The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today Quotes

“Tertullian attacked false teaching in general”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“intellectual respectability in the modern world, the reality of the transcendent God must indeed be proclaimed by the theologians—and proclaimed on the basis of man’s rational competence to know the transempirical [supernatural] realm.”[309]”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“H. Richard Niebuhr’s critical description of liberal theology in general has become a classic: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministration of a Christ without a cross.”[181]”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“In anticipation, H. Richard Niebuhr’s critical description of liberal theology in general has become a classic: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministration of a Christ without a cross.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“This led to another of Spener’s innovations, what he called collegia pietatis, or “pious gatherings,” that is, small groups of Christians who would meet regularly to pray, study the Bible, discuss various topics, and generally hold one another accountable. Today that is rather taken for granted in church settings, but in Spener’s day it was unheard of.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“The doctrines of the incarnation and humanity of Christ are also central here: God became human so that he could unite humans with God.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“Briefly and generally stated, mystical theology or Christian mysticism seeks to describe an experienced, direct, non-abstract, unmediated, loving knowing of God, a knowing or seeing so direct as to be called union with God.”[97] Such an experience of God came through “contemplation”—observing”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“That is why doctrine is so important and worth fighting for. If we do not believe what is true of God, we cannot live in a way that is pleasing to God.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“One of Athanasius’s most famous statements was: “He [the Logos/Son] was made man that we might be made God” (On the Incarnation of the Word, 54.3).”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“Rather, the very nature of God is community in unity.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“Tertullian argued, one of the reasons that Jesus had to be truly human is because God cannot die; only a true human with a true physical body can die. If, as Gnostic Christians claimed, Jesus only appeared to be human, then his death only appeared to be real, and, if so, there is no true sacrifice for sin and no salvation. It was the true human nature of Jesus, not his divine nature, that suffered and died on the cross.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“God is una substantia, tres personae—one “substance” and three “persons.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“Roman Catholic Church: The highest level of church”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“His challenge to his fellow evangelical Christian and scholars, then, was to even further engage with modern society to help bring about this transformation by getting back to the true God who is known through the truthful Word of God.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“It is not the right human thoughts about God which form the content of the Bible, but the right thoughts about men. The Bible tells us not how we should talk with God but what he says to us; not how we find the way to him, but how he has sought and found the way to us; not the right relation in which we must place ourselves to him, but the covenant which he has made with all who are Abraham’s spiritual children, and which he has sealed once and for all in Jesus Christ. It is this, which is within the Bible. The world of God is within the Bible.[198]”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“The very last section of Gregory’s Pastoral Rule concerns humility. He wrote, “It is necessary that, when abundance of virtues flatter us, the eye of the soul should return to its own weaknesses, and profoundly humble itself; that it should look, not at the right things that it has done, but those that it has left undone; so that, while the heart is wounded by remembrance of frailty, it may be the more strongly confirmed in virtue before the author of humility” (Part 4).”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“Conclusion Not all agree with Augustine’s theology, but all agree that he was one of the greatest and most influential theologians ever. His thought cannot be underestimated and should not be overlooked. It has profoundly influenced not just theology but political and psychological theory as well. “It is little exaggeration to say that the whole history of the Western Church for the last 1,500 years is the story of Augustine’s influence.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“So we should be careful to avoid “dumbing down” biblical truths into categories of human comprehension or forcing biblical truths into philosophical categories and ideas”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministration of a Christ without a cross.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“If the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anabaptist churches in continental Europe came about due to theological or ecclesiastical issues, the Church of England came about (at least in one sense) due to hormonal issues, namely, lust.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

“When his father was arrested as a Christian and executed, young Origen wanted to join him in martyrdom, but his mother hid his clothes, preventing him from leaving the safety of their home.[32] Modesty prevented martyrdom.”
― Daryl Aaron, The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today