Faith & Reason

From Pascal's Pensees #589:

"Faith is a gift of God. Do not imagine that we describe it as a gift of reason. Other religions do not say that about their faith. They offered nothing but reason as a way to faith, and yet it does not lead there."

December reading list

65. Systematic Theology, by Wayne Grudem
66. Worship Old & New (hc), by Robert E. Webber
67. The Cheater (ua), by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
68. Penses (pb), by Blaise Pascal
69. Imager's Intrigue (ua), by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
70. Sand Sharks (ua), by Margaret Maron
71. Painted Ladies (ua), by Robert B. Parker
72. Guild of the Cowry Catchers, Book 2 (ua), by Abigail Hilton
73. Holy Bible, various translations

reason & passions

From Pascal's Pensees #621:
----------------------------
Civil war in man between passions and reason.
If there were only reason without passions.
If there were only passions without reason.
But since he has both he cannot be free from war, for he can only be at peace with the one if he is at war with the other.
Thus he is always torn by inner divisions and contradictions.

November reading list

59. The Big Short (ua), by Michael Lewis
60. NurtureShock (ua), by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
61. First Family (ua), by David Baldacci
62. Ironside (pb), by Holly Black
63. Kisser (ua), by Stuart Woods
64. Ford County (ua), by John Grisham

Pascal on Jesus' Teachings

Pensees 369:

"Jesus said great things so simply that he seems not to have thought about them at all, and yet so clearly that it is obvious how much he thought about them. Such clarity together with implicity is wonderful."

October reading list

53. Crocodile Tears (ua), by Anthony Horowitz
54. Left Behind: The Kids #16 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye
55. Left Behind: The Kids #17 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye
56. Left Behind: The Kids #18 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye
57. Imager's Challenge (ua), by L. A. Modessitt, Jr
58. Infinite Playlists (pb), by Todd Stocker

NT Wright on the Future Hope

From Surprised by Hope:

"What I am proposing is that the New Testament image of the future hope of the whole cosmos, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, gives as coherent a picture as we ned or could have of the future that is promised to the whole world, a future in which, under the sovereign and wise rule of the creator God, devay and death will be done away, and a new creation born to which the present one will stand as a mother to child ... What creation needs is not abondonment on the one hand, nor evolution on the other, but redemption and renewal; and this is both promised and guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is what the whole world is waiting for."

Pascal on Man's Corruption

from Pensees 446:

"If there were no obscurity man would not feel his corruption: if there were no light man could not hope for a cure. Thus it is not only right but useful for us that God should be partly concealed and partly revealed, since it is equally dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness as to know his wretchedness without knowing God."

N.T. Wright on the Church

The church is first and foremost a community, a collection of people who belong to one another because they belong to God, the God we know through Jesus. Though we often use the word “church” to denote a building, the point is that it’s the building where the community meets. True, buildings can and do carry memories, and when people have been praying and worshipping and mourning and celebrating in a particular building for many years the building itself may come to speak powerfully of God’s welcoming presence. But it is the people that matter.

on the theology of signs

From Robert E Webber's Worship Old & New:

"Protestants are the weakest in the third area of communication, the language of symbols. We have capitulated to the Enlightenment penchant for scientific objectivity, for obervation and proof, for cerebral communication. This has resulted in a loss of our ability to express feelings and intuition symbolically."