List quotes

6 quotes, most recent first.  Quoting does not necessarily imply agreement: think for yourself.

Miguel de la Torre
Every semester, without fail, one of my students asks the litmus-test question by which most in my class assess my spirituality and my commitment to the Christian faith. The question simply is: Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? I habitually answer, No, I have a public relationship with Jesus Christ. This response usually raises eyebrows as my students attempt to figure out what I mean.

Reference: Reading the Bible from the Margins (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002), 136.

C.S. Lewis

This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: To go down to that Sea (i think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with my things temporal.

Reference: C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), 'A Slip of the Tongue' in 'C.S. Lewis Essay Collection: Faith, Christianity and the Church' (Great Britain: HarperCollins, 2002), p. 385

Link: http://cslewis.drzeus.net/

Naomi Klein

We are looking to brands for poetry and for spirituality, because we're not getting those things from our communities or from each other. When Nike says, 'Just do it,' that's a message of empowerment. Why aren't the rest of us speaking to young people in a voice of inspiration?

Reference: Leonard Sweet, Carpe Mañana, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 146, quoting from Fast Company (see link).

Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/online/38/nklein.html

Peter Abelard

The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning. … For by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at the truth.

Reference: Peter Abelard (1079-1142), Sic et Non, quoted in Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, updated 2nd ed. (USA: Word Publishing, 1995), p. 197

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1120abelard.html

Dallas Willard

Churches that took seriously the kingdom of God would look a lot like training centers—training centers for life, a life interactive with God. Churches would be deeply immersed in giving every bit of their resources to doing good, to blessing their communities. It is pathetic, for example, that you cannot get people to give a tithe. If the Christians in this country tithed, the church would be awash in money and there would not be a single legitimate social need that couldn’t be met, at least in financial terms.

Reference: Dallas WIllard, interviewed in Cutting Edge magazine (Winter, 2001)

Link: http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artid=53

David Ogilvy

“When Aeschines spoke they said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke they said, ‘Let us march against Philip!’ I'm with Demosthenes.”

Reference: David Ogilvy, ‘Confessions of an Advertising Man’