Alister Quotes

Manz, formerly one of Zwingli's closest allies, held that there was no biblical warrant for infant baptism. Refusing to recant his views, he was tied up and drowned in the River Limmat. ~ Alister E. McGrath

She barely notices when I say that I am going on to Toronto to visit my grandparents. Except to remark that they must be really old. Not a word about Alister. Not even a bad word. She would not have forgotten. Just tidied up the scene and put it away in a closet with her former selves. Or maybe she really is a person who can deal recklessly with humiliation. ~ Alice Munro

Lewis wanted us to understand that the inner world is shaped by stories. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Our present world contains clues ... to another world-a world which we can begin to experience now, but will only know in all its fullness at the end of things. ~ Alister E. McGrath

All the important things in life lie beyond reason ... and that's just the way things are. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Han made no effort to put up a brave front. Most of the time he just screamed himself hoarse, though a couple of times he amused himself by screaming Fionas's name as if he were in the throes of passion. FEEE-OHHH-NAAA! Lord Bayar made him pay for that, but afterward, Fiona didn't come down anymore, which Han appreciated. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Lewis is a rare example of someone who liked to think about life's great questions because they were forced on him by his own experience. ~ Alister E. McGrath

For Lewis, the narration of his own story was about the identification of a pattern of meaning. This enabled him to grasp the "big picture" and discern the "grand story" of all things, so that the snapshots and stories of his own life could assume a deeper meaning. ~ Alister E. McGrath

The state is concerned with the promotion of outward righteousness arising from the individual being constrained to keep the law. The Gospel alters human nature, whereas the state merely restrains human greed and evil, having no positive power to alter human motivation. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Our desires cannot be, and were never meant to be, satisfied by earthly pleasures alone. ~ Alister E. McGrath

You'd choose him over me?"

"He ain't the one making me choose. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

To speak of "the rise of Protestantism" is to offer a controlling narrative that links these potentially disparate events as part of a greater, more significant movement. So persuasive was this emerging narrative that many of the reforming groups scattered across Europe realigned their sense of identity and purpose to conform to it. As these movements began to locate themselves on a historical and conceptual map, each came increasingly to identify itself in terms of what was perceived as a greater overarching movement. A ~ Alister E. McGrath

Hope is rooted in the trustworthiness of God. ~ Alister E. McGrath

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

To its critics, the study of theology distracts from real life. But, at its best, theology inspires and informs precisely the committed and caring ministry. ~ Alister E. McGrath

I think that (Alister) MacKenzie and I managed to work as a completely sympathetic team. Of course there was never any question that he was the architect and I was the advisor and consultant. No man learns to design a golf course simply by playing golf, no matter how well. But it happened that both of us were extravagant admirers of the Old Course at St Andrews and we both desired as much as possible to simulate seaside conditions insofar as the differences in turf and terrain would allow. ~ Bobby Jones

For Christian writers, religious faith is not a rebellion against reason, but a revolt against the imprisonment of humanity within the cold walls of a rationalist dogmatism. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Curiously, Dawkins and Dennett remain firmly committed to the outmoded notion that science and religion are permanently in conflict - an idea often referred to as the "warfare" thesis. This is now regarded as quite unacceptable by historians of science, chiefly because it is so difficult to reconcile with the facts of history.8 ~ Alister E. McGrath

Lewis is like a gateway, making the riches of Deep Church more accessible. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Haven't you heard about me?" he said, with a tight smile. "I'm really a very dangerous person." And he did look dangerous until he said, "Look, could you watch Dog for me while I'm gone? I can't take him where I'm going. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

If there is no ultimate reality, it's pointless to think about how we might get there. ~ Alister E. McGrath

