James Davison Hunter famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

To be Christian is to be obliged to engage the world, pursuing Godâ€™s restorative purposes over all of life,
-- James Davison Hunter

#Christian #Purpose #World
If Christians cannot extend grace through faithful presence within the body of believers, they will not be able to extend grace to those outside.
-- James Davison Hunter

#Christian #Grace #Faithful
We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality but without the emotional burden of guilt or shame; we want virtue but without particular moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil; we want decency without the authority to insist upon it; we want more community without any limitations to personal freedom. In short, we want what we cannot possibly have on the terms that we want it.
-- James Davison Hunter

#Strong #Character #Emotional
As with military campaigns, cultural warfare is always decided over the pragmatic problems of strategy, organization and resources. . . . The factions with the best strategies, most efficient organization, and access to resources will plainly have the advantage and very possibly, the ultimate victory.
-- James Davison Hunter

#Military #Organization #Victory
The tragedy is that in the name of resisting the internal deterioration of faith and the corruption of the world around them, many Christians - and Christian conservatives most significantly - unwittingly embrace some of the most corrosive aspects of the cultural disintegration they decry. By nurturing its resentments, sustaining them through a discourse of negation toward outsiders, and in cases, pursuing their will to power, they become functional Nietzscheans, participating in the very cultural breakdown they so ardently strive to resist.
-- James Davison Hunter

#Christian #Names #Tragedy
But the consequences of the whole-hearted and uncritical embrace of politics by Christians has been, IN EFFECT, to reduce Christian faith to a political ideology and various Christian denominations and para-church organizations as special interest groups. The political engagement of the various Christian groups is certainly legal, but in ways that are undoubtedly unintended, it has also been counterproductive of the ends to which they aspire.
-- James Davison Hunter

#Christian #Organization #Political
Ideas do have consequences in history, yet not because those ideas are inherently truthful or obviously correct but rather because of the way they are embedded in very powerful institutions, networks, interests, and symbols.
-- James Davison Hunter

#Powerful #Ideas #Way
To enact a vision of human flourishing based on the qualities of life that Jesus modeled will invariably challenge the given structures of the social order. In this light, there is no true leadership without putting at risk one's time, wealth, reputation, and position.
-- James Davison Hunter

#Jesus #Light #Order
The contemporary quarrel over church and state is not really about whether a wall of separation of church and state should exist or not... The real question is what does 'separation' mean?
-- James Davison Hunter

#Christian #Religious #Wall

Prayer is the mighty engine that is to move the missionary work.
God wants us to speak to men so that they will feel it, so that they will never forget it. God means every Christian to be effective, to make a difference in the actual records and results of Christian work. God put each of us here to be a power. There is not one of us but is an essential wheel of the machinery and can accomplish all that God calls us to.
When Christians start thinking about Jesus, things start breaking down, they lose their faith. It's perfectly possible to go to church every Sunday and not ask any questions, just because you like it as a way of life. They fear that if they ask questions they'll lose their Christ, the very linchpin of their religion.
My family background was deeply Christian.
The Almighty has His own purposes.
T's [King James Bible] subject is majesty, not tyranny, and it's political purpose was unifying and enfolding, to elide the kingliness of God with the godliness of kings, to make royal power and divine glory into one invisible garment which could be wrapped around the nation as a whole.
Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.
As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world, a certain sense of beautiful mystery seems to gather and grow.
Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here am I in hell. My hand, though now my knuckles bleed, I never soiled with such a deed.
Let me tell you, though: being the smartest boy in the world wasnâ€™t easy. I didnâ€™t ask for this. I didnâ€™t want this. On the contrary, it was a huge burden. First, there was the task of keeping my brain perfectly protected. My cerebral cortex was a national treasure, a masterpiece of the Sistine Chapel of brains. This was not something that could be treated frivolously. If I could have locked it in a safe, I would have. Instead, I became obsessed with brain damage.

James Davison Hunter famous quotes

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