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/578/sinclair-lewis-1945_beneficial_upon-this-theology-he-rarely-pondered-th_1742920.png)

> [“Whether we admit it or not, as people of faith, we sift our theology through Scripture, Church history and tradition, our reason,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-bessey/whether-we-admit-it-or-not-as-people-of-faith-we-sift-our-theology/)

[Sarah Bessey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-bessey/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de2/sarah-bessey-11185_church-history_whether-we-admit-it-or-not-as-people-of_932692.jpg)

> [“The quest for knowledge is the essence of science. The science of biology is a quest to gain a knowledge of living…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-c-sproul-2/the-quest-for-knowledge-is-the-essence-of-science-the-science-of/)

[R.C. Sproul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-c-sproul-2/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/515/r-c-sproul-2-1477_adventure_the-quest-for-knowledge-is-the-essence-o_1743660.jpg)

> [Indeed, theological discourse offers its strange jubilation only to the strict extent that it permits and, dangerously, demands of it wokman that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-luc-marion/indeed-theological-discourse-offers-its-strange-jubilation-only-to/)

[Jean-Luc Marion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-luc-marion/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/jean-luc-marion-61710_danger_indeed-theological-discourse-offers-its_549320.png)

> [The crime of liberation theology was that it takes the Gospels seriously. That's unacceptable. The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/the-crime-of-liberation-theology-was-that-it-takes-the-gospels/)

[Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1de/noam-chomsky-42_brazil_the-crime-of-liberation-theology-was-tha_1615951.jpg)

> [The assumption behind any theology that I've ever been familiar with is that there is a profound beauty in being, simply in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marilynne-robinson/the-assumption-behind-any-theology-that-i-ve-ever-been-familiar-with/)

[Marilynne Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marilynne-robinson/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/87d/marilynne-robinson-602_appreciate_the-assumption-behind-any-theology-that_1071983.jpg)

> [Theology is indispensable for religious communities to make sense of themselves and their changing views about the world in light of what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cornel-west/theology-is-indispensable-for-religious-communities-to-make-sense-of/)

[Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cornel-west/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ad/cornel-west-708_community_theology-is-indispensable-for-religious_2469506.jpg)

> [When climate change gets some attention in a 100-page document, the most important parts of which will have to do with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-weigel/when-climate-change-gets-some-attention-in-a-100-page-document-the/)

[George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-weigel/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fc4/george-weigel-9372_attention_when-climate-change-gets-some-attention_1640749.jpg)

> [“To challenge the verity of one’s own beliefs is to be courageous. To separate the truth from falsity is to be wise.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-goedken/to-challenge-the-verity-of-one-s-own-beliefs-is-to-be-courageous-to/)

[Brian Goedken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-goedken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/af4/brian-goedken-38890_buddhism_to-challenge-the-verity-of-one-s-own-bel_2456466.jpg)

> [The more I read, the less I admire modern theology. the more I study the productions of the new schools of theological…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-c-ryle/the-more-i-read-the-less-i-admire-modern-theology-the-more-i-study/)

[J. C. Ryle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-c-ryle/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2b0/j-c-ryle-789_admire_the-more-i-read-the-less-i-admire-modern_773088.png)

> [An Animated Cartoon Theology: 1. People are animals. 2. The body is mortal and subject to incredible pain. 3. Life is antagonistic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-l-doctorow/an-animated-cartoon-theology-1-people-are-animals-2-the-body-is/)

[E. L. Doctorow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-l-doctorow/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c1/e-l-doctorow-4627_able_an-animated-cartoon-theology-1-people-ar_2983904.jpg)

> [“natural theology. The discipline that attempts to gain knowledge of God apart from any special revelation from God. Natural theologians have typically…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/natural-theology-the-discipline-that-attempts-to-gain-knowledge-of/)

[Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71f/c-stephen-evans-2-177807_discipline_natural-theology-the-discipline-that-att_360219.jpg)

> [Is there an aesthetic "fit" in my work between God and the world? The "I' in my poems has from the beginning…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-joseph/is-there-an-aesthetic-fit-in-my-work-between-god-and-the-world-the-i/)

[Lawrence Joseph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-joseph/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5bd/lawrence-joseph-42974_aesthetic_is-there-an-aesthetic-fit-in-my-work-bet_881658.jpg)

> [Theology, by diverting the attention of men from this life to another, and by endeavoring to coerce all men into one religion,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elbert-hubbard/theology-by-diverting-the-attention-of-men-from-this-life-to-another/)

[Elbert Hubbard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elbert-hubbard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/536/elbert-hubbard-510_abandon_theology-by-diverting-the-attention-of-m_215282.png)

> [Although it has been fashionable to deny it, anti-slavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rodney-stark/although-it-has-been-fashionable-to-deny-it-anti-slavery-doctrines/)

[Rodney Stark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rodney-stark/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8b1/rodney-stark-7977_abolition_although-it-has-been-fashionable-to-deny_791227.jpg)

> [“The discipline of theology is about learning to read Scripture more faithfully. It is also about speaking the truth of Scripture in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/beth-felker-jones/the-discipline-of-theology-is-about-learning-to-read-scripture-more/)

[Beth Felker Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/beth-felker-jones/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8f1/beth-felker-jones-82112_bible_the-discipline-of-theology-is-about-lear_3082055.jpg)

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                        "text": "“Meanwhile, it needs to be recognized, and talked about more frankly, that for philosophy the elephant in the kitchen is organized religion. More precisely, the understanding of human condition often foretold by the blending of science and religion is inhibited by the intervention of supernatural creation stories, each defining a separate tribe. It is one thing to hold and share the elevated spiritual values of theological religion, with a belief in the divine and trust in the existence of an afterlife. It is another thing entirely to adopt a particular supernatural creation story. Faith in a creation story gives comforting membership in a tribe. But it bears stressing that not all creation stories can be true, no two can be true, and most assuredly, all are false. Each is sustained by blind tribalistic faith alone. The study of religion is an essential part of the humanities. It should nonetheless be studied as an element of human nature, and the evolution thereof, and not, in the manner of Christian bible colleges and Islamic madaris, a manual for the promotion of a faith defined by a particular creation story.”",
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                        "text": "“...What I have denied and what my reason compels me to deny, is the existence of a Being throned above us as a god, directing our mundane affairs in detail, regarding us as individuals, punishing us, rewarding us as human judges might. When the churches learn to take this rational view of things, when they become true schools of ethics and stop teaching fables, they will be more effective than they are to-day... If they would turn all that ability to teaching this one thing – the fact that honesty is best, that selfishness and lies of any sort must surely fail to produce happiness – they would accomplish actual things. Religious faiths and creeds have greatly hampered our development. They have absorbed and wasted some fine intellects. That creeds are getting to be less and less important to the average mind with every passing year is a good sign, I think, although I do not wish to talk about what is commonly called theology. The criticisms which have been hurled at me have not worried me. A man cannot control his beliefs. If he is honest in his frank expression of them, that is all that can in justice be required of him. Professor Thomson and a thousand others do not in the least agree with me. His criticism of me, as I read it, charged that because I doubted the soul’s immortality, or ‘personality,’ as he called it, my mind must be abnormal, ‘pathological,’ in other, words, diseased... I try to say exactly what I honestly believe to be the truth, and more than that no man can do. I honestly believe that creedists have built up a mighty structure of inaccuracy, based, curiously, on those fundamental truths which I, with every honest man, must not alone admit but earnestly acclaim. I have been working on the same lines for many years. I have tried to go as far as possible toward the bottom of each subject I have studied. I have not reached my conclusions through study of traditions; I have reached them through the study of hard fact. I cannot see that unproved theories or sentiment should be permitted to have influence in the building of conviction upon matters so important. Science proves its theories or it rejects them. I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God. I earnestly believe that I am right; I cannot help believing as I do... I cannot accept as final any theory which is not provable. The theories of the theologians cannot be proved. Proof, proof! That is what I always have been after; that is what my mind requires before it can accept a theory as fact. Some things are provable, some things disprovable, some things are doubtful. All the problems which perplex us, now, will, soon or late, be solved, and solved beyond a question through scientific investigation. The thing which most impresses me about theology is that it does not seem to be investigating. It seems to be asserting, merely, without actual study. ...Moral teaching is the thing we need most in this world, and many of these men could be great moral teachers if they would but give their whole time to it, and to scientific search for the rock-bottom truth, instead of wasting it upon expounding theories of theology which are not in the first place firmly based. What we need is search for fundamentals, not reiteration of traditions born in days when men knew even less than we do now. [ Columbian Magazine interview ]”",
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                            "name": "Thomas A. Edison"
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                            "caption": "“...What I have denied and what my reason compels me to deny, is the existence of a Being throned above us as…” — Thomas A. Edison",
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                        "text": "“An interesting contrast between the geology of the present day and that of half a century ago, is presented by the complete emancipation of the modern geologist from the controlling and perverting influence of theology, all-powerful at the earlier date. As the geologist of my young days wrote, he had one eye upon fact, and the other on Genesis; at present, he wisely keeps both eyes on fact, and ignores the pentateuchal mythology altogether. The publication of the 'Principles of Geology' brought upon its illustrious author a period of social ostracism; the instruction given to our children is based upon those principles. Whewell had the courage to attack Lyell 's fundamental assumption (which surely is a dictate of common sense) that we ought to exhaust known causes before seeking for the explanation of geological phenomena in causes of which we have no experience.”",
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                            "name": "Thomas Henry Huxley"
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                        "text": "There's two kinds of thinking. There is conjunctive thinking and there's disjunctive thinking. Disjunctive thinking says it has to be either/or. Now clearly, there are some either/or's - I either trust Christ or I don't. I'm either pregnant or I'm not. But a lot of thinking in Scripture, when it comes to theology is, in my opinion, conjunctive thinking. It's both/and. I believe that and I believe that.",
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                            "name": "Rick Warren"
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                            "caption": "“There's two kinds of thinking. There is conjunctive thinking and there's disjunctive thinking. Disjunctive…” — Rick Warren",
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                        "text": "Once upon a time, science, philosophy, and theology were disciplines largely undifferentiated from one another, and proving the existence of God was a fairly commonplace intellectual exercise. But as the scientific method became increasingly refined, particularly through the nineteenth century, science and religion grew apart.",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Benjamin Wittes"
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                        "text": "The difficulty in today's world is our technology and science has outrun our theological advances. The reason for that is in technology and science, we have had the courage to ask the single question that theology has been afraid to ask: \"Is it possible that there's something I don't know about this, the knowing of which would change everything?\"",
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                            "name": "Ricky Ray"
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                            "caption": "“The difficulty in today's world is our technology and science has outrun our theological advances. The…” — Ricky Ray",
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                        "text": "“Centuries of dire prophecy have taught us all to be, well, unconvinced. And there have been decades, entire scores of years when, to be frank, wholesale destruction didn’t sound so bad, considering. You remember, we were all disappointed. That the world never ended meant we had to get out of bed after all...”",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Scott Cairns"
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                            "caption": "“Centuries of dire prophecy have taught us all to be, well, unconvinced. And there have been decades, entire…” — Scott Cairns",
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                        "text": "“...only in the late 1100s and 1200s did scholars in Sicily and Spain translate Aristotle's greatest philosophical and scientific texts. These translations had an impact reminiscent of those science fiction stories in which the world suddenly encounters a civilization far in advance of its own. Aristotle had systematically answered the widest range of questions on everything from ethics to physics to biology. Students flocked to the universities advertising that they taught Aristotle. For Christian theologians, all of this posed at least two problems. First, the whole Augustinian tradition had taught that faith provided the standpoint from which one could understand the world correctly. Since Aristotle had not been a Christian, how had he managed to understand so much? Second, most theologians had drawn on the idea, going back to Aristotle's teacher Plato, that the road to knowledge involves turning away from the senses and looking inward to the truths of the soul. Aristotle, on the other hand, taught that all knowledge begins with sense observation.”",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "William C Placher"
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "The theology of the hammer embraces wholeheartedly the idea that the love of God and love of man must be blended. The word and the deed must come together. One without the other is devoid of meaning … As the deed gets closer to the word, God gets closer to us. The results are always wonderful — and sometimes spectacular!",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Millard Fuller"
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                            "caption": "“The theology of the hammer embraces wholeheartedly the idea that the love of God and love of man must be…” — Millard Fuller",
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                        "text": "One classical role of the pulpit in Protestantism has been to 'preach sermons' which imply indoctrination more than education. Within this from of communication, there is an inherent, intrinsic inclination to intimidate, manipulate, and, hence, offend the person's most prized quality of humanness - his dignity.",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Robert H. Schuller"
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                            "caption": "“One classical role of the pulpit in Protestantism has been to 'preach sermons' which imply indoctrination…” — Robert H. Schuller",
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                        "text": "Protestantism, of course, is much more explicitly divided into different traditions - the Pentecostals, the Anglicans. But there is the main tradition of Protestantism that comes out of the Reformation and that produced people like Kant and Hegel and so on, who are not normally thought of as being people writing in a theological tradition, although Hegel, of course, wrote theology his whole life.",
