#theology

I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, or such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in Him. This was in no sense a vision: I believe it is called mystical theology. The soul is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside itself. The will loves; the memory, I think, is almost lost; while the understanding, I believe, thought it is not lost, does not reason—I mean that it does not work, but is amazed at the extent of all it can understand; for God wills it to realize that it understands nothing of what His Majesty represents to it. ↗

— Teresa of Ávila

#mystical-theology #mysticism #prayer #experience

In AA we don’t come to God through theology but through experience, mostly of the humbling and humiliating variety, often reluctantly, and sometimes even kicking and screaming. – p. 179 ↗

— Ray A.

#theology #experience

We believe that the creation of a woman was the crowning and final and most glorified moment of human creation. That we start with light & dark and land & sea and we move through fish & fowl & beasts of the field and we get to Adam and it's still not good enough. And only when Eve was created -- this is our theology [...] -- that is our theology, that the crowning creation and the glory of the human experience came with the creation of Eve." - see http://youtu.be/eF-JfX85A5s?t=11m53s ↗

— Jeffrey R. Holland

#creation #feminism #lds #mormon #religion

Theology isn't what drove them to their...theology." author writes on dealing with the embittering experience of those who protect a wounded place with abstract arguments. ↗

— Andy Stanley

#bitterness #theology #experience

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

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

Lord, forgive us for the times we have read about Gethsemane with dry eyes. ↗

— Frederick S. Leahy

#jesus #theology #forgiveness

Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company. ↗

— Mark Twain

#humor #misattributed #philosophy #theology #humor