"Kant's critique of the classical proofs for the existence of God may be more of an asset to theology than has often been recognized. For it permits theology to turn its attention from strong rational proofs, on the model of basic science, to a softer rationality that views transcendent knowledge as reliable though mutable. This broader view of reason may help theology reclaim its distinctive vision of knowledge of God that aims to form and transform believers whose trust in divine judgment and mercy is nurtured through scripture, creed and worship. The fragility of that trust reminds Christians of the need for prayer [among other things] to prepare properly for knowing God." (parenthetical comment, mine)

-----Ellen Charry, from "By The Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine"

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live...We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the 'ideas' with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience."

-----Joan Didion, "The White Album"

What's your narrative?

"O Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us
Who have hoped in thee.
O Lord, in Thee have I hoped;
May I never be confounded."

-----Augustine/Ambrose, late 4th century, baptismal hymn "Te Deum"

"Knowing God rightly, in, through, and as Jesus Christ, believers can confidently 'seek the things that are above' (3:1). Knowing the good news of salvation (indicative mode), believers are to live a life clothed with love (imperative mode; 3:14). The command follows the proclamation of the good news as a consequence and never as a condition. This order is not reversible. Reverse it, and the gospel is turned into a new law."

-----Andrew Purves, from his brief commentary on Colossians in the "Spiritual Formation Bible"

"We must...go deeper than the half-twilight that has fallen over our culture at the end of the modern age. The lack of purpose, meaning, and pattern, which all our study of the natural world and society and the human psyche proclaim, should have made evident to this age that we cannot find life-giving truth and meaning by examining again and again nature, society, and the human psyche. The only hope is in the sacred, which comes to us so gently in Jesus and the holy things of God, lovingly shared by faithful people."

-----Diogenes Allen, from "Steps Along the Way"