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                            "name": "Marilynne Robinson"
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                            "caption": "“Protestantism, of course, is much more explicitly divided into different traditions - the Pentecostals, the…” — Marilynne Robinson",
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                        "text": "“The 144,000 have the patience of the saints; they keep the commandments of God, and they also have the faith of Jesus. For them the doors of heaven will swing wide open. They enter as those who have a right to the tree of life, and with holy boldness they go with Jesus even into the presence of God. In this group God completes the demonstration of His power to save. The vilest sinners can be made fit companions for the saints in light. If these persons chosen from the last and weakest generation can endure the test given them, there is no excuse for the fall of Adam. He, in the fullness of strength, failed in the smallest test; these, in all the weakness of humanity, pass a test infinitely greater. Hence, God cannot be accused of requiring more of Adam than he could do. God is now looking for candidates for immortality. He is looking for men and women to make up the number required in the last demonstration. He wants converted, sanctified, dedicated people, such as will not boast of their attainments, but who in humility will follow in the Master's footsteps, exercise the faith He did, have the patience needed to finish the work, and at last enter with Him through the gates into the city.”",
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                        "text": "“If God made everything, did He make the Devil?' This is the kind of embarrassing question which any child can ask before breakfast, and for which no neat and handy formula is provided in the Parents' Manual…Later in life, however, the problem of time and the problem of evil become desperately urgent, and it is useless to tell us to run away and play and that we shall understand when we are older. The world has grown hoary, and the questions are still unanswered.”",
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                            "name": "Dorothy L. Sayers"
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                            "caption": "“If God made everything, did He make the Devil?' This is the kind of embarrassing question which any child…” — Dorothy L. Sayers",
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                        "text": "“Towards the end of the Second World War, when I was sixteen years old, I was taken out of school and forced into the army. After a brief period of training at a base in Wüzburg, I arrived at the front, which by that time had already crossed the Rhine into Germany. There were well over a hundred in my company, all of whom were very young. One evening the company commander sent me with a message to battalion headquarters. I wandered all night long through destroyed, burning villages and farms, and when in the morning I returned to my company I found only the dead, nothing but dead, overrun by a combined bomber and tank assault. I could see only dead and empty faces, where the day before I had shared childhood fears and youthful laughter. I remember nothing but a wordless cry. Thus I see myself to this very day, and behind this memory all my childhood dreams crumble away.”",
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                        "text": "If belief in the miraculous revelation of the Old Testament and the New is required to make a man religious, then Franklin had no religion at all. It would be an insult to say that he believed in the popular theology of his time, or of ours, for. I find not a line from his pen indicating any such belief.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Would it not be prudent to get our civilization tools together, and see how much stock is left on hand in the way of Glass Beads and Theology, and Maxim Guns and Hymn Books, and Trade Gin and Torches of Progress and Enlightenment (patent adjustable ones, good to fire villages with, upon occasion), and balance the books, and arrive at the profit and loss, so that we may intelligently decide whether to continue the business or sellout the property and start a new Civilization Scheme on the proceeds.",
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                            "name": "Mark Twain"
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "It is part of our \"Mormon\" theology that the Constitution of the United States was divinely inspired; that our Republic came into existence through wise men raised up for that very purpose. We believe it is the duty of the members of the Church to see that this Republic is not subverted either by any sudden or constant erosion of those principles which gave this Nation its birth.",
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                            "name": "David O. McKay"
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                            "caption": "“It is part of our \"Mormon\" theology that the Constitution of the United States was divinely inspired; that…” — David O. McKay",
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                        "text": "I think Jesus is a fact of history. I think a man named Jesus of Nazareth lived and was crucified. I think his death interpreted his life in a fantastic way, because if you study that life carefully underneath an overlay of theology and mythology, you'll find that the power of that life was that he was constantly giving himself away. He was constantly calling people to be all that they could be.",
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                            "name": "John Shelby Spong"
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                            "caption": "“I think Jesus is a fact of history. I think a man named Jesus of Nazareth lived and was crucified. I think…” — John Shelby Spong",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "If I advance new views in Philosophy or Theology, I cannot expect to have many adherents among minds altogether unprepared for such views; yet it is certain that even those who most fiercely oppose me will recognize the power of my voice if it is not a mere echo; and the very novelty will challenge attention, and at last gain adherents if my views have any real insight.",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "George Henry Lewes"
