“Christ is God and Savior; He reveals the word of the Lord that we seek to avoid. Talking about salvation may offend the intelligent and the worldly by assaulting their pride. How often do we hear finely educated people say, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us” (Jeremiah 8:8). Yet far too many books are written with the lying pen of vanity (vs. 8). The Apostle Paul cautions us: “Be not be wise in your own opinion” (Rom 12:16). Saint Augustine possessed fine intelligence and skilled rhetoric, but in the end he asks, “What was the value of my cleverness?” (Dynamis 2/20/2019)
“The hubris of human intellectual pride that somehow we can reduce all things in the universe to mere observation is, at best, wildly optimistic! And, at worst, we witness the results already happening in our society as persons are reduced to mere fleshly machines, and all the world reduced to utilitarian “usefulness” or worse yet, personal desire and “my rights!” The clinical and antiseptic mindset of a society that has lost its ability to plumb the depth and wisdom of story and mystery loses something God-given in entering into union and communion with Him Who is always beyond our rational abilities and always dwells in mystery.” (Father Barnabas Powell)
“When Christian Education is only about facts we miss an important dimension. We miss the mystical and without the mystical we cannot teach the fullness of our faith. It is so much easier to just teach ‘facts’ – ‘facts’ are cut and dried and quite measurable. We think we must understand everything and often try to act as if we do. Too often this deception becomes our reality. The truth is we cannot understand everything because it is just too complex for our limited minds. Still, we continue in our intellectual pride. We stand with our Curriculum Guide in hand, and hide our real selves behind it. As the get older our students often turn away as they understand the shallowness of our words, when we cannot give an answer, when we do not answer the questions that they are afraid to ask. Many of us are uncomfortable sharing the spiritual sides of our lives. We would rather be thought of a smart, as logically reasoning, as clear thinkers, and we are not really comfortable with paradox. Yet what is our faith if not permeated with paradox?” (Betty Randolph)
“It is not enough simply to give intellectual assent to a system of doctrine, for tradition is far more than a set of abstract propositions – it is a life, a personal encounter with Christ in the Holy Spirit. Tradition is not only kept by the Church – it lives in the Church, it is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church.” (Metropolitan Kallistos Ware)
“Knowledge of God is not an intellectual pursuit…Theology cannot be grasped intellectually. It can only be experienced.” (Father Spyridon Baily, Jonathan Jackson)
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