“So it teaches men both these truths: that there is a God we are capable of knowing, and that there is a corruption of nature which makes us unworthy of him. It is equally important for us to know both these points, and it is equally dangerous for man t know God without knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his wretchedness without knowing the Redeemer who can cure him of it. Knowledge of only one of these points leads either to the arrogance of the philosophers, who have known God and not their own wretchedness, or to the despair of the atheists, who know their wretchedness without knowing the Redeemer…Those who go astray only do so for lack of seeing one of these two things: one can then easily know God but not one’s own wretchedness, and one’s wretchedness without knowing God. But one cannot know Jesus Christ without knowing God and one’s wretchedness together.”—Pascal,
“He is blind indeed who fancies that pardon is all we want in order to get to heaven, and does not see that pardon without a change of heart would be a useless gift. Blessed be God that both are freely offered to us in Christ’s gospel, the one as well as the other!”—J.C. Ryle, Knots Untied
“The influence of the two great philosophies upon theology was beneficial or injurious, according as the principle of Christianity was the governing or the governed factor. Both systems are theistic (at bottom monotheistic) and favorable to the spirit of earnest and profound speculation. Platonism, with its ideal, poetic views, stimulates, fertilizes, inspires, and elevates the reason and imagination, but also easily leads into the errors of gnosticism and the twilight of mysticism. Aristotelianism, with its sober realism and sharp logical distinctions, is a good discipline for the understanding, a school of dialectic practice, and a help to logical, systematic, methodical treatment, but may also induce a barren formalism. The truth is, Christianity itself is the highest philosophy, as faith is the highest reason; and she makes successive philosophies, as well as the arts and the sciences, tributary to herself, on the Pauline principle that “all things are hers.”—Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity
“This is why you see all the weird, goofy stuff that people do in the liturgies right now, because they don’t believe that God has promised to show up on a Sunday morning by the power of the Spirit and be present, be active, be speaking. If we know God is going to show and be speaking, we’re not going to put on silly outfits and do skits to try to work people up. You don’t do a montage of pop songs in the middle of the service if you expect the God who created the world by His Word to show up and talk again!”—Jason Farley, “Knox Unplugged” Podcast, ep. Ninja Turtles, Barbie, and the Image of Evil
“What is really lost when a civilization wearies and grows small is confidence, a confidence built on the order and balance that leisure makes possible.”—Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization
