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de7c2b6 how it had looked like Eden. He pondered what it was like for the Man and Woman to be in such communion with Elohim, their fellow creatures, and the world around them, full of splendor and glory. He wondered what it would be like to be in Elohim's presence and the presence of his divine council of ten thousands of holy ones surrounding his throne and worshipping in the Garden that was his temple. Brian Godawa
21042e9 the other gods had discovered the universal economic law from time immemorial: whatever you tax you get less of, and whatever you subsidize you get more of. By heavily overtaxing wealth, she could decrease the amount of private wealth and therefore lessen its power. By subsidizing poverty with government welfare she would increase poverty and thus dependency upon the state. Human nature was such an easy thing to exploit when you understood .. Brian Godawa
d3d2469 Enoch asked Adam about the name he had uttered earlier, Yahweh Elohim. Adam apologized, "It slips out too often. It is the covenant name of Elohim. It is reserved for only the most sacred of relationships. It expresses his essence as the foundation of existence itself. The divine council of heavenly host uses it." He paused for a moment. "We used it in the Garden, but now with the Edenic exile..." his voice cracked for a moment. "It is a na.. Brian Godawa
dac280e Her biggest influence in persuading Noah was in prayer. When Noah was blinded by his own stubbornness, she would ask Elohim to soften his heart. Elohim had a way of opening Noah's eyes better than anyone else could. She did not believe that Elohim had abandoned them. She was sure he was planning something very significant to make his point. It would take something big to transform Noah to accomplish his calling. Elohim was like that. Brian Godawa
58ecca4 Genevieve has a secret admirer waiting for her outside reported Annabelle. We think he's a prince Grace added. Or maybe a cutthroat finished Charlotte. Karyn Monk
340002d it occurred to me that professors must get so they unconsciously act the way people think professors ought to act; Jack Finney
00303b5 She talked all the way back to the office, looking up at me eagerly through her slanted glasses, shoving the hair back off her face. The upper edge of her glasses bisected her right eye, the lower edge bisected the left; and since one lens made half her eye slightly smaller than normal, while the other lens magnified half of the remaining eye, she seemed to have four separate half-eyes of varying sizes, resembling a Picasso painting, and I .. Jack Finney
8aa4201 He turned to pull the door closed and the warm air from the hall rushed through the narrow opening again. As he saw the yellow paper, the pencil flying, scooped off the desk and, unimpeded by the glassless window, sail out into the night and out of his life, Tom Benecke burst into laughter and then closed the door behind him. inspirational Jack Finney
68e0876 I saw my father's wooden filing cabinet, his framed diplomas stacked on top of it, just as they'd been brought from his office. In that cabinet lay records of the colds, cut fingers, cancers, broken bones, mumps, diphtheria, births and deaths of a large part of Mill Valley for over two generations. Half the patients listed in those files were dead now, the wounds and tissue my father had treated only dust. Jack Finney
e09674c inserted Jack Finney
65d0e76 the very moment you are caught, there is always a chance. Jack Finney
df64ff3 I wrapped his pistol in his cap, and with the butt of the gun--not the end of the butt, but the side--hit him hard on the head. You read a lot about people being hit on the head and knocked out, but you don't read much about blood clots in the brain. In actual fact, though, it's a delicate matter, hitting a man on the head, Jack Finney
624e911 Set flush in the wall behind the desk was a steel door. It was knobless, and along one edge were three brass keyholes spaced a few inches apart. Rube brought out a key ring, selected a key, then walked around the desk, inserted the key in the topmost lock, and turned it. From his watch pocket he took a single key, pushed it into the middle keyhole, and turned. The guard stood waiting beside him, and now the guard inserted a key in the botto.. Jack Finney
23bfc6b When I was a young college teacher in my mid-twenties, an older colleague delighted in characterizing post-Enlightenment theology as "flat-tire theology"--"All the pneuma has gone out of it." Marcus J. Borg
1c554b5 rather than God being "out there" in the heights, God is known in the depths of personal experience." philosophy religion spirituality Marcus J. Borg
3df5d42 Resurrection" does not mean resumption of previous existence but entry into a different kind of existence." philosophy religion spirituality Marcus J. Borg
142dc4c Do we think that peace on earth comes from Caesar or Christ? Do we think it comes through violent victory or nonviolent justice? Advent, like Lent, is about a choice of how to live personally and individually, nationally and internationally. Marcus J. Borg
18c7339 an introduction to Christian pluralism and the intellectual riches of the Christian tradition, but also to intellectual pluralism. I realized that there were no definitely settled ways of seeing life--of what is, what is real, and how, then, we should live. The notion that there was one "right" way of seeing things disappeared. This was enormously liberating, even if a bit alarming. But my curiosity was greater than my fear." Marcus J. Borg
d9823c6 theological objections to an emphasis on an afterlife are about how such an emphasis affects Christianity. Note the word emphasis. My claim is not that believing in an afterlife intrinsically produces these results. Rather, I am describing what happens when the afterlife is emphasized in Christian preaching, teaching, and evangelism. It seriously distorts what Christianity is about and what it means to be Christian. It does this in several .. Marcus J. Borg
fac99dd Stories can be true without being literally and factually true. Marcus J. Borg
f607fcb Indeed, for Christians, the unending conversation about Jesus is the most important conversation there is. He is for us the decisive revelation of God--of what can be seen of God's character and passion in a human life. There are other important conversations. But for followers of Jesus, the unending conversation about Jesus is the conversation that matters most. Marcus J. Borg