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                            "caption": "“If I advance new views in Philosophy or Theology, I cannot expect to have many adherents among minds…” — George Henry Lewes",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Many in the church have turned their back on serious study, and have embraced an anti-intellectualism which refuses to learn anything from scholarship at all lest it corrupt their pure faith. It is time to end this standoff, and to reestablish a hermeneutic of trust (itself a sign of the gospel!) in place of the hermeneutic of suspicion which the church has so disastrously borrowed from the postmodern world.”",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "N.T. Wright"
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                            "caption": "“Many in the church have turned their back on serious study, and have embraced an anti-intellectualism which…” — N.T. Wright",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“All discourses and disciplines proceed from commitments and beliefs that are ultimately religious in nature. No scientific discourse (whether natural science or social science) simply discloses to us the facts of reality to which theology must submit; rather, every discourse is, in some sense, religious. The playing field has been leveled. Theology is most persistently postmodern when it rejects a lingering correlational false humility and instead speaks unapologetically from the the primacy of Christian revelation and the church's confessional language.”",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "James K.A. Smith"
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                            "caption": "“All discourses and disciplines proceed from commitments and beliefs that are ultimately religious in nature…” — James K.A. Smith",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Calvinism is an all-embracing system of principles... It is rooted in a form of religion which was peculiarly its own, and form that specific religious consciousness there was developed first a particular theology, then a special church-order, and then a given form for political and social life.",
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                            "name": "Abraham Kuyper"
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                            "caption": "“Calvinism is an all-embracing system of principles... It is rooted in a form of religion which was…” — Abraham Kuyper",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“As I see it the world is undoubtedly in need of a new religion, and that religion must be founded on humanist principles. When I say religion, I do not mean merely a theology involving belief in a supernatural god or gods; nor do I mean merely a system of ethics, however exalted; nor only scientific knowledge, however extensive; nor just a practical social morality, however admirable or efficient. I mean an organized system of ideas and emotions which relate man to his destiny, beyond and above the practical affairs of every day, transcending the present and the existing systems of law and social structure. The prerequisite today is that any such religion shall appeal potentially to all mankind; and that its intellectual and rational sides shall not be incompatible with scientific knowledge but on the contrary based on it.”",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Julian Huxley"
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                            "caption": "“As I see it the world is undoubtedly in need of a new religion, and that religion must be founded on…” — Julian Huxley",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“We were fortunate his brief psychic vision distracted him from what his fingertips could have told him about my face. Of course we were aware that temporary clairvoyance was a lame and unlikely explanation. The ordering of this world, however is so abstruce, so deep and complex, most explanations that people to make sense of moments of strange experience are inadequate. Our very existence as thinking creatures is an astonishment that cant be solved. Every human cell, with its thousands of protein chains, is more complex than a 747 or the largest cruise ship, in fact more complex than the two combined. All life on earth, in its extravagant variety, offers itself for study, but though we probe to ever deeper layers of its structure, the meaning eludes us. There is no end of wonders and mysteries: fireflies and music boxes, the stars that outnumber all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world.”",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Dean Koontz"
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                            "caption": "“We were fortunate his brief psychic vision distracted him from what his fingertips could have told him about…” — Dean Koontz",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.",
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                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Sinclair Lewis"
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                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/upon-this-theology-he-rarely-pondered-the-kernel-of-his-practical/",
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                            "caption": "“Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and…” — Sinclair Lewis",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Whether we admit it or not, as people of faith, we sift our theology through Scripture, Church history and tradition, our reason, and our own experience. Most Christians, even the most committed of the sola scriptura crowd, use these four pillars—at varying degrees of importance and strength—to figure out the ways of God in our world and what it means here and now for our walking-around lives. And taking this a bit further into postmodern territory, we can also admit that we are relying on our own imperfect and subjective interpretations of those pillars, too.”",
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                            "name": "Sarah Bessey"
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“The quest for knowledge is the essence of science. The science of biology is a quest to gain a knowledge of living things, the science of physics is an attempt to gain knowledge about physical things, and the science of theology is an attempt to gain a coherent, consistent knowledge of God. All”",
