When I was in school (really for the last nineteen of 24 years), I’ve always had a list of the books I wanted to read if only I had the time. Well for nine or so months now I have been out of school and have really enjoyed reading my “long list” of books – that I really enjoy because they are good writing but also the fact that I didn’t “have to” read them!
Last night I finished my first D. Elton Trueblood book, “A Life of Search”. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“All professing Christians are called to be Christian intellectuals. That might seem a strange idea. One may say, ‘I have no degree.’ Socrates did not have a degree. Jesus did not have a degree. Who cares? The main thing is to use the mind that God has given you to the very fullest extent of which are capable.”
“…we are making a great start in understanding pain and suffering when we realize the Christian faith is not dependent upon an easy success story, but upon the Cross.”
“It ought to be possible to be both tender-hearted and tough-minded. This is the hope of all Christian theology, not only the Christian theology for clergypersons or professional theologians, but for lay Christians everywhere.”
“In Christ we have an alternative to futility, an alternative to confusion, and alternative to perplexity.”
“I do not support the church just because I need it. I support the church because I believe there is no other way for the centrality of Christ to be made effective in the world.”
“When lay people leave the cultivation of the spiritual life to one person, whom they employ and pay for this purpose, freshness tends to disappear.”
“Of all the fresh wineskins of the contemporary church, that of Pastor as Coach is pre-eminent.”
Quoting Stephen Grellet:
“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness I can show, let me do it now. Let me not withhold or defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
