In fact, even Tillich’s socialism was accommodationist because it continued the Constantinian strategy: The way to make the church radical is by identifying the church with secular “radicals”, that is, socialists.
The Church really does not know what [peace and justice] mean apart from the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. After all, Pilate permitted the killing of Jesus in order to secure both peace and justice (Roman style) in Judea.
As a society of unbelief, Western culture is devoid of a sense of journey, of adventure, because it lacks belief in much more than the cultivation of an ever-shrinking horizon of self-preservation and and self-expression.
You learn who you are only by making yourself accountable to the judgment of others.
Mary-born Lord, humble us so that we also might say, “Let it be with me according to your word.
Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require, like all of us, nurturance by a people who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to learn the story of God.
Never think that you need to protect God. Because anytime you think you need to protect God, you can be sure that you are worshipping an idol.
The lives of the saints are the hermeneutical key to Scripture.
My father was a better bricklayer than I am a theologian. I am still in too much of a hurry. But if the work I have done in theology is of any use, it is because of what I learned on the job, that is, you can lay only one brick at a time.
Gentleness is given to those who have learned that God will not have his kingdom triumph through the violence of the world, for such a triumph came through the meekness of a cross.
Whatever it means to be a Christian, it at least involves the discovery of friends you did not know you had.
No wonder modern humanity, even as it loudly proclaims its freedom and power to choose, is really an impotent herd drive this way and that, paralyzed by the disconnectedness of it all. It’s just one damn thing after another.
Let us wait in patience for the Christ-child whose own life depended on the lives of Mary and Joseph. The Word of God was made flesh. He came so that we might experience the fullness of time.
A martyr can never cooperate with death, go to death in a way that they’re not trying to escape.
To be poor does not mean you lack the means to extend charity to another. You may lack money or food, but you have the gift of friendship to overwhelm the loneliness that grips the lives of so many.