Christianity Rediscovered Quotes

“Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the people, about the church or Christianity. Never be afraid to ask questions about the work we have inherited or the work we are doing. There is no question that should not be asked or that is outlawed. The day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all.”
― Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered

“We did not search you out, Padri,” he said to me. “We did not even want you to come to us. You searched us out. You followed us away from your house into the bush, into the plains, into the steppes where our cattle are, into the hills where we take our cattle for water, into our villages, into our homes. You told us of the High God, how we must search for him, even leave our land and our people to find him. But we have not done this. We have not left our land. We have not searched for him. He has searched for us. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think we are the lion. In the end, the lion is God.”
― Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered

“I would propose cutting myself off from the schools and hospitals… and just go and talk to them about God and the Christian message… outside of this I have no theory, no plan, no strategy, no gimmicks – no idea of what will come. I feel rather naked. I will begin as soon as possible.”
― Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered

“Evangelization is not proselytism. Proselytism is centripetal. It is a movement inward. People are invited to come to the center where salvation is localized. In order to become a participant of salvation, they will have to join the group that mediates redemption… Evangelization is centrifugal. It leaves Jerusalem and is on its way to the ends of the earth and the end of time. To join means here: to join the journey away from the center – a light for the Gentiles, which goes forth toward the people, seeking them out and taking them by surprise in their darkness.”
― Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered