Living the Questions Quotes

“When people begin to become fundamentalist, it becomes a real challenge to the church to maintain the Spirit of Christ. What happens is people get defensive about their faith because they’re insecure and this is a very insecure time for the world. Fundamentalism says we know the answers; therefore, we should superimpose them on anybody who doesn’t agree with us. And along comes the organization of fundamentalists into a political bloc that not only takes over their churches but takes over (or attempts to take over) the governments of their countries, whether you’re a fundamentalist Muslim or a fundamentalist Jew or a fundamentalist Christian, the spirit is about all the same.”
― David L. Felten, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity

“Now from science we have a new creation story, which is very alluring and very exciting. It's not about deposing all the other wisdom stories about creation that humanity has gathered, but it certainly supplements it. It offers a real universal view because it's beyond any particular religion, ethnicity, nation and so forth. As we're struggling as a species to come together as a tribe, it provides us our basic framework, because it's from creation stories that ethics derive. Today's creation story from science is that we come from 14 billion years of an organic unfolding of the universe and are connected physiologically with every being in the universe. We all share the same atoms and the same molecules. That's truly significant and important at this time in history. We're all kin, we're all interdependent. And that's the basis of compassion, which was Jesus's ultimate teaching.”
― David Felten, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity

“The secret to practicing resurrection is in giving away who we are and what we have—completely and wholly—to something greater than ourselves. It’s in escaping from the circumstances and choices that entomb us and entering into new life here and now.”
― David L. Felten, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity

“While the concepts of pain and suffering are often lumped together, it’s helpful to be aware of their distinctiveness: pain is something we can’t escape and suffering is what we do about the pain. Suffering is the work we do with the pain. We don’t know what the Apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was. But when Paul prays to have this “thorn” removed, the divine response is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul then was able to boast in his weaknesses: “I am content,” he writes, “with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Individually or collectively, the Divine experiences pain, suffers it, and out of the wreckage helps people rebuild their lives—even though things may never be the same as they once were.”
― David L. Felten, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity

“Perhaps real “faith” involves seeing ambiguity not as an enemy, but as a vital part of the journey.”
― David L. Felten, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity