Churches

"Sed non solum locum Ecclesiae zelare debemus, sed hanc quoque interiorem in nobis domum Dei; ne sit domus negotiationis, aut spelunca latronum."

"When I faced a congregation, it began to take all the strength I had not to stammer, not to curse, not to tell them to throw away their Bibles and get off their knees and go home and organize, for example, a rent strike. When I watched all the children, their copper, brown, and beige faces staring up at me as I taught Sunday school, I felt that I was committing a crime in talking about the gentle Jesus, in telling them to reconcile themselves to their misery on earth in order to gain the crown of eternal life. Were only Negroes to gain this crown? Was Heaven, then, to be merely another ghetto? Perhaps I might have been able to reconcile myself even to this if I had been able to believe that there was any loving-kindness to be found in the haven I represented. But I had been in the pulpit too long and I had seen too many monstrous things. I don’t refer merely to the glaring fact that the minister eventually acquires houses and Cadillacs while the faithful continue to scrub floors and drop their dimes and quarters and dollars into the plate. I really mean that there was no love in the church. It was a mask for hatred and self-hatred and despair. The transfiguring power of the Holy Ghost ended when the service ended, and salvation stopped at the church door."

"[C]hurches have tended to become conditioned more by our culture than by our Christ. So often our churches merely reflect the standards, the folkways, and the mores of the community, rather than the ethical standards of Christianity"

"The best service to the Church, in the long run, will be that kind of art that answers the second question best. The building of independent souls who are really growing is ultimately the best service to the Church, because the Church is not a monolithic ungrowing thing. The Church is, in one sense, the summation of where its members are. A church consisting of static, ungrowing members, even if it's growing in numbers, will still be a static church."

"Where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel."

"The word CHURCH had never any charm for me, in the mouths of those who made the most noise about it; for I could not perceive that they gave any other distinguishing proof of their regard for the thing than a frequent use of the word, like a spell to enchant weak minds; and a persecuting zeal against Dissenters and against those real friends of the Church who would not admit that persecution was agreeable to its doctrine. And as to Affairs of State: Many of these Churchmen seem to me to have no fixed principles at all, having endeavored during the last reign, to undermine that very government which they had contributed to establish."

"What is a church?" Let Truth and reason speak, They would reply, "The faithful, pure and meek, From Christian folds, the one selected race, Of all professions, and in every place."

"What is a church?—Our honest sexton tells, 'Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells."

"Habere non potest Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem."

"Salus extra ecclesiam non est."

"The church in the spiritual and theological sense always contains a current that is hostile to political power, that is revolutionary and anarchical. But this is not the current that society as a whole, and especially the political authorities, recognize as the church."

"The Lord showed me, so that I did see clearly, that he did not dwell in these temples which men had commanded and set up, but in people's hearts … his people were his temple, and he dwelt in them."

"The careful student of history will discover that Christianity has been of very little value in advancing civilization, but has done a great deal toward retarding it. ... The church and civilization are antipodal; one means authority, the other freedom; one means conservatism, the other progress; one means the rights of God as interpreted by the priesthood, the other the rights of humanity as interpreted by humanity. Civilization advances by free thought, free speech, free men."

"The nere to the churche, the ferther from God."

"Unhappily, a love of walls has seized you; unhappily, the Church of God which you venerate exists in houses and buildings; unhappily, under these you find the name of peace. Is it doubtful that in these Antichrist will have his seat? Safer to me are mountains, and woods, and lakes, and dungeons, and whirlpools; since in these prophets, dwelling or immersed, did prophesy."

"Never get involved with God, and above all never in any really intimate way. Get involved with people and imagine that together with them you are involving yourselves with God."

"Human religiosity can go far astray, when it is [articulated in the form of] a church."

"ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι Ἅιδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς."

"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

"Why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to Hell?"

"Not even the church is so powerfully equipped to serve the public psychologically as is the motion picture company."

"Είς μίαν, αγίαν, καθολικήν καί αποστολικήν Έκκλησίαν."

"The church, as an organization interested in self-preservation and in the gain of power, has sometimes found the counsel of the Cross inexpedient. ... In dealing with such major social evils as war, slavery, and social inequality, it has discovered convenient ambiguities in the letter of the Gospels which enabled it to violate their spirit and to ally itself with the prestige and power those evils had gained."

"In adapting itself to the conditions of a civilization which its founder had bidden it to permeate with the spirit of divine love, [the church] found that it was easier to give to Caesar the things belonging to Caesar if the examination of what might belong to God were not too closely pressed."

