Monday, July 28, 2008

Bending the Knee to the Word

I recently read Ralph Smith's Trinity and Reality. I found it an excellent book, worthy of careful attention. Smith explains how the Trinity, God as one and three, illuminates how we think about all of life. He spends a lot of time showing how other theistic religions, such as Judaism and Islam, are bankrupt because their god is not a Trinity. I am going to pull out some of my favorite quotes and post them in the coming weeks. I encourage you to buy the book and digest it. Here is the first quote:


"For some, it is offensive to think that the Christian faith has at its very center a mystery [the Trinity], an incomprehensible truth. To them, Christians seem to be calling for a sacrifice of the intellect on the altar of religious confession. In reality, trinitarian faith demands something quite different. It is not a sacrifice of the intellect, but the sacrifice of the pretense of intellectual autonomy: the notion that the mind or reason of man is the ultimate judge of truth. "

(Smith, Trinity and Reality p. 7)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the quote Peter, I will look up that book. Do you have a source for cheaper books? Many are at small publishers, and cost a good deal...and they certainly are not on my book trading sites. Thanks also for the photo of the British guy...Julie forwarded it. It looked so much like my grandfather I couldn't believe it, and I got a good laugh. I am enjoying your blog.

Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud on their beds, let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind the kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. Psalm 149:5-8