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                            "name": "R.C. Sproul"
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                        "text": "Indeed, theological discourse offers its strange jubilation only to the strict extent that it permits and, dangerously, demands of it wokman that he speak beyond his means, precisely because he does not speak of himself. Hence the danger of a speech that, in a sense, speaks against the one who lends himself to it. One must obtain forgiveness for every essay in theology. In all senses.",
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                        "text": "The crime of liberation theology was that it takes the Gospels seriously. That's unacceptable. The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you take a look at them . . . Liberation theology, in Brazil particularly, brought the actual Gospel to  peasants. They said, let's read what the Gospels say, and try to act on the principles they describe. That was the major crime that set off the Reagan wars of terror.",
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                        "text": "The assumption behind any theology that I've ever been familiar with is that there is a profound beauty in being, simply in itself. Poetry, at least traditionally, has been an educing of the beauty of language, the beauty of experience, the beauty of the working of the mind, and so on. The pastor does, indeed, appreciate it.",
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                        "text": "Theology is indispensable for religious communities to make sense of themselves and their changing views about the world in light of what is perceived to be revelation, but, at the same time, that theology can have a pretentiousness, or double pretentiousness, if it is acontextual as opposed to contextual, if it is foundationalist as opposed to antifoundationalist, or ahistorical as opposed to historicist.",
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                        "text": "When climate change gets some attention in a 100-page document, the most important parts of which will have to do with the theology of stewardship and the theology of \"human ecology,\" it's almost certainly going to be rapturously embraced, or bitterly opposed, as a \"global-warming encyclical,\" despite the evidence that it's much more broadly gauged than that.",
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                        "text": "“To challenge the verity of one’s own beliefs is to be courageous. To separate the truth from falsity is to be wise. To take action against the headwinds of the status quo is to be a pioneer. The troika of courage, wisdom, and a pioneering spirit [elevates our enlightenment to the construct and elegance of true reality].”",
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                        "text": "The more I read, the less I admire modern theology. the more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writings. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the 'broader and kinder systems', as they are called, which to my mind stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy.",
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                        "text": "An Animated Cartoon Theology: 1. People are animals. 2. The body is mortal and subject to incredible pain. 3. Life is antagonistic to the living. 4. The flesh can be sawed, crushed, frozen, stretched, burned, bombed, and plucked for music. 5. The dumb are abused by the smart and the smart destroyed by their own cunning. 6. The small are tortured by the large and the large destroyed by their own momentum. 7. We are able to walk on air, but only as long as our illusion supports us.",
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                        "text": "“natural theology. The discipline that attempts to gain knowledge of God apart from any special revelation from God. Natural theologians have typically tried to infer God’s existence through theistic arguments such as the cosmological and teleological arguments as well as by reflecting on generic human experience. Catholic theology has traditionally affirmed the value of natural theology, while many Protestants, especially from the Reformed tradition, have been less enthusiastic about its prospects.”",
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                        "text": "Is there an aesthetic \"fit\" in my work between God and the world? The \"I' in my poems has from the beginning identified himself as Catholic, and my books certainly can be read as presenting a Catholic theology \"in a very particular sense.\" Catholicism is a faith morally identified with the human struggle for human dignity and justice. It is a vision of the world incarnationally rooted in the senses, a faith of and in spoken and written words - Scripture, \"the Word of God,\" the Logos.",
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                        "text": "Theology, by diverting the attention of men from this life to another, and by endeavoring to coerce all men into one religion, constantly preaching that this world is full of misery, but the next world would be beautiful - or not, as the case may be - has forced on men the thought of fear where otherwise there might have been the happy abandon of nature.",
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                        "text": "Although it has been fashionable to deny it, anti-slavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome and were accompanied by the eventual disappearance of slavery in all but the fringes of Christian Europe. When Europeans subsequently instituted slavery in the New World, they did so over strenuous papal opposition, a fact that was conveniently 'lost' from history until recently. Finally, the abolition of New World slavery was initiated and achieved by Christian activists.",
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                        "text": "“The discipline of theology is about learning to read Scripture more faithfully. It is also about speaking the truth of Scripture in ways that fit new contexts, new times, and new places. It is true that human beings are very talented at using reason, tradition, and experience to support our own sins. It is also true that reading Scripture well is very hard work.”",
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