"Wir haben also als Missverständnis: … eine kirchliche Ordnung, mit Priesterschaft, Theologie, Cultus, Sakramenten; kurz, alles das, was Jesus von Nazareth bekämpft hatte. (Original: German)"

"The first thing to be understood about a man like Jesus is that whatsoever the church that is bound to grow around such a man says about him, it is bound to be wrong. What the Christian church says about Christ cannot be true. In fact the Christian priest does not represent Christ at all. He is the same old rabbi in new garments, the same old rabbi who was responsible for Jesus murder."

"Jesus is a rebel, just as Buddha or Lao Tzu is. When the church starts establishing itself it starts destroying the rebelliousness of Jesus, Buddha, because rebellion cannot go with an establishment."

"It is imperative that the contrasts between Christianity and Jesus be clearly revealed and strongly emphasized. First, because the real significance of Jesus is obscured by the widespread belief that organized Christianity truly reflects his religion; and second, because it will be practically impossible to abolish giant evils while they are hallowed by the blessing of the churches. As long as ministers and laymen labour under the delusion that contemporary Christianity is the same religion that Jesus practised they will remain immunized against his way of life and will lack the vision and power to overthrow entrenched iniquity."

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

"Who builds a church to God, and not to Fame, Will never mark the marble with his Name."

"Guardini rejected Soren Kierkegaard's view that theonomy requires a wholly private act of faith. Although he drew on Kierkegaard's thought, he could not accept the Danish philosopher's devaluation of Christian beliefs communal aspect. Guardini maintained that "a person goes to the Father only through Christ, and one sees Christ properly only within the space of the Church as oriented by the Holy Spirit." But he immediately added, "Of course, the Church is not identical with a single part of the hierarchy, or with a particular theological school, or with a conventional way of doing things. It is much more than this; beyond every individual part, there opens the experience of the Church's totality and essence." In sum, if human beings intend to become whole persons, they must participate in the community of believers."

"If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses?"

"The Churches as Churches have always been and cannot fail to be institutions not only alien to, but directly hostile towards, Christ's teaching."

"The Churches as Churches—as institutions affirming their own infallibility—are anti-Christian institutions. Between the Churches as such and Christianity, not only is there nothing in common except the name, but they are two quite opposite and opposing principles. The one represents pride, violence, self-assertion, immobility and death: the other humility, penitence, meekness, progress, and life."

"There is no family in America without a clock, and consequently there is no fair pretext for the usual Sunday medley of dreadful sounds that issues from our steeples."

"The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example."

"I was afraid of a united Church; it makes a mighty power, the mightiest conceivable, and then when it by and by gets into selfish hands, as it is always bound to do, it means death to human liberty, and paralysis to human thought"

"I have sometimes told myself that if only there were a notice on church doors forbidding entry to anyone with an income above a certain figure, and a low one, I would be converted at once."

"The syndicalists are principled opponents of every Church, in which they only see an institution for the mental domination and damnation of the working people, cultivating willing objects of exploitation for the bosses and loyal subjects for the State."

"The nearer the church, the further from God."

"To Kerke the narre, from God more farre."

"Where Christ erecteth his church, the divell in the same church-yarde will have his chappell."

"Oh! St. Patrick was a gentleman Who came of decent people; He built a church in Dublin town, And on it put a steeple."

"Pour soutenir tes droits, que le ciel autorise, Abîme tout plutôt; c'est l'esprit de l'Église."

"An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars."

"Whenever God erects a house of prayer The devil always builds a chapel there; And 'twill be found, upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation."

"God never had a church but there, men say, The devil a chapel hath raised by some wiles, I doubted of this saw, till on a day I westward spied great Edinburgh's Saint Giles."

"Die Kirch' allein, meine lieben Frauen, Kann ungerechtes Gut verdauen."

"It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church."

"No sooner is a temple built to God but the devil builds a chapel hard by."

"When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. God is more there than thou: for thou art there Only by his permission. Then beware, And make thyself all reverence and fear."

"Well has the name of Pontifex been given Unto the Church's head, as the chief builder And architect of the invisible bridge That leads from earth to heaven."

"In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the Great Abbey, which has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall."

"A beggarly people, A church and no steeple."

"It was founded upon a rock."

"As like a church and an ale-house, God and the devell, they manie times dwell neere to ether."

"There can be no church in which the demon will not have his chapel."

"Non est de pastu ovium quæstio, sed de lana."

"No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n, Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heav'n; But such plain roofs as Piety could raise, And only vocal with the Maker's praise."

"I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral."

"Boni pastoris est tondere pecus non deglubere."

"The itch of disputation will break out Into a scab of error."

"See the Gospel Church secure, And founded on a Rock! All her promises are sure; Her bulwarks who can shock? Count her every precious shrine; Tell, to after-ages tell, Fortified by power divine, The Church can never fail."

"Disputandi pruritus ecclesiarum scabies."

"It was known as Sankta Sophia or Santa Sophia. It was the most massive church of the Eastern Roman Empire and the emperors desired that it should, by its high quality of art, be unique and suited to the empire… For nine hundred years, it witnessed Greek services and smelt all the incense used in Greek worship. Then for four hundred and eighty years, it heard the azan in Arabic and lines of devotees for namaz stood on its floor stones… Ask those walls to relate to you their story, and narrate their experiences to you. Maybe the study of yesterday and today will enable you to remove the curtain and peep into the future. But those stones and walls are silent. They had seen a lot of Jumma namaz and Sunday services. A daily exhibition is now their lot. The world keeps changing, but they stay. On their worn-out faces is an apparent smirk and a mellow voice as if whispering: how ignorant and foolish is this human creature who does not learn by his thousands of years of experience and repeats the same follies."

"The rapidity with which Mustapha Kemal Ataturk rid himself of his parsons makes one of the most remarkable chapters in history. He hanged thirty-nine of them out of hand, the rest he flung out, and St. Sophia in Constantinople is now a museum!"

"...I thought the times were over when after conquering the others, Christian colonial powers would convert mosques into churches, and Muslim powers would turn churches into mosques. This is falling back into a mindset of Crusade times and in the case of the most prestigious church of Eastern Christianity, it harms Christian-Muslim relations around the globe..."

"The identification of the tomb discovered by the Portuguese as that of St Thomas has been thoroughly repudiated even by those scholars who are sympathetic to the Thomas legend. For example, Jesuit archeologist Fr H. Heras writes: 'Some early Portuguese writers have kept the details of the original account, and these details are quite enough for disclosing the untruthfulness of the discovery'. Another Christian scholar, T.K. Joseph, states with regard to the burial place of Thomas: 'I am fully convinced that it has never been in Mylapore. I have stated that many times'."

"From the artifacts discovered by archeologists at San Thome, one can infer that the temple should have existed elsewhere and most probably it existed at San Thome beach . . . because remnants of the old temple were discovered at San Thome beach. In 1923 when archeologists conducted excavations at San Thome cathedral they discovered inscriptions and statues. The inscriptions indicated a temple. [. . .] Saint Arunagiri Nathar also mentions that Kapaleeswara temple existed by the side of the beach. . . . Hence, in conclusion, one can state that the old Kapaleeswara temple was destroyed by Portuguese in the fifteenth century and was built in its present place by Nattu Nayiniappa Muthaliar and son in the sixteenth century."

"Archeological studies by the Government of India confirm that the Portuguese built the church on the ruins of a Hindu temple. They have recovered an inscription of Rajendra Chola, the Imperial Chola who was devoted to the Vedic religion. A 1967 report of the Archaeological Survey of India on the recovery of the eleventh-century inscription of Rajendra Chola from San Thome Church in Madras states that the inscription mentions the Chola king as favored by Lakshmi, 'who grants him victory and prosperity'."

"I learnt more during my school-days from my visits to the Cathedral at Winchester than I did from the hours of religious instruction in school. That great church with its tombs of the Saxon kings and the mediaeval statesmen-bishops gave one a greater sense of the magnitude of the religious element in our culture and the depths of its roots in our national life than anything one could learn from books."

"Winchester Cathedral, You're bringing me down You stood and you watched as My baby left town."

"In Strasbourg itself there were no gaps between past and present. Romanesque and Gothic Middle Ages, Baroque and the most recent constructions after 1871, all stood on top of each other, constituting, not exactly a harmonious unity, but nevertheless that unity and continuity of historical life which overcomes even the most enormous tensions and recalls the continuous struggle and the changing fortunes of the people. Strasbourg Cathedral constitutes the most powerful center of this unit. It often seemed to us that it had been built not by the hand of man, but by eternity, as a warning to the fleeting generations of men, to serve the eternal with their weak strength, and in particular to serve the Germans to show themselves worthy of this cathedral. [...] And in looking at the marvelous Romanesque apse, I had the feeling that a supreme and impenetrable mystery was still hidden here. (Friedrich Meinecke)"

"How happy I am to be able to speak directly to you today in this great Cathedral! The building itself is an eloquent witness both to our long years of common inheritance and to the sad years of division that followed."

"Mortality, behold and fear! What a change of flesh is here! Think how many royal bones Sleep within this heap of stones."

"On a very gloomy dismal day, just such a one as it ought to be, I went to see Westminster Abbey."

"As I passed along the side walls of Westminster Abbey, I hardly saw any thing but marble monuments of great admirals, but which were all too much loaded with finery and ornaments, to make on me at least, the intended impression."

"Westminster Abbey is nature crystallized into a conventional form by man, with his sorrows, his joys, his failures, and his seeking for the Great Spirit. It is a frozen requiem, with a nation's prayer ever in dumb music ascending."