Against the Nice God of Progress

"If you already know what the goods are on grounds different from Christian practice, then I remain unclear why one should worry too much whether being Christian makes much difference one way or the other."

"I am wondering on what grounds [one] believes [one] can take a position for or against the tradition to decide to submit to it or not."

"By modernity, I mean that project to create social orders that would make it possible for each person to have no story except the story you choose when you had no story."

"As Paul Ramsey was fond of saying, "God intends to kill us all in the end." I assume that also means the human species. I see no reason to believe that God's salvation through Jesus' cross and resurrection was about insuring that all of this is going to come out all right in the end."

"Those Christians who thought they were following the "present working of Christ" through their acceptance of violence made a disastrous mistake. The reasons for that acceptance were various but certainly, for many, it represented the attempt to be on the progressive side of history."

"If all Jesus was about was helping us see that God is that "factor in the world that introduces freedom, novelty, spontaneity, life, creativity, responsibility, and love," I cannot see why anyone would think it worth their time to kill him."

"Now that I am back among the Methodists, I have discovered they do have a conviction: God is nice. Moreover, since we are a sanctificationist people, we have a correlative-we ought to be nice also. I must admit one of the things that bothers me about Cobb's God is that she is just too damned nice."

"I do not believe that the trinitarian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is an image, Rather, Trinity is a name. Christians do not believe we know something called God and then further identify God as Trinity. Rather, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is God."

"I seek to know how to go on when I do not know where I am. I assume that is not a new condition for Christians to be in because being a member of the church becomes necessary exactly because the claims of Jesus are meant to put us out of control. However, once we Christians get over the need to run the world, to pretend that we know not only where we are but where everyone else is or should be, maybe we will be able to live lives so joyful others may actually be attracted to the celebration we, call worship."

Stanley Hauerwas from Knowing How to Go On When You Do Not Know Where You Are: A Response to John Cobb, Jr.