The Bible presupposes a love of self, a desire to experience pleasure and avoid pain, as inherent in the human makeup and as the ground of ethical imperatives. For example, loving ourselves is often used as a criterion in Scripture for the love of others (Mt. 19:19; Eph. 5:28). It is an assumed fact that we do love ourselves, and it is not evil to do so if it is done rightly… Thus Christianity, far from denigrating human worth, actually presupposes it in some of its fundamental teachings. Yet something has tragically blighted and twisted love of self into a gross perversion of God’s intent for His creatures. The fall of the human race into sin caused love of self to become mere selfishness. What was lost was a focus outside the self – that is, a love of God that gave it control and benevolence.
— John Hannah, Kirchenhistoriker und Theologe
Topics: Meaning & Identity, Guilt & Forgiveness
Occasions: For Reflection
John Hannah
John D. Hannah ist ein US-amerikanischer evangelikaler Kirchenhistoriker und Theologe, der über fünf Jahrzehnte lang als Professor für Historische Theologie am Dallas Theological Seminary lehrte. Geprägt von einer reformierten Theologie und der Erforschung des Puritanismus, erlangte er Bekanntheit durch strukturierte Übersichtswerke zur Kirchengeschichte sowie durch Beiträge zur Irrtumslosigkeit der Bibel. Für Bibelleser ordnet er theologische Entwicklungen und Auslegungsfragen sachlich in ihren kirchengeschichtlichen Kontext ein.
All quotes by John Hannah (18)
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Augustine of Hippo
Jesus calls us not to a new religion, but to life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found.
Henri Nouwen
To love a person means to see them as God meant them to be.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Inner dignity remains, even when performance capacity and social role decline.
Anselm Grün
There is a God, and I'm not him.
John Mark Comer
God has put eternity into our hearts and filled it with longing.
John Piper
Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming.
Eugene Peterson