Quotations from my recent reading

As I have been sorting through accumulated books and skimming through them to see what is worth keeping and what should be gotten rid of, I have come up with an assortment of quotes that I want to preserve somewhere. This is the place. The first 2 quotes come from the readings for the second half of the ISRME class on Religious Experience that I recently completed.

  al-Ghazali regarding the desire for knowledge, especially the proper desire for the knowledge of God:  

It is not hidden that there is a pleasure in the knowledge and science, to the extent that one rejoices when he is attributed to knowledge even of a little thing, and grieves whenever he is attributed to ignorance even of a little thing. Man always persists in acquiring knowledge and science in the particular field in which he is specialized. All of this goes back to the pleasure of knowledge, for knowledge is one of the attributes most unique to the Lord, which is the utmost degree of perfection. (Book 36, 'The Vision of God')

Jonathan Edwards, on assurance of salvation and the pursuit of such assurance:

It further appears that assurance is not only attainable in some very extraordinary cases, but that all Christians are directed to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure, and are told how they may do it, 2 Pet. 1:5-8. And it is spoken of as a thing very unbecoming Christians, and an argument of something very blamable in them, not to know whether Christ be in them or no: 2 Cor. 13:5, "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" And it is implied that it is an argument of a very blamable negligence in Christians, if they practice Christianity after such a manner as to remain uncertain of the reward, in 1 Cor. 9:26: "I therefore so run, as not uncertainly." And to add no more, it is manifest, that Christians' knowing their interest in the saving benefits of Christianity is a thing ordinarily attainable, because the apostle tells us by what means Christians (and not only the apostles and martyrs) were wont to know this. [1 Cor 2:12; 1 Jn 2:3, 5; 3:14, 19, 24; 4:13; 5:2, 19] The Religious Affections. 

from Thomas Watson's The Godly Man's Portrait.

 All the curses of God stand in full force against the unpardoned sinner; his very blessings are cursed (Mal. 2:2). (pg. 11)

It is true that there are sides of this sin [hypocrisy] in the best [person]; but as it was with leprosy under the law, all who had swellings or spots in the skin of the flesh were not reputed unclean and put out of the camp (Lev. 13:6); so all who have the swellings of hypocrisy in them are not to be judged hypocrites, for these may be the spots of God's children (Deut. 32:5). But that which distinguishes a hypocrite is when hypocrisy is predominant and is like a spreading fluid in the body. (pg 18)

The Scripture reveals Christ to us, but the Spirit reveals Christ in us. (Gal 1:16). (pg 27)

When Christians complain at their condition, they forget that they are servants, and must live on the allowance of the heavenly Master. You who have the least bit from God will die in his debt. (pg 39)

Duane Elmer in Cross-Cultural Conflict

The Western world does not place a high premium on unity. Whenever individualism reigns supreme, community is easily sacrificed for personal preferences. [...] Individualism fosters an impatience with people and institutions: we can always join another church, find new friends, or get another job. As long as we have options, we do not need to work at preserving present relationships.[...] The dubious luxury of disposable relationships has a dark side-a serious dark side. We can afford to take the unity of believers lightly if other options are available and relatively painless. But failures in individual and community relationships cast aspersions on God's reputation. (pg 25)

I have long enjoyed reading Louis L'amour and just finished re-reading The Walking Drum. This is one of his more quotable books. Below are a few excerpts.

His trouble had always been that he wished to know, but he did not want to go through the struggle of learning. (p. 496).

There is no miraculous change that takes place in a boy that makes him a man. He becomes a man by being a man, acting like a man. (p. 507).  

When one has lost his freedom it is always a long walk back. (p. 526). 

A First Paragraph of an Intro to a Book

 A book club that is following up the recent course I took on Religious Experience is reading Kamel Hussein's City of Wrong, which is a Muslim's serious consideration of the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus with its surrounding events. Due to the Kuran's comments about the crucifixion, such a serious consideration is rather uncommon. It was translated to English by Kenneth Cragg, the (very) widely respected Christian scholar of Islam. Hopefully, I'll have more from it later, but the first paragraph of Cragg's introduction was beautifully written with a growing power as the sentences roll on. I'd highlight certain lines, but it's more powerful in the aggregate.

Readers of the Gospels have often been uneasily aware that in their verdict against Jesus men were in fact involved in an inclusive verdict against themselves. The Governor Pilate’s familiar cry in presenting the Prisoner to the pity and, as it finally proved, to the brutality of the mob with the words Ecce Homo, ‘Behold the Man,’ turns on reflection into the plural. Here more than anywhere humankind is discernible in representative moral perversity, epitomized in ecclesiastical, political and popular choices made by particular people caught in a personal and communal crisis. The Ecce Homo scene in the precincts of the Roman praetorian presents a man to the judgement of a crowd. But such are its implications that the tables are reversed. The man becomes the crisis of the crowd and the moral meaning of the scene becomes a judgment by and of humanity. All its import gathers into one revelation chief priests and people, governor and onlookers, and cries to us all: Ecce Homines, ‘Behold humanity.’

Kamel Hussein, City of Wrong: A Friday in Jerusalem. (quotation from Kenneth Cragg's 'Introduction')