theologians-from-spain

"Peter does not need our lies or our flattery. Those who blindly and indiscriminately defend every decision of the Supreme Pontiff are the ones who most undermine the authority of the Holy See: they destroy, rather than strengthen, its foundations."

"(About the Assumption of Mary) It is not likely that assumption should be understood of the soul only, both because local assumption properly and strictly refers to the body, and because the souls of other saints also were taken up into heaven though the Church professes and celebrates no assumption for them, but only their passing over, their departure, their birthday."

"[...] qui expresse non dicit substantiam, neque accidens, neque Deum, nec creaturam, sed haec omnia per modum unius, scilicet quatenus sunt inter se aliquo modo similia et conveniunt in essendo."

"There is no doubt that God is the sufficient cause and, so to speak, the teacher of natural law, but it does not follow that he is the legislator."

"He excelled especially as a moral theologian; his classes of moral theology were attended by a greater number of students than were ever known to follow the course at Compostella. His decisions were regarded as oracles, and the most difficult cases were submitted to him for solution."

"Mysterious night, when the first man but knew Thee by report, unseen, and heard they name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue? Yet ’neath a curtain of translucent dew Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came, And lo! creation widened on his view! Who could have thought what darkness lay concealed Within thy beams, oh Sun? Or who could find, Whil’st fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed, That to such endless orbs thou mad’st us blind? Weak man! Why to shun death, this anxious strife? If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?"

"No common soul dwelt within that lifeless form: a vast knowledge, a rare wisdom, a rich experience, a devout trust, are plunged into the unfathomable night, and hidden from our eyes."

"I wish to record the continuance, or rather the increase, of my delight in the Unitarian Service. For a long time did I avoid going to Church, except to the Lord's Supper, because the service had grown intolerable to me. I now rejoice at the approach of Sunday. This very morning while at Chapel, I had the strongest and deepest conviction that I had never witnessed anything so really sublime as the whole worship in which I was joining. I can also attest the admirable behaviour of the Congregation. There is a marked attention on all sides. In a word, the whole service is a reality. I heartily thank God for having been made acquainted with the Unitarian Worship. I have seen nothing superior, nor even equal to it."

"Anda en las vías de tu corazón. Estas vías se destruyen cuando no se usan, como los caminos acá materiales se destruyen no usándose; empero, si se usan, hácense más anchos y muy claros. De esta manera es en las vías del corazón, las cuales tienes destruidas por no las haber usado, y así no es mucho que no sepas andar por ellas. Tórnate, tórnate a ellas, y anden siempre juntamente la persona y el espíritu. No seas como Caín, que se salió de la presencia de Dios y andaba fugitivo y vagabundo por la tierra (Gen 4,14)."

"La amistad y comunicación de Dios es posible en esta vida y destierro. ... Esta amistad o comunicación de Dios al hombre, no por llamarse espiritual deja de tener mucho tomo y certidumbre. ... La comunicación que buscan y hallan las personas que trabajan de llegar a la oración y devoción, la cual es tan cierta, que no hay cosa más cierta en el mundo, ni más gozosa, ni de mayor valor ni precio."

"Dominic, who wished to found a religious Order of theologian-preachers, reminds us that theology has a spiritual and pastoral dimension that enriches the soul and life. Priests, the consecrated and also all the faithful may find profound "inner joy" in contemplating the beauty of the truth that comes from God, a truth that is ever timely and ever alive. Moreover the motto of the Friars Preachers contemplata aliis tradere helps us to discover a pastoral yearning in the contemplative study of this truth because of the need to communicate to others the fruit of one's own contemplation."

"I believe, Most Blessed Father, that in order to reward Mr. Duca's ardent faith in some way, Your Holiness should have the kindness to confer upon him or his brother Don Rodrigo, canon of the cathedral of Toulouse, the sacred purple, which he has already earned through his expeditions, staining it with the accursed blood of those wretches. It is enough for his name to be heard in these countries for the Albigensian heretics to tremble from head to toe. His custom is to go around the courts, dispatching the most angry ones in one fell swoop. Those who fall into his hands are forced to profess our faith with the formula prescribed by Your Holiness. If they refuse, he has them beaten thoroughly while the stake is lit. Then he asks them if they are repentant and, upon hearing that they are not, concludes: “Either believe or die.” They are burned slowly to give them time to repent and earn eternal forgiveness. Some of these wretched souls, though very rarely, showed signs of retraction and horror at the death they deservedly suffered as they breathed their last; and I consoled myself in the Lord by observing those acts that could be signs of repentance. The more they struggled, the more we rejoiced in"

"Per sapïenza in terra fue | di cherubica luce uno splendore. (Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia XI, 37-39)"

"(His book The Decisive word on sects, heterodoxies and denominations is)The first of its genre, and it is surprising that it was written in the 11th century when nothing like it existed in Christian Europe. Ibn Hazm proceeds like a scholar and a theologian who is acquainted through his own study and experience with the religions of his time and he analyses them in detail, quoting their texts."

