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At Oxford University, the certainties of my atheist faith (and atheism is a faith) began to crumble

Alister E. McGrath

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Alister E. McGrath
Crumble
Oxford
Certainty
Atheist
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University
Atheism
Faith
Certainties

More quotes by Alister E. McGrath

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Hope is a settled state of mind, in which we see the world in its true light, and look forward to our final homecoming in heaven.
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Our desires cannot be, and were never meant to be, satisfied by earthly pleasures alone.
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If worldviews or metanarratives can be compared to lenses, which of them brings things into the sharpest focus? This is not an irrational retreat from reason. Rather, it is about grasping a deeper order of things which is more easily accessed by the imagination than by reason.
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The idea of ‘calling' was fundamentally redefined: no longer was it about being called to serve God by leaving the world it was now about serving God in the world
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Surely the better way is to pursue a generous orthodoxy, seeing disagreements in the context of the greater agreements which bind us together.
Alister E. McGrath
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We live in a world of competing narratives. In the end, we have to decide for ourselves which is right. And having made that decision, we then need to inhabit the story we trust.
Alister E. McGrath
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Deep down within all of us is a longing to work out what life is all about and what we're meant to be doing.
Alister E. McGrath
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All the important things in life lie beyond reason... and that's just the way things are.
Alister E. McGrath
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The success of the Inklings also helps us to see criticism in a positive light. There are, unfortunately, people who boost their own sense of importance by criticizing others as a matter of principle. Yet within this community, criticism was a mark of respect and commitment.
Alister E. McGrath
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Imagination is the gatekeeper of the human soul.
Alister E. McGrath
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The Christian faith allows us to see further and deeper, to appreciate that nature is studded with signs, radiant with reminders, and emblazoned with symbols of God, our creator and redeemer.
Alister E. McGrath
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The reading of literature opens our eyes, offering us new perspectives on things that we can evaluate and adopt.
Alister E. McGrath
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The true believer is not someone who disengages from this world in order to focus on heaven, but rather the one who tries to make this world more like heaven.
Alister E. McGrath
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The most radical question which anyone can be asked is not how much their possessions cost, but whether they have found something of value - that is, something that makes living worthwhile.
Alister E. McGrath
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Christianity israrely understood by those outside its bounds. In fact, this is probably one of the greatest tasks confronting the apologist–to rescue Christianity from misunderstandings.
Alister E. McGrath
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A failure to understand something does not mean it is irrational. It may simply mean that it lies on the far side of our limited abilities to take things in and make complete sense of them.
Alister E. McGrath
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Clergy had a vested interest in retaining the old, ways, which made few demands of them as teachers, as spiritual guides, or as moral examples or agents.
Alister E. McGrath
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Atheism, I began to realize, rested on a less-than-satisfactory evidential basis. The arguments that had once seemed bold, decisive, and conclusive increasingly turned out to be circular, tentative, and uncertain.
Alister E. McGrath
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The 20th century gave rise to one of the greatest and most distressing paradoxes of human history: that the greatest intolerance and violence of that century were practiced by those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence.
Alister E. McGrath
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Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.
Alister E. McGrath