Home > Work > Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine
1 " To make disciples is to teach people how to keep the faith. One keeps faith by following Jesus’ words rather than merely knowing faith’s content. "
― Kevin J. Vanhoozer , Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine
2 " Of ultimate importance, then, is not that I become good, or that the condition of the world be improved by my efforts, but that the reality of God show itself everywhere to be the ultimate reality. "
3 " theology is the serious and joyful attempt to live blessedly with others, before God, in Christ, through the Spirit "
4 " Desire for God without doctrine is blind; doctrine without desire is empty. The "
5 " In sum: the church exists to be a living exhibit of the reality of the gospel. "
6 " the twenty-first-century evangelical church is on the verge of selling its Protestant birthright, sola scriptura, for a mess of pottage, sola cultura. "
7 " The church has become the theater of the gospel, and in this theater, there are no passive spectators, only engaged participants, acting out what is in Christ. "
8 " The church is biblical, therefore, when it seeks to embody the words in the power of the Spirit and so become a living commentary. "
9 " Christian identity, the role disciples have been called to play, requires being with others. It takes two or three gathered in Christ’s name fully to represent him. It takes a company. "
10 " The theory-practice dichotomy that still bedevils many a theological curriculum serves neither seminary nor church. There is a debilitating dichotomy between what Christians believe (doctrine) and how they live their lives (discipleship). "
11 " To “confess” [homologeō] the coming of Christ is to do more than say words or repeat certain lines. Nor is it simply a matter of asserting the content of one’s belief. To confess is rather to acknowledge, which is a self-involving speech act.16 In self-involving speech acts, speakers do not simply refer to a state of affairs, but they take up a particular posture toward it. The speakers are prepared to stand by their words (i.e., to take a stand), to borrow a phrase from Wendell Berry. "
12 " Unless the word of God enlighten men’s path, the whole of their life is enveloped in darkness and obscurity, so that they cannot do anything else than miserably wander from the right way. "
13 " A theologian is one who prays—and stays awake. "
14 " Doctrine forms disciples when it helps the church to act out its new life in Christ. "
15 " There is too much concern with what works and sells than with gospel truth. It is tempting, and better for one’s self-esteem, to be “like other nations” (1 Sam. 8:20) than to be a resident alien, a marginalized weakling, or a fool. "
16 " In our scientific age, a materialist picture of the world now holds many captive. Add to that the postmodern suspicion that all truth claims are in fact disguised bids for power and you get a potent mix of skepticism and cynicism, a cocktail guaranteed to make one’s blood run old before its time. "
17 " Christian doctrine grows disciples by teaching them to perceive, name, and act in ways that demonstrate the reality of the gospel, speaking and showing what is “in Christ. "
18 " Imagination is biblical reasoning in its Sunday best, lost in wonder at the creativity of the Creator. Being "
19 " Christian doctrine is what the church believes, teaches, and confesses as it prays and suffers, serves and obeys, celebrates and awaits the coming of the kingdom of God. —Jaroslav Pelikan "
20 " The English term “martyr” comes from the Greek martys, “witness.” Søren Kierkegaard defines witness as “someone who directly demonstrates the truth of the doctrine he proclaims—directly, yes, partly by its being the truth within him, … partly by his volunteering his personal self and saying: See, now, if you can force me to deny this doctrine. "