"You came to me just before the Christians rang their bells. The half-moon was rising looking like an old man's eyebrow or a delicate instep. And although it was still night when you came a rainbow gleamed on the horizon, showing as many colours as a peacock's tail."

"That the stars are celestial bodies with no mind or soul. They neither know the future nor affect people. Their effect on people however can be through their physical characteristics, such as the effect of the sun’s heat and rays on the planets and the effect of the moon on the tides of seas."

"Whosoever has a natural leaning towards a science, even if it was less noble than another, should not abandon it for the other because if he did he would be like someone who would be growing coconuts in al-Andalus and olive trees in India, crops that would never fructify."

"The use of science in the practice of virtue, is considerable: the man who knows the beauty of virtue will follow it, however possible. Knowing the evil of wrong, he will avoid it, however possible. He listens to worthy praise, and keeps his distance from unworthy praise. From this is derived that science has a part in every virtue, and that ignorance has one in every vice. Man who is illiterate and who still practices virtue must be extremely pure, a virtuous being. This is the state of Prophets (PBUH) because God had conveyed goodness to them without they acquiring it from men."

"The Earth is spherical despite what is popularly believed … the proof is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth."

"There is no worse calamity for science and for scholarship than those intruders who are foreign to them. They are ignorant and yet think they know; they ruin everything whilst convinced they are fixing all."

"I have seen men who had studied the sciences, who knew the messages of the Prophets, the recommendations of the wise, and yet who surpassed the most evil men in their worse deeds, and their depravation. This is very frequent, and so I have understood that these two moral attitudes were favours granted or denied by the Most High."

"Whosoever wishes for happiness in the other life, wisdom in this world, equity in their deeds, having all moral qualities, the practice of all virtues, ought to follow in his deeds the example of Mohammed (PBUH) the Messenger of God."

"We know with certainty that never could man have acquired the sciences and arts by himself guided only by his natural abilities and without the benefit of instruction. (This applies, e.g., to) medicine, the knowledge of the physiological temperaments, the diseases and their causes, in all their numerous varieties, and the invention of adequate treatment and cure of each of them by drugs or preparations, which could never have been actually tried out. For how could anyone test every prescription on every disease since this would take tens of thousands of years and necessitate the examination of every sick person in the world?"

"Also be aware that many men eager for science, read, study, and research with application, but derive no fruit. The man of science must realize that if application alone was enough, many other men would be superior to him. Science, thus, is certainly a gift from the Highest. What place is left for pride, thus? We can only accept in humility, and give thanks to God, asking him to increase his bounty, and beg him not to deprive us of it."

"Whosoever is miserly with the gift of his knowledge deserves more blame than whosoever is miserly with his money, because the man miserly with his money fears exhausting what he has, but the one miserly with his science is with an object which does not become exhausted with use, and that he would lose nothing in sharing it."

"May God make us amongst those he allows to do good, and to practice it, and those who see the right path as none of us is without weakness; whosoever sees his weakness will forget those of others. May God make us die in the faith of Muhammad. Amen, Oh Master of the Universes."

"Ask questions stubbornly, very proud men who seeing themselves right without knowing anything about the matter. This shows lack of piety, a tendency to ranting, a weak mind, and excessive vanity. [...] If you hear, or read writing (you object to), do not react with violence until you have proof that what is expressed is wrong. Do not accept that with the enthusiasm of the credulous man either until being wholly convinced of that. In both situations you blind yourself and drift away from truth… Act like a person who has no preconceived views, one ready to know and accept what is right and reject what is wrong."

"The most noble sciences, are those which bring us closer to the Creator; those which help us be pleasing to Him."

"If you pride yourself with your science, then you must realize that you have no merit; science is a gift that God has granted you. Thus do not acknowledge it in a way that angers the Highest, because he could erase it from your head through an illness of some sort."

"If science, and devoting oneself to it, had no other use than avoiding exhausting temptations, rushes of hope that give worry, and thoughts that sadden the soul, that alone should give us reasons to seek it… Kinglets have sought distraction in chess, wine, music, hunting and much else that only bring harm in this world and the other."

"If you attend a study session, only behave like a man wishing to expand his knowledge and seeking a higher reward from God. Do not act like a man content with what he holds, who is waiting for a weakness (from someone) to criticize (it or him), or an oddity to raise. This will be acting like vile people who have never mastered science.’ ‘If you attend with good intentions you will obtain the best results. Otherwise just stay at home, awarding yourself rest, a good morality, and a salutary outcome in front of God."

