Shall the Gospel story be an invention? My friend, that is not how one invents, and the deeds of Socrates, which no one doubts, are not as well attested as the deeds of Jesus.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), Philosoph

Topics: Doubt & Hard Questions, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Der in Genf geborene Philosoph, Schriftsteller und Staatstheoretiker Jean-Jacques Rousseau wirkte im 18. Jahrhundert vor allem in Frankreich und prägte maßgeblich die europäische Aufklärung. Bekannt wurde er durch Werke wie „Vom Gesellschaftsvertrag“ und „Émile“ sowie durch seine These, dass der Mensch von Natur aus gut sei und erst durch gesellschaftliche Institutionen entfremdet werde. Für Bibelleser bildet sein Menschenbild eine klassische Gegenposition zum biblischen Verständnis von Sünde und Erlösungsbedürftigkeit, während der Bruch zwischen seinen pädagogischen Idealen und der Abgabe seiner eigenen Kinder ins Findelhaus bis heute kritisch diskutiert wird.

All quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (16)

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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.
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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