Paul Ricoeur Quotes

There has always been a hermeneutic problem in Christianity because Christianity proceeds from a proclamation.

I always say that as a Christian I cannot find any passage in the Gospels in which Jesus condemned homosexuality.

As I've taught our congregation, within the Christian faith the question of homosexuality is not a question of biblical authority, but biblical interpretation.

Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ.

The New Testament is a commentary on the Old Testament, in the light of the new revelation given by Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Fundamentalism is the triumph of Paul over Christ.

The essential fact of Christianity is that God thought all men worth the sacrifice of his son.

Remove Christ from the Scriptures and there is nothing left.

Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and justifying their belief on an erroneous interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," their most likely response, overlooks the fact that this was promulgated by Moses as a limitation- a prohibition against taking both eyes or all of an offender's teeth in retribution.

In Science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself.

Jesus is the human face on the kingdom of God. He makes it concretely accessible.

God without Christ is no God.

The Church is a system, - but whether it is as much founded on the teaching of our Lord, who was divine, as on the teaching of St. Paul, who was not divine, is a question to me of much perplexity.

Anyone who believes in a Jesus who condones abortion does not believe in the real Jesus, and therefore is not Christian.

The Christian test was a willingness to believe in the one Jesus Christ and His Message of salvation. What was demanded was not criticism but credulity. The Church Fathers observed that in the realm of thought only heresy had a history.

We're in danger of losing an even more foundational belief of Christianity: that salvation is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ.

I came to Paul at quite an early age, having already studied Plato and Aristotle; and I found Paul easily their intellectual equal, though he was handling these amazing questions about God, Jesus, Israel, faith and so on. He continues to be an amazingly stimulating thinker, especially when we try to understand the flow of thought in letter after letter rather than just combing him for a few verses on 'our favourite topics', which, sadly, some Christian teachers do just as some journalists and broadcasters do!

If all the animals and man had been evolved in this ascendant manner, then there had been no first parents, no Eden, and no Fall. And if there had been no fall, then the entire historical fabric of Christianity, the story of the first sin and the reason for an atonement ... collapsed like a house of cards.

Paul spoke about the root of faith (Eph 2:8). James spoke about the fruit of faith (Jm 2:17-18).

It was Christianity which first painted the devil on the worlds walls; It was Christianity which first brought sin into the world. Belief in the cure which it offered has now been shaken to it's deepest roots; but belief in the sickness which it taught and propagated continues to exists.

I believe people have different ways of approaching the Word. For me, it's metaphor, written by people a long time after Christ died and interpreted by specific groups. I read the gospels that aren't included in the Bible. These make me feel good about calling myself a Christian.

Let the Bible be the Bible. It's not about science. It's not accurate history. It is a grab bag of religious fantasies written by many authors. Some of its myths, like the Star of Bethlehem, are very beautiful. Others are dull and ugly. Some express lofty ideals, such as the parables of Jesus. Others are morally disgusting.

If Christ is not divine, every impulse of the Christian world falls to a lower octave, and light and love and hope decline.

Jesus Christ represented God as the principle of all good, the source of all happiness, the wise and benevolent Creator and Preserver of all living things. But the interpreters of his doctrines have confounded the good and the evil principle.

The real truth, I thought, in terms of what faith is and what Christianity is.