"Whoever harms his kinship and his neighbors is worse than them. Whosoever returns ill that he receives from them is like them. Whosoever does not return ill done to him is the master, the best and most virtuous amongst all."

"If you attended (a study session) strictly adopt three attitudes; there is no fourth. First: You can lock yourself in the silence of ignorance. Second: If you do not behave as such, ask for the questions a man seeking to learn asks…. This man will ask only about what he does not know, not about what he knows. Asking about matters one knows is making proof of ineptitude; this is only ranting, waste of time for everyone…. If the person you are questioning does not give satisfactory answers, stop questioning… Third: You can answer like a scientist, refuting clearly the other’s arguments. If you are not capable of that, do not insist….”"

"There are mobile objects and stationary objects, but there is neither motion nor staticness."

"What fixes and preserves a nation’s language, as well as its sciences and its history, is simply the strength of its political power, accompanied by the happy welfare and leisure of its inhabitants."

"I have come across most people- with the exception of those that God most High has protected-they rush into misery, worry, the exhaustion of this world, and amassing terrible sins, that will earn them hell-fire, gaining nothing in pursuing their evil deeds… And they know that their evil intentions will neither fulfill their wishes, nor bring any gains; and that with purer intentions they will obtain great rest for their souls."

"Compare yourself, for wealth, status and health to those lower than you. For faith, science, and virtue, compare yourself to those who are higher than you."

"Sciences are like powerful drugs, which suit the strong and exhaust the weak. Likewise, complex sciences enrich a vigorous mind, and keep it off evil, but exhaust the mediocre mind."

"Whosoever rises above things of this world, in front of which you kneel is much stronger than you."

"Should the merit of science being fear of the ignorant, and love and honour for the scholars, that alone should encourage striving for it. What then about its other virtues in this world and the other."

"Blame from a man with a corrupt soul in opposing him, and refraining from evil deeds is better for you than his esteem if you did evil."

"The ideal person cannot be thought of as the whole person developed from the possibilities of the present-day person, but as the "new man" who, to become such, has to pass through the critique and negation of the present-day person."

"On the one hand, there is the type of sinner whom, in present-day language, we would call ‘oppressor.’ Their basic sin consists in oppressing, placing intolerable burdens on others, acting unjustly and so on. On the other hand, there are those who sin ‘from weakness’ or those ‘legally considered sinners’ according to the dominant religious view.Jesus takes a very different approach to each group. He offers salvation to all, and makes demands of all, but in a very different way. He directly demands a radical conversion of the first group, an active cessation from oppressing. For these, the coming of the Kingdom is above all a radical need to stop being oppressors."

"God is not simply power, as most people were inclined to think. God is love, and he manifests himself in the dialectics of an impotent love. ... The emperor is not God. Jesus desacralizes that kind of power and its claim to be the absolute mediation of God. The pax romana is not the kingdom of God. The political organization of Rome might dazzle the world with its power, but it was oppressive; hence there was nothing sacred or divine about it. ... In Jesus' eyes God's ultimate historical word is love, whereas the ultimate historical word of power in the human world is oppression. Jesus' journey to the cross is a trial dealing with the authentic nature of power."

"At its beginnings there was very powerful meditation on the presence of Christ in the oppressed Indians, which objectively pointed toward a christology of the "body of Christ." Guamán Poma, for example, said, "By faith we know clearly that where there is a poor person there is Jesus Christ himself," and Bartolomé de las Casas declared, "In the Indies I leave Jesus Christ, our God, being whipped and afflicted, and buffeted and crucified, not once but thousands of times, as often as the Spaniards assault and destroy those people." But this original christological insight did not thrive, and what became the tradition was a christology based on the dogmatic formulas, in which—however well they were known and understood—what was stressed was the divinity of Christ rather than his real and lived humanity."

"The sublime title "Christ" is an adjective which only receives its specific value from the specificity of the noun, Jesus of Nazareth. If Jesus is forgotten, then it becomes possible to fill the adjective with whatever suits at the time, without checking whether Jesus was like that or not, or whether this means leaving the world sunk in its wretchedness or not; or worse still, without asking if this image legitimates the tragedy of the world or brings liberation from it."

"The texts about the future life fall into, since demonstrative scholars do not agree whether to take them in their apparent meaning or interpret them allegorically. Either is permissible. But it is inexcusable to deny the fact of a future life altogether."

"The double meaning has been given to suit people's diverse intelligence. The apparent contradictions are meant to stimulate the learned to deeper study."

"The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit."

"To master this instrument the religious thinker must make a preliminary study of logic, just as the lawyer must study legal reasoning. This is no more heretical in the one case than in the other. And logic must be learned from the ancient masters, regardless of the fact that they were not Muslims."