There have been low moments before, but Christianity is an incredibly adaptable organism, using different parts of its repertoire to mutate into new ecological niches, yet preserving intact its story of grace, of love improbably triumphant.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the resilience and adaptability of Christianity throughout history, emphasizing its core message of grace and love.
In this quote, Francis Spufford illustrates how Christianity has navigated through difficult times by adapting and transforming while maintaining its fundamental beliefs in grace and love. He portrays the religion as a living organism that evolves to fit new contexts and challenges, yet its core narrative remains steadfastly focused on the triumph of love and grace over adversity.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a church service to remind congregants of the enduring power of love in challenging times.
Emotions can certainly be misleading: they can fool you into believing stuff that is definitely, demonstrably untrue. Yet emotions are also our indispensable tool for navigating, for feeling our way through, the much larger domain of stuff that isn't susceptible to proof or disproof, that isn't checkable against the physical universe.
Taking the things people do wrong seriously is part of taking them seriously. It’s part of letting their actions have weight. It’s part of letting their actions be actions rather than just indifferent shopping choices; of letting their lives tell a life-story, with consequences, and losses, and gains, rather than just be a flurry of events. It’s part of letting them be real enough to be worth loving, rather than just attractive or glamorous or pretty or charismatic or cool.
Absolute truth is not dependent upon public opinion or popularity. Now what is this truth? It is His gospel. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I project myself out through the glasses and across the street, a ghost in the morning sunlight, torn with disembodied lust.
Indolence and melancholy: Each generates the other. If one can speak of such feeble passions as generating anything.
I ask every Australian to think about what the constitutional exclusion says to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, to see our vast and inspiring history in this land not mentioned in the official picture like that.
The best interpreter of the law is custom.
All big things are made up of trifles. My entire life has been built on trifles.
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