The reason many of us do not ardently believe in the gospel is that we have never given it a rigorous testing, thrown our hard questions at it, faced it with our most prickly doubts.

— Eugene Peterson (1932–2018), Pfarrer, Theologe und Autor

Source: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (über goodreads, Wortlaut nicht gegengeprüft)

Topics: Doubt & Hard Questions, Faith & Trust, The Bible & the Word of God

Occasions: For Reflection

Eugene Peterson

Eugene Peterson (1932–2018) war ein US-amerikanischer presbyterianischer Pfarrer, Theologieprofessor und Autor. Bekannt wurde er vor allem durch seine Bibelübertragung „The Message“ in modernes Alltagsenglisch sowie durch Schriften gegen kommerzialisierte und leistungsorientierte Gemeindekonzepte. Bibellesern bietet sein Werk Zugänge zu einer entschleunigten, kontemplativen Schriftbetrachtung, wenngleich seine freie Paraphrasierung des Bibeltextes auch theologische Kritik an der Übersetzungstreue hervorrief.

All quotes by Eugene Peterson (405)

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The strongest faith isn't a faith that never doubts. Rather, it's a faith that grows through doubts.

Craig Groeschel

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because, by it, I see everything else.

C.S. Lewis

Do you see the moon standing there? It's only half visible, and yet it's round and lovely! So it is with many things that we lightly laugh about, because our eyes cannot see them.

Matthias Claudius

The grip of our faith by which we hold on to the Lord may loosen. But the One in whom we believe holds us with his grip.

Helmut Thielicke

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

C.S. Lewis

Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

C.S. Lewis

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

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

William Shakespeare

All quotes · lumen.bible