So here's the truth - I love you. I love everything about you – the way you stick up for people even when it costs you. The way you keep trying to do the right thing even when you're not exactly sure what the right thing is. I love how you put words together. You're as skilled with words as any knife fighter with a blade. You can put an enemy down on his back, or you can raise people up so they find what's best in themselves. You've changed my life. You've given me the words I need to become whatever I want.
I love how you talk to lytlings. You don't talk down to them. You respect them, and anybody can tell you're actually interested in what they have to say.
I love the way you ride a horse – how you stick there like an upland thistle, whooping like a Demonai. I love the way you throw back your head and stomp your feet when you dance. I love how you go after what you want – whether it's kisses or a queendom.
I love your skin, like copper dusted over with gold. And your eyes – they're the color of a forest lake shaded by evergreens. One of the secret places that only the Demonai know about.
I love the scent of you – when you've been out in the fresh air, and that perfume you put behind your ears sometimes.
Believe it or not, I even love your road smell – of sweat and horses and leather and wool.
I want to breathe you in for the rest of my life. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You know, Micah, that first night, when I saw you on Bridge Street, I wanted to kill you. I wanted to cut your throat and watch your blood soak into the dirt. I wanted to wrap a strangle cord around your neck and throttle you while you kicked and messed yourself."
"I'm shaking in my boots," Micah said, looking Han dead in the eyes.
Han stood and took a step toward him. "I'm what's hiding in the side street when you walk home from The Four Horses," he said. "I'm the shadow in Greystone Alley when you go out to take a piss. I'm the foot pad in the corridor when you visit the girlie at Grievous Hall."
Micah's eyes narrowed, his self-assurance wilting a bit. Han could tell he was going back over a hundred suspicious sights and sounds. "You've been following me?"
"I can come and go from your room, any time I want," Han said. "I can tell you what you say when you talk in your sleep. I know what your down low girlie whispers in your ear." He laughed...
Michah licked his lips. "Perhaps you take some kind of perverse pleasure in stalking me... ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Though argument does not create conviction, the lack of it destroys belief. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Mere Christianity allows us to understand Christian ideas; the Narnia stories allow us to step inside and experience the Christian story and judge it by its ability to make sense of things and "chime in" with our deepest intuitions about truth, beauty, and goodness. If ~ Alister E. McGrath

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

Lewis created a new kind of marriage between theological reflection and poetic imagination. ~ Alister E. McGrath

The printed word was integral to the spreading of the ideas of the Reformation across the religious and political boundaries of Europe. Martin Luther never visited England, yet his ideas were brought there through books that were smuggled in through eastern ports such as Ipswich and pored over in nearby Cambridge University. Calvin ~ Alister E. McGrath

At Oxford University, the certainties of my atheist faith (and atheism is a faith) began to crumble ~ Alister E. McGrath

The burdens of taxation, the lack of due representation, and the desire for freedom were unquestionably integral ingredients in the accumulation of grievances that drove many colonials to take up arms against the king.22 Yet religious issues also played their part, not least in intensifying a sense of injustice over the privileged status of the Church of England in the British colonies.23 ~ Alister E. McGrath

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

For Calvin, the creation reflects its Creator at every point. Image after images flashed in front of our eyes, as Calvin attempts to convey the multiplicity of ways in which the creation witnesses to its Creator: it is like a visible garment, which the invisible God dons in order to make himself known; it is like a book in which the name on the Creator is written as its author; it is like a theater, in which the glory of God is publicly displayed; it is like a mirror, in which the works and wisdom of God are reflected. ~ Alister E. McGrath

He'd serve himself, waiting and watching until he could take advantage. He wouldn't play the fool anymore. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You can't save everyone, you know."

I can't save ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It was just a different kind of battle, one he'd have to learn to win ~ Cinda Williams Chima

We may be poor, but at least we've always been honest."

Something broke inside Han, and when he opened his mouth the words came spilling out. "We're ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Well, lucky you, you've landed in the right nest. Come, come, follow me, young hatchling.
-Keeper of the chronicles (Alister) ~ Candace Knoebel

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

Science proceeds by inference, rather than by the deduction of mathematical proof. A series of observations is accumulated, forcing the deeper question: What must be true if we are to explain what is observed? What "big picture" of reality offers the best fit to what is actually observed in our experience? American scientist and philosopher Charles S. Peirce used the term "abduction" to refer to the way in which scientists generate theories that might offer the best explanation of things. The method is now more often referred to as "inference to the best explanation." It is now widely agreed to be the philosophy of investigation of the world characteristic of the natural sciences. ~ Alister E. McGrath

One of the great themes of the Christian Bible is that, whenever God asks us to do something for him, he gives us the gifts we need to do it. Knowing us for what we are, he equips us for what he wants us to do. ~ Alister E. McGrath

I have always wanted to live where one could practice (golf) shots in one's pajamas before breakfast. ~ Alister MacKenzie

Tears stung her eyes. She sank her knees next to the sleeping bench and gently raked strands of golden hair from him forehead.
"Don't you die. don't you dare. I forbid it." As if Han Alister had ever listened to anything she said. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

My heart is in the Church of England but not my mind. ~ Alister Hardy

We live on earth; our homeland is in heaven. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Literature offers us a different way of seeing things. The reading of literature opens our eyes, offering us new perspectives on things that we can evaluate and adopt. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. . . . In reading great literature, I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see.[94] ~ Alister E. McGrath

