11 quotes
What the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore.
Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991)
The question must also be raised as to whether we have the actual words of Jesus in any Gospel.
Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991)
Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991)
Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth.
Resurrection: Myth or Reality? (1994)
All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth.
Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue.
True religion is not about possessing the truth. No religion does that. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers.
If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable.
Resurrection: Myth or Reality? (1994)
I am convinced that Paul of Tarsus was a gay man, deeply repressed, self-loathing, rigid in denial, bound by the law that he hoped could keep this thing, that he judged to be so unacceptable, totally under control, a control so profound that even Paul did not have to face this fact about himself.
The Sins of Scripture (2005)
The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. It grew and developed year by year over a period of forty-two to seventy years. That is not what most Christians have been taught to think, but it is factual. Christianity has always been an evolving story. It was never, even in the New Testament, a finished story.
Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy (2016)
Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. From this perspective, all human claims to possess objectivity, certainty, or infallibility are revealed as nothing but the weak and pitiable pleas of frantically insecure people who seek to live in an illusion because reality has proved to be too difficult.
Resurrection: Myth or Reality? (1994)