Quotes

“in preaching, we are not merely emoting—we are endeavoring to kindle people’s imaginations, to persuade them to think with us, feel with us, react with us, to some probing of human experience by the Word of God” -Charles Bartow, The Preaching Moment, pg. 93

"According to Bonhoeffer, she [the Church] had always reacted by trying to secure a religious sphere over against the world, and from within the shelter of this sphere, she had attempted to prove that she was indispensable. But the Church, by her very anxiety to preserve a special, unassailable place for herself, had become a watchdog of religion, an institution catering for the marginal problems of man, privileged, yes, but shut away from the world. As such a keeper of religion she was finished. She asserts her necessity but cannot realize it, therefore she lingers on in apologetics and self-defense." -Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer: Exile and Martyr, 145.

Brief Thoughts on Romans 5

-Law cannot overcome sin and death. Artificial order does not bring true and lasting peace. Only the Spirit can accomplish the task.

-Prior to creation, there was chaos to which God brought order and peace. After sin, there is a return to chaos in the universe. Christ as the new creation brings a new opening and possibility for peace. The eschatological perspective of history now means that at the closing of history there will be a return to the peace first breathed by God.