Amen Quotes

“Will the very real consolation we have known disappear when we accept that its source is imaginary?”
― Gretta Vosper, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief

“Religion is a communal way of reimagining and remaking the self and the world. It is what we are to live by and what we are to live for. … [W]e need religion as much as ever. We need it as human, value-creating activity.”
― Gretta Vosper, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief

“The worst implication of all is that God made that catastrophe happen as part of a grand, unrevealed plan, using a child and a woman as pawns in order to teach someone else about the strength of his power. When we tell these stories as if God were looking out for the woman and not for the child, we reinforce our personal sense of security. One person has God’s blessing; another doesn”
― Gretta Vosper, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief

“The cliché “dodged the bullet” allows us to share the relief we feel when we are lucky enough to avoid a fate we certainly wouldn’t choose. “There but for the grace of God go I” seems to say the same thing, but in stark contrast to the camaraderie of the bullet remark, the implication here is that the other person has not merited grace, has offended God, is deserving of affliction. It is Job’s friends come to needle him into acknowledging his guilt, the reason for the death of his livestock, the demise of his children, the destruction of his world. In essence, the approved, acknowledged, acceptable state to be in is a state of grace; God has noticed us and bestowed grace upon us.”
― Gretta Vosper, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief