#eol

What could I offer the local bad boy except my livelihood? Oh, I know. My body or my planes! Why didn't I think of that? Would you have preferred that I offer him my body, Nic, because I sure as hell wasn't going to sign over either of my planes! ↗

— Sharon K. Garner

#brazil #contemporary #rain-forest #romance #romantic-adventure

Listen up, Nic," she said firmly, looking straight into his gray-blue eyes. "If you die on me out here, so help me I'll hold seances and pester you. I won't give you a moment's peace in the hereafter," she threatened in a fierce whisper. Gabrielle O'Hara, River of Dreams ↗

— Sharon K. Garner

#brazil #contemporary #rain-forest #romance #romantic-adventure

Theological formation is the gradual and often painful discovery of God's incomprehensibility. You can be competent in many things, but you cannot be competent in God. ↗

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

#god #theology #education

I don’t drink water, because if water can erode rock, think what it can do to flesh.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#drinking #erode #erosion #flesh #geology

In my experience ideology is a lot like religion; it's a belief system and most people cling to it long after it becomes clear that their ideology doesn't describe the real world. ↗

— Maureen F. McHugh

#religion #experience

God impressed me with this a long time ago: 'Roddy, I will never do anything through you until I have done it to you!'." ~R. Alan Woods [1998] ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#experience #r-alan-woods #theology #experience

We must learn to accept ourselves in the painful experiment of living. We must embrace the spiritual adventure of becoming human, moving through the many stages that lie between birth and death. ↗

— Johann Baptist Metz

#death #human-nature #life #spirituality #theology

In the tenth century BC, the priests of India devised the Brahmodya competition, which would become a model of authentic theological discourse. The object was to find a verbal formula to define the Brahman, the ultimate and inexpressible reality beyond human understanding. The idea was to push language as far as it would go, until participants became aware of the ineffable. The challenger, drawing on his immense erudition, began the process by asking an enigmatic question and his opponents had to reply in a way that was apt but equally inscrutable. The winner was the contestant who reduced the others to silence. In that moment of silence, the Brahman was present - not in the ingenious verbal declarations but in the stunning realisation of the impotence of speech. Nearly all religious traditions have devised their own versions of this exercise. It was not a frustrating experience; the finale can, perhaps, be compared to the moment at the end of the symphony, when there is a full and pregnant beat of silence in the concert hall before the applause begins. The aim of good theology is to help the audience to live for a while in that silence. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#religion #theology #equality

Matthew 10:34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ↗

— Anonymous

#christianity #faith #theology #faith

Of Course God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is)... Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#christ #christianity #faith #god #hope