Those influences which really make and mar human happiness and greatness are beyond the reach of the law. The law can keep neighbors from trespassing, but it cannot put neighborly courtesy and good-will into their relations.
Walter RauschenbuschRead
Christianity is in its nature revolutionary
Interpretation
Christianity inherently promotes change and challenges the status quo.
Walter Rauschenbusch emphasizes that Christianity, at its core, is a force for revolution, encouraging individuals and societies to challenge existing injustices and strive for a more equitable world. This perspective highlights the transformative power of faith, advocating for social change and progress as essential elements of the Christian doctrine.
In practice
During a sermon, a pastor might refer to this quote to inspire his congregation to take action for social justice.
Those influences which really make and mar human happiness and greatness are beyond the reach of the law. The law can keep neighbors from trespassing, but it cannot put neighborly courtesy and good-will into their relations.
The Kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.
Whoever uncouples the religious and the social life has not understood Jesus. Whoever sets any bounds for the reconstructive power of the religious life over the social relations and institutions of men, to that extent denies the faith of the Master.
We never live so intensely as when we love strongly. We never realize ourselves so vividly as when we are in full glow of love for others.
Human pride and egoism always create divisions, build walls of indifference, hate and violence. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, makes hearts capable of understanding the languages of all, as he re-establishes the bridge of authentic communication between earth and Heaven.
If nations perish, it is not because of their devotion to liberty, but for their disregard of its requirements.
Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die?... Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom.
All through autumn we hear a double voice: one says everything is ripe; the other says everything is dying. The paradox is exquisite. We feel what the Japanese call "aware"--an almost untranslatable word meaning something like "beauty tinged with sadness.
The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States ... formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities.
There are, above all, times in which the human reality, always mobile, accelerates, and bursts into vertiginous speeds. Our time is such a one, for it is made of descent and fall.
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