Idolatry Definition Quotes

the simplest definition of the Abrahamic faith. It is not our task to conquer or convert the world or enforce uniformity of belief. It is our task to be a blessing to the world. The use of religion for political ends is not righteousness but idolatry. ~ Jonathan Sacks

Luther's teaching is this: Anything we look to more than we look to Christ for our sense of acceptability, joy, significance, hope, and security is by definition our god - something we adore, serve, and rely on with our whole life and heart. In general, idols can be good things (family, achievement, work and career, romance, talent, etc. - even gospel ministry) that we turn into ultimate things to give us the significance and joy we need. Then they drive us into the ground because we must have them. A sure sign of the presence of idolatry is inordinate anxiety, anger, or discouragement when our idols are thwarted. So if we lose a good thing, it makes us sad, but if we lose an idol, it devastates us. ~ Timothy Keller

De Tocqueville says it comes from taking some "incomplete joy of this world" and building your entire life on it. That is the definition of idolatry. ~ Timothy Keller

I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can't read any poetry. ~ Randall Jarrell

To the extent that we are trapped by the overvaluing, idealizing tendency, we are not free fully to celebrate the limited but real goods of creation. Idolatry by definition is not an accurate assessment of creaturely goods, but an overvaluing of them so as to miss the richness of their actual, limited values. If I worship my tennis trophies, my Mondrian, my family tree, my Kawasaki, or my bank account, then I do not really receive those goods for what they actually are - limited, historical, and finite - goods which are vulnerable to being taken away by time and death. When I pretend that a value is something