Bullies and Saints Quotes

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27).”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“The antidote to hateful, nationalistic, violent Christianity, Einstein proposed, is Christianity in practice.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“But the problem with a hateful Christian is not their Christianity but their departure from it.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“This is true of every age. For every Cyril of Alexandria (the bishop when Hypatia was murdered) there was a Basil of Caesarea (who established the first hospital). For every Christian warlord hacking his way through pagan Europe there was a humble preacher standing in his way preferring to die than to kill. We will meet both of these, and more, in the next few chapters.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“UK-based Ipsos MORI survey “Rating Professions by Trustworthiness, 1993–2015.”2 Respondents were asked to rank sixteen professions according to “trustworthiness to tell the truth.” Sadly, journalists and politicians were near the bottom”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“The temptation of our age is to elevate our particular time and place as the crescendo of human purity and achievement. And that necessarily involves speaking ill of the past.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“The tempration of our age is to elevate our particular time and place as the crescendo of human purity and achievement. And that necessarily involves speaking ill of the past.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“Christ wrote a beautiful tune, which the church has often performed well, and often badly. But the melody was never completely drowned out. Sometimes it became a symphony.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“Violence has been a universal part of the human story. The demand to love one’s enemies has not. Division has been a norm. Inherent human dignity has not. Armies, greed, and the politics of power have been constants in history. Hospitals, schools, and charity, for all have not. Bullies are common. Saints are not.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“The explosion of charity in the fourth century is one clear way in which Christ's teaching has impacted the history of western society.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History