C. John Collins

“I think we can also see the wisdom in the biblical material on bodily position in prayer and worship: your posture affects your attitude. Hence worshipers kneel, stand, raise their hands, lie prostrate. What is Christian public worship? It’s when the Maker of heaven and earth welcomes his blood-bought people into his presence, to love them and give himself to them in a way that’s not available anywhere else, to grant them a taste of what their souls yearn for. How can I give the full range of response to such an inexpressible privilege unless my whole self is involved? For example: when we confess our sins together in worship and ask for forgiveness, we ought to be humble suppliants. I know I’m usually not. Perhaps the way to begin bringing my soul into line is to make my body kneel.”
― C. John Collins, Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?

“This, by the way, is one of the arguments in favor of seeing ancient tradition, rather than free composition, behind these patriarchal stories: Their manners and customs reflect accurate recollections of the time in which the events occurred, not simply the time of whoever wrote the stories down.”
― C. John Collins, Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11