THEOLOGY“God knows me” is different from “God is omniscient”; the latter is a mere theological statement; the former is a child of God’s most precious possession.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
A doctrine has practical value only as far as it is prominent in our thoughts and makes a difference in our lives.
A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899)
As the grave grows nearer, my theology is growing strangely simple, and it begins and ends with Christ as the only Savior of the lost.
Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822–1901)
Could God pass an examination in theology?
Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)
Doctrine nails your faith.
Doctrine won’t make you happy unless it is translated into life.
Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)
Dogma is nothing more or less than emergency measures to which the church is driven by heresies.
Hans Küng (1928– )
Dogma is the ark within which the church floats safely down the flood-tide of history.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)
Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God.
A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
If God consistently sent lightning bolts in response to bad doctrine, our planet would sparkle nightly like a Christmas tree.
Philip Yancey (1949– )
If your theology doesn’t change your behavior, it will never change your destiny.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892)
In theology we must consider the predominance of authority; in philosophy the predominance of reason.
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630)
Let a man go to the grammar school of faith and repentance before he goes to the university of election and predestination.
George Whitefield (1714–1770)
Let one define his terms and then stick to the definition, and half the differences in philosophy and theology would come to an end.
Tryon Edwards (1809–1894)
Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not so. It is so. It is not so.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
My entire theology can be condensed into four words: “Jesus died for me.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892)
My strong advice to you is to soak, soak, soak in philosophy and psychology until you know more of these subjects than ever you need consciously to think. It is ignorance of these subjects on the part of ministers and workers that has brought our evangelical theology to such a sorry plight.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
Never take the conception of a theologian as infallible; it is simply an attempt to state things.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
Nothing dies harder than a theological difference.
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (1888–1957)
Our theology must become biography.
Tim Hansel
The best theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge.
Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)
The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama.
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957)
The theological problems of original sin, origin of evil, predestination, and the like are the soul’s mumps and measles and whooping coughs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
The Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection: your faith and my faith must include these three mysteries. They are difficult to understand. They are not unintelligible—God understands them. But for us there is an element of mystery. The greatest error anyone can make is to think they can fully understand these three mysteries. It makes a mockery of faith.
Mortimer Jerome Adler (1902– )
Theologians are always bothering about the origin of evil, but evil is just natural behavior; it’s the origin of human goodness that is really so extraordinary and inexplicable.
Kingsley Martin
Theological truth is useless until it is obeyed.
A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
Theology is an attempt to understand the mystery.
Theology is but the science of mind applied to God. As schools change, theology must necessarily change. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas of truth are not. Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887)
Theology is that madness gone systematic which tries to crowd God’s fullness into a formula and a system.
Joel Blau
Theology is the science of religion, an intellectual attempt to systematize the consciousness of God.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
Theology should be empress, and philosophy and the other arts merely her servants.
Martin Luther (1483–1546)
Theology teaches us what ends are desirable and what means are lawful, while politics teaches what means are effective.
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)
There is no wild beast so ferocious as Christians who differ concerning their faith.
William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838–1903)
True doctrine is a master key to all the world’s problems. With it the world can be taken apart and put together.
Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
We can be certain about God, but tentative about theology.
Ian Ramsey
Your theology is what you are when the talking stops and the action starts.
Colin Morris (1929– )