8182347 The heaven-and-hell framework has four central elements: the afterlife, sin and forgiveness, Jesus's dying for our sins, and believing. Marcus J. Borg
89f931a about? What's salvation all about? My answer to that question now, my conviction now: "it"--Christianity and salvation--is about transformation this side of death. The natural effect of growing up, beginning in childhood, is that we fall into bondage to cultural messages and conventions; experience separation and exile from the one in whom we live and move and have our being; become blinded by habituated ways of seeing and live in the dark,.. Marcus J. Borg
266bdd9 To believe in a person is quite different from believing that a series of statements about the person are true. Marcus J. Borg
53b88ad This vision of life is deeply centered in God, the sacred. So it was for Jesus. So it is in all of the enduring religions of the world. What makes Christianity Christian is centering in God as known in Jesus. Marcus J. Borg
ef9b814 Two transformations are at the center of this life. For want of better language, I call them the personal and the political. The Christian life is about personal transformation into the likeness of Christ (from one degree to another, as Paul puts it); and it is about participation in God's passion for the kingdom of God. The personal and the political are brought together in "the way of the cross"--an image of personal transformation and co.. Marcus J. Borg
c6a08a6 In function, Jesus's aphorisms are very much like his parables--provocative and invitational forms of speech. They provoke thought, lead people to reconsider their taken-for-granted assumptions, and invite them to see life differently. Marcus J. Borg
44a569b One scenario begins by imagining that Jesus heals somebody in a village. What is the likely response, beyond amazement and gratitude? He (and those with him) would be invited to a meal. It is the classic ancient way of expressing gratitude and hospitality. Marcus J. Borg
32e7a7e To state the obvious, how we see is to a large extent the product of what we have seen. Marcus J. Borg
d809074 Christians also speak of the Bible as the revelation of God, indeed as the "Word of God." Yet orthodox Christian theology from ancient times has affirmed that the decisive revelation of God is Jesus. The Bible is "the Word" become words, God's revelation in human words; Jesus is "the Word" become flesh, God's revelation in a human life. Thus Jesus is more decisive than the Bible." -- Marcus J. Borg
9684aa2 Because modern critical thinking is corrosive of conventional religious beliefs, some Christians reject applying it to the Bible and Christianity. The result is fundamentalism and much of conservative Christianity, which holds that regardless of the claims of modern knowledge, the Bible and Christianity are true--and not just true, but factually true. Marcus J. Borg
2e5621e The terrible truth is that our world has never established peace through victory. Victory establishes not peace, but lull. Thereafter, violence returns once again, and always worse than before. And it is that escalator violence that then endangers our world. Marcus J. Borg
4a7c907 We face a similar choice each Christmas, and so each Advent is a time of repentance for the past and change for the future. Do we think that peace on earth comes from Caesar or Christ? Do we think it comes through violent victory or nonviolent justice? Advent, like Lent, is about a choice of how to live personally and individually, nationally and internationally. Marcus J. Borg
b711a12 The focus of a politics of compassion is the alleviation of suffering caused by social structures. Marcus J. Borg
95db0e3 The word "sacrament" also has a broader meaning. In the study of religion, a sacrament is commonly defined as a mediator of the sacred, a vehicle by which God becomes present, a means through which the Spirit is experienced." Marcus J. Borg
7f25761 The point: only a small minority of Christians and for only a brief period of time have taught biblical inerrancy and the sole authority of the Bible. So how and why has it become "orthodox" Christianity for about half of American Protestants?" Marcus J. Borg
9958776 Images of Jesus give content to what loyalty to him means. The popular picture of Jesus as one whose purpose was to proclaim truths about himself most often construes loyalty to him as insistence on the truth of those claims. Loyalty becomes belief in the historical truthfulness of all the statements in the gospels. Discipleship is then easily confused with dogmatism or doctrinal orthodoxy. The absence of an image - the most common fruit of.. Marcus J. Borg
36ad510 God's dream for us is not simply peace of mind, but peace on earth. Marcus J. Borg
1d831cc Importantly, the issue as we describe the wealthy and powerful is not whether they--in our case, the Jerusalem authorities centered in the temple--were "corrupt," if by that we mean an individual failing. As individuals, the wealthy and powerful can be good people--responsible, honest, hard-working, faithful to family and friends, interesting, charming, and good-hearted. The issue is not their individual virtue or wickedness, but the role t.. Marcus J. Borg
b6fc5c3 God has always been in relationship to us, journeying with us, and yearning to be known by us. Marcus J. Borg
1173483 Believe me," Dr. Tamalet summed up, "if you wanted that operation in France, you could get it" Which is, of course, the boon and the bane of France's health care system. It offers a maximum of free choice among skillful doctors and well-equipped hospitals, with little or not waiting, at bargain-basement prices [in out-of-pocket terms to the consumer]. It's a system that enables the French to live longer and healthier lives, with zero risk o.. T.R. Reid
a501993 One reason (though not the main one) is that American health care "providers"--doctors, nurses, hospitals, drug companies--make more money for what they do than their counterparts overseas do." T.R. Reid
05e0777 When Americans fill a prescription, the price is routinely twice as much--sometimes ten times as much--as a Briton or a German would pay for precisely the same pills made in the same factory. T.R. Reid
01b68f4 Von Kockritz's entire higher education was free. She considers that perfectly normal--and in Europe, it is. T.R. Reid