Guilt and Grace Quotes

“But in practice, every psychological confession has religious significance, and every religious confession, whether ritual and sacramental or free, its psychological effects. It is perhaps in this fact that we perceive most clearly the unity of the human being, and how impossible it is to dissociate the physical, psychological and religious aspects of his life. Every doctor, even without specializing in psychotherapy, in so far as he has understanding of what is human and likes contact with human beings, may suddenly find himself promoted to a confessor's priesthood without having sought it.”
― Paul Tournier, Guilt and Grace

“A man makes himself hard and inflexible in order to escape his guiltiness. The strange paradox present on every page of the Gospels and which we can verify any day, is that it is not guilt which is the obstacle to grace, as moralism supposes. On the contrary, it is the repression of guilt, self-justification, genuine self-righteousness and smugness which is the obstacle.”
― Paul Tournier, Guilt and Grace

“Óvakodjunk attól, nehogy megfosszuk Istent emberségétől annak ürügyén, hogy megszabaduljunk a gyermeteg antropomorfizmustól, hogy aztán ne maradjon nekünk más, mint egy távoli, rideg, az örökkévalóságból kimozdíthatatlan Isten, aki nem ismeri az életet, a történelmet, az emberi egzisztenciát, aki a filozófusok, és nem a Biblia élő Istene. Ha szabad így fogalmaznunk, az indulatoktól mentes Isten lélek nélküli, halott Isten, aki a Nietzschéénél is halottabb. (...) A harag nélküli Isten ugyanakkor szánalom nélküli Isten.”
― Paul Tournier, Igaz ​és hamis bűntudat