Religious Narrative Quotes

Re-telling the Christian story is the essence of my vocation. That has been going on since the Evangelists in one form or another.

It's a common part of the narrative of the history of Christianity that it was 'real' religion that involved real spirituality and real faith, and that's why it's completely superseded the more pagan polytheistic practices.

The story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac are nowhere in any other tradition.

The history of Israel and Judaism is the unfolding of the meaning of this story. It's retelling is never finished and will not be until the Kingdom.

I believe in the story [ of Adam and Eve]. For me, it's a story.

Referring to ISIL as a destructive religious cult rather than a legitimate theo-political 'radical Islamic' group is not just more accurate, it also exposes ISIL's corrupt religious narrative.

But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?

His [Jesus'] historians, having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground.

I am baffled by the way sophisticated theologians who know Adam and Eve never existed still keep talking about it.

If you go back far enough and get a wider enough picture of history, we have let go of many things that follow a religious narrative. We don't burn witches anymore. Most people would consider that barbaric. We don't sacrifice human beings, which was a religious act practiced by numerous cultures on this planet.

God's reasons for communicating with man must be subsumed under his reason for communicating to him his account of his creation of the world - and man.

If all the animals and man had been evolved in this ascendant manner, then there had been no first parents, no Eden, and no Fall. And if there had been no fall, then the entire historical fabric of Christianity, the story of the first sin and the reason for an atonement ... collapsed like a house of cards.

It's such a unique story. Book of Joshua in the Bible wasn't always my favorite book, by the way. Only some ago did I realize that this book covers a seven-year period in the history of ancient Israel in which they literally went undefeated.They did have one setback, but outside of that, they defeated over 30 kings. They recaptured the Promised Land. They did what their ancestors said they could not.

If you make a determination that [story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac] is not historical, do you throw it away? I don't think we can say whether it's precisely, scientifically historical.

Indeed if we Christians so tell our story that Judaism is silenced, then we have not spoken rightly of Christ.

The only way to win audiences is to tell people about the life and death of Christ. Every other approach is a waste.

Both Jewish and Roman sources and traditions admit an empty tomb.

Whether every story that's there [in the Bible] is a historic truth ... Again, I'm not concerned.

Christianity met the mythological search for romance by being a story and the philosophical search for truth by being a true story.

There are real people behind the [Bible] stories.

The Christian faith grew through story - not text. Only later did the stories become Scripture. While the Scripture must be held in the highest regard, we must not neglect the power of story.

The true faith discovered was When painted panel, statuary, Glass-mosaic, window-glass, Amended what was told awry By some peasant gospeler.

One may as well preach a respectable mythology as anything else.

Most religions live from a narrative that shapes their relationship with the divine other, God or the gods, and with the human other, the stranger.

The first time Adam had a chance, he laid the blame on women.