Joy for the World Quotes

“To sustain moral behavior, people need more than simply a list of rules. They need to be people who have a comprehensive view of the universe—a religion, or an ideology that functions like a religion—that stands behind those rules. Only such a comprehensive view can explain the rules (supplying answers to the crucial “ethical content questions” mentioned above), organize the rules (so we know how to handle difficult ethical judgments), justify the rules (making them seem plausible, and therefore worthy of obedience), and sacralize the rules (making them sacred and truly moral, rather than merely prudent advice). Without a comprehensive view of the universe, no body of ethical rules remains coherent for long.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“the more a Christian intentionally cultivates the joy of God in daily life, the more deeply embedded the joy of God will become in American civilization, through him.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“Timothy Keller notes just a few of the many ways in which Christianity contributed to the emergence of the modern economy, such as the dignity of the human being as the basis of economic freedom, and generous service to others as the basis of an economy that serves customers with excellence: The Christian worldview has made foundational contributions to our own culture that may not be readily apparent. The deep background for our work, especially in the West—the rise of modern technology, the democratic ethos that makes modern capitalism thrive, the idea of inherent human freedom as the basis for economic freedom and the development of markets—is due largely to the cultural changes that Christianity has brought. Historian Jack Sommerville argues that Western society’s most pervasive ideas, such as the idea that forgiveness and service are more important than saving face and revenge, have deeply biblical roots. Many have argued, and I would agree, that the very rise of modern science could have occurred only in a society in which the biblical view of a sole, all-powerful, and personal Creator was prevalent.2 Christianity was not the only factor that helped the modern economy emerge, but it was a very important one.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“And by that remarkable fact there hangs . . . a story. This ambiguity was not a historical accident; it was, in fact, the whole point of the American founding. An adequate history of Christianity and America ought to be built around the story of this ambiguity. And quite a story it is. We might call it the “cooperative founding” story, because Christianity and its spiritual enemies created America together.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“I think the failure of The American church to affirm the goodness of civilizational life is our greatest failing today.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World

“Liberals and conservatives tend to view the economy in purely materialistic terms. They make growth, security, and prosperity ends in themselves. They exalt enlightened self-interest. They tell us that productive work is the fundamental source of human dignity.

But for Christians, (Greg) Forster insists, the materialistic view is a lie. The modern economic man is prone to workaholism, Envy, greed, anxiety, and a host of other ills. The great task for Christians is to become, broadly speaking, innovative entrepreneurs: people who are not only more productive in their work then there would be leaving neighbors, but also more creative, generous, honest, and humane.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World

“One thing we can easily predict is that anything worth accomplishing will take time, and the bigger our goals are, the more time they will take.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“So if we want to influence people, we have to be realistic. Our reach should not exceed our grasp. For centuries, the church used to teach that there were four “cardinal virtues” that were central to living a good human life, and one of them was prudence.6 Prudence might be summarized as the moral virtue of being realistic. Today we tend to think of prudence or realism more as a manifestation of intelligence or savvy. But there were good reasons the church historically classified this as a moral virtue, an integral part of being a good person. Realism is essential to responsible behavior. It means you care whether your actions are actually improving the world and blessing others rather than destroying and burdening. Naiveté is not quaint, innocent, and morally purifying. It’s horribly destructive. Maybe some people can’t help being naive in some respects, but for the most part, naiveté is a serious sin. It’s lazy and irresponsible.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“life must be lived forwards, but it can only be understood backwards.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“The scholarship of Christian academics isn’t recognized as scholarship at all unless it conforms to the prevailing rules of scholarship in the academic disciplines. This forces Christian scholars to accommodate and blend in; even when their work is excellent, it isn’t identified as Christian.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“We have a tendency to boil the Reformation down to two points: the authority of Scripture and justification through faith apart from works. However, the Reformers emphasized three essential components of their message, not two. The third was the doctrine of “vocation” or calling. Discipleship must transform all of life because God has a calling for you in every area of your life. The Reformation’s championing of calling took the idea of cultural transformation to a new level.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“One of the great dangers of our time is the illusion that moral obligations are somehow weaker if they’re not chosen. We are blessed with the freedom to make choices that people in most times and places don’t get to make. The special temptation of living in a society where we have personal liberties is the seductive idea that obligations are less binding, or not binding at all, if we came under them through birth or other circumstances beyond our control.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“Those who withdraw Christianity from the social order to “focus on evangelism” narrow down our engagement in a similar way. I hope it goes without saying that evangelism is a critical aspect of the life of the church! But when evangelism is the only way in which Christians seek social influence, the world encounters the church in two ways: gospel presentations, and activities designed to manipulate people into hearing gospel presentations. In the eyes of the world, the church comes across as a sort of spiritual Amway.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“Many Americans resent evangelicals because they perceive us as thinking we have a right to rule them. That perception is not always unreasonable in light of the way many evangelical leaders spoke and acted throughout the twentieth century. This is one of the most important reasons Christianity has gradually lost influence over the past century. While the believers in the Christian”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“The society with lots of open disagreement and social conflict is the one surging with power in art, science, commerce, constructive social reform, and (most of all) religious revival; the hushed-up society where everyone is afraid to say what he thinks is on the brink of violence and collapse.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“Society needs to see it as normal and expected, not scary and threatening, when people have different beliefs about the universe—beliefs that are unspeakably precious to them and organize their whole lives. These unshared beliefs will create uncomfortable social tensions. Society must embrace these tensions as healthy and beneficial, rather than shying away from them in fear. Societies where people feel free to have disagreements about the meaning of life are strong and confident in themselves, as they need to be to thrive. Societies where people keep their uncomfortable disagreements hushed up for fear of what might happen if they were aired are weak and hollow. Look back through history and you see the same pattern.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“Each of these imperatives has a tendency to degenerate into an excuse for greed and materialism in the absence of the other. Without the call to generosity, the call to productivity makes people feel entitled to live materialistic lives—as long as they accumulate their wealth by working productively. But without the call to productivity, the call to generosity makes people feel entitled to live materialistic lives—as long as they pay off God by tithing their 10 percent. The only way to root out materialism is to reorient people’s attitudes about their entire economic lives. If you only lead people to do good work (productivity), they’ll use their wealth selfishly. If you only lead them to get their use of wealth right (generosity), they won’t orient their lives to good work. The whole life of a person has to turn away from selfishness and serve God and neighbor. As someone once said, the only effective place to intervene in a vicious circle is everywhere at once.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It

“Whether we understand work spiritually depends in large part on whether we understand the economy spiritually. If we view the economy materialistically, thinking that economics is just about numbers on spreadsheets and arcane policy issues, we’ll tend to view work materialistically. On the other hand, if we have the vision to see that the economy is really a moral system, a vast web of human relationships where people exchange their work with one another, we’ll tend to see the spiritual dignity and meaning of our work. That’s why dramatic economic changes, like the ones we’re all going through right now, make people especially likely to despiritualize their work. At such times, the older economic systems and institutions that had embodied the spirituality of work for earlier generations become obsolete. We lose the sense that our work is part of a greater social whole that has dignity and purpose. As a result, our own work loses its sense of dignity and purpose.”
― Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It