#eol

Humour is, in fact, a prelude to faith; and laughter is the beginning of prayer … Laughter is swallowed up in prayer and humour is fulfilled by faith. ↗

— Reinhold Niebuhr

#faith

The lust of the flesh directs these desires [of personal union], however, to satisfaction of the body, often at the cost of a real and full communion of persons. ↗

— John Paul II

#human-sexuality #theology #theology-of-the-body #faith

We worship…the powers that speak to our souls, if it seems they do. We do so knowing there is more to the world, and the half-world, and perhaps worlds beyond, than we can grasp. We always knew that. We can’t even stop children from dying, how would we presume to understand the truth of things? Behind things? Does the presence of one power deny another? [p. 176] ↗

— Guy Gavriel Kay

#theology #faith

Faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean. If it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will. ↗

— Flannery O'Connor

#faith

God gives us not only the truth but also the ability to believe it; not only the new thing to see but also the new eye to see it with. ↗

— Peter Kreeft

#christianity #faith #god #jesus-shock #philosophy

A theology that cannot be sung is not worth having.... Authentic Christian faith is not merely believed. Nor is it merely acted upon. It is sung - with utter joy sometimes, in uncontrollable tears sometimes, but it is sung. ↗

— Reggie M. Kidd

#song #theology #faith

If you do not love, you will not be alive; if you love effectively, you will be killed. ↗

— Herbert McCabe

#faith

Humor is a prelude to faith, and laughter is the beginning of prayer. ↗

— Reinhold Niebuhr

#faith

I sometimes find, especially among my peers, that authenticity is not a…means of growing in holiness, but a convenient cover for endless introspection, doubt, uncertainty, anger, and worldliness. So that if other Christians seem pure, assured, and happy we despise them for being inauthentic. Granted, the church shouldn’t be happy-clappy naive about life’s struggles. Plenty of psalms show us godly ways to be real with our negative emotions. But the church should not apologize for preaching a confident Christ and exhorting us to trust Him in all things. Church is not meant to foster an existential crisis of faith every week ↗

— Kevin DeYoung

#theology #anger

Woe to us if we get our satisfaction from the food in the kitchen and the TV in the den and the sex in the bedroom with an occasional tribute to the cement blocks in the basement! God wills to be displayed and known and loved and cherished and worshiped. ↗

— John Piper

#theology #food