A Basic Definition of "Christian Spirituality" Christian spirituality concerns the quest for a fulfilled and authentic Christian existence, involving the bringing together of the fundamental ideas of Christianity and the whole experience of living on the basis of and within the scope of the Christian faith. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Beneath all the rhetoric about relevance lies a profoundly disturbing possibility - that people may base their lives upon an illusion, upon a blatant lie. The attractiveness of a belief is all too often inversely proportional to its truth ... To allow "relevance" to be given greater weight than truth is a mark of intellectual shallowness and moral irresponsibility. ~ Alister E. McGrath

The ideal hole (course) is surely one that affords the greatest pleasure to the greatest number. ~ Alister MacKenzie

The English experience suggested that nobody really doubted the existence of God until theologians tried to prove it. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Golf is a game, and talk and discussion is all to the interests of the game. Anything that keeps the game alive and prevents us being bored with it is an advantage. Anything that makes us think about it, talk about it, and dream about it is all to the good and prevents the game becoming dead. ~ Alister MacKenzie

Human logic may be rationally adequate, but it is also existentially deficient. Faith declares that there is more than this - not contradicting, but transcending reason. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Lucius had told him word was out that he was dead. Han decided that being dead made travel much easier. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Can you imagine it, Alister? Can you imagine what it was like for a shade like me to experience the world again through all of your senses- vision and touch, and smell and taste and hearing?"
"I wouldn't have gone to the library, I'll tell you that," Han said.
Crow laughed. "I like you, Alister. All of this would have been easier if you were unlikable. And stupid. You would have been considerably more tractable. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

They taught me longing - Sehnsucht; made me for good or ill, and before I was six years old, a votary of the Blue Flower. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Grief was like that. It gradually faded into a dull ache, until some simple sight or sound or scent hit him like a hammer blow. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You've grown so tall, Mageling, in these four years," she said, as if she hadn't really looked at him for a while. "And handsome. Are you taller than your father was?"
"So I'm told. It's hard for me to remember now." That was a lie. He remembered - exactly - the measure of his father's arm around his shoulders, the distance between them when he leaned down to speak at Ash's level, even the scent of him - leather and sweat and fresh mountain air. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

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

Christianity brings to fulfilment and completion imperfect and partial insights about reality, scattered abroad in human culture. Tolkien gave Lewis a lens, a way of seeing things, which ~ Alister E. McGrath

Later Protestant writers would refer to this as the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae - the "article by which the church stands or falls. ~ Alister E. McGrath

I'm not going to let you hit me anymore," Han said quietly. "I've already had one beating today. That's enough. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I didn't do anything," Han complained, the refrain of his entire life. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It was not long before the possibly serious translation errors uncovered in the Vulgate threatened to force revision of existing church teachings. Erasmus pointed out some of these in 1516. An excellent example is found in the Vulgate translation of the opening words of Jesus's ministry in Galilee (Matthew 4:17) as: "do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." This translation creates a direct link between the coming of God's kingdom and the sacrament of penance. Erasmus pointed out that the original Greek text should be translated as: "repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." Where the Vulgate seemed to refer to an outward practice (the sacrament of penance), Erasmus insisted that the reference was to an inward psychological attitude - that of "being repentant. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Good does not triumph unless good people rise to the challenges around them. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Right." Adrian took a deep breath and plunged on.
"I can't get into Mystwerk at thirteen, but Spiritas accepts
novices at eleven, just like Wien House."
"Spiritas?"
"That's the healers' academy at Oden's Ford. You
wouldn't remember it - it's just three years old. They're
combining green magic, music and art therapies, clan remedies,
and, eventually, wizardry."
"Eventually?" His father raised an eyebrow.
"That's the goal, but from what I hear, the deans at
Mystwerk haven't been eager to join in so far."
His father snorted. "Why am I not surprised? ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Lewis began to realize that atheism did not - and could not - satisfy the deepest longings of his heart or his intuition that there was more to life than what was seen on the surface. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Addressing the conclusions of The God Delusion point by point with the devastating insight of a molecular biologist turned theologian, Alister McGrath dismantles the argument that science should lead to atheism, and demonstrates instead that Dawkins has abandoned his much-cherished rationality to embrace an embittered manifesto of dogmatic atheist fundamentalism. ~ Francis Collins

Puzzles lead to logical answers; mysteries often force us to stretch language to its limits in an attempt to describe a reality that is just too great to take in properly. ~ Alister E. McGrath

I'm thinking that there are other reasons not to murder people beyond the fact that there's no ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Han smiled, then, a bright, charming smile that lit up the room, more dangerous than any blade.
All you ever needed was that smile, she thought. I'd have given in immediately. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Lewis at his best is about trying on ways of looking at the world. ~ Alister E. McGrath

The hallmark of intelligence is not whether one believes in God or not, but the quality of the processes that underlie one's beliefs. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Crow paced back and forth, his form flickering like flame. "It's been a thousand years, Alister. I never intended for anyone to find it, so it's very well protected. One little misstep, and you and my line will be history."
"Since when are you so concerned about your line?" Han said.
Crow stared at him for a long moment. "Since I found out I had one, ~ Cinda Williams Chima

At least I fight my own battles, Alister,' Micah said.
'Really? And exactly why did you go cackling to the dean? ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Don't ask for the truth, boy, unless you're ready to hear it. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Suffering does not call into question the "big picture" of the Christian faith. It reminds us that we do not see the whole picture, and are thus unable to fit all of the pieces neatly into place. ~ Alister E. McGrath

Tolkien helped Lewis to realise that the problem lay not in Lewis's rational failure to understand the theory, but in his imaginative failure to grasp its significance. The issue was not primarily about truth, but about meaning. When ~ Alister E. McGrath

Faith is not something that goes against the evidence, it goes beyond it. The evidence is saying to us, 'There is another country. There is something beyond mere reason'. ~ Alister E. McGrath

The reading of literature opens our eyes, offering us new perspectives on things that we can evaluate and adopt. ~ Alister E. McGrath

For Tolkien, a myth awakens in its readers a longing for something that lies beyond their grasp. Myths ~ Alister E. McGrath

As for my family, my father was Danel; he died as a mercenary in the southern wars," Han went on. "My mother's name was Sarah, called Sali, and my sister was Mari. They died last summer. But then, you already knew that. Every time you forget, I'll remind you. That's the blood sacrifice I made to be here, and that's enough. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

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

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

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

Remember Alister, your arms aren't long enough to box with God. Maybe one day you'll realize that." - Anna ~ The Cursed Man ~ Keith Rommel

The chief object of every golf architect or greenkeeper worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from nature itself. ~ Alister MacKenzie

Marsh looked at me sideways, causing a brief stir of familiarity. "You liked the library?"
"It was all I could do to keep her from bolting herself inside," Alistair told him.
With mock indignation, I protested, "I never even touched a book. I walked through and walked out."
"Her eyes were filled with an unnatural light," Alister confided in his cousin. "I feared for my safety. ~ Laurie R. King

There is the life of the plankton in almost endless variety; there are the many kinds of fish, both surface and bottom living; there are the hosts of different invertebrate creatures on the sea-floor; and there are those almost grotesque forms of pelagic life in the oceans depths. Then there are the squids and cuttlefish, and the porpoises, dolphins and great whales. ~ Alister Hardy

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. ~ Alister E. McGrath

When the old poets made some virtue their theme, they were not teaching but adoring, ~ Alister E. McGrath

Alister McGrath has now written two books with my name in the title. The poet W. B. Yeats, when asked to say something about bad poets who made a living by parasitizing him, wrote the splendid line, 'was there ever dog that praised his fleas? ~ Richard Dawkins

On the value of blind shots to golf course design. ~ Alister MacKenzie

The stories of Narnia seem childish nonsense to some. But to others, they are utterly transformative. For the latter group, these evocative stories affirm that it is possible for the weak and foolish to have a noble calling in a dark world; that our deepest intuitions point us to the true meaning of things; that there is indeed something beautiful and wonderful at the heart of the universe; and that this may be found, embraced, and adored. ~ Alister E. McGrath

She had never felt more alive than when she lay dying in Han Alister's arms. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

There may be a certain amount of pleasurable excitement in running up to the top of a hillock in the hope of seeing your ball near the flag, but this kind of thing one gets tired of as one grows older. ~ Alister MacKenzie

I try to build courses for the most enjoyment by the greatest number. ~ Alister MacKenzie

Lewis helps us to appreciate that apologetics need not take the form of deductive argument. Instead, apologetics can be an invitation to step into the Christian way of seeing things, and explore how things look when seen from its standpoint. Lewis's approach says, "Try seeing things this way!" If worldviews or metanarratives can be compared to lenses, which of them brings things into sharpest focus? ~ Alister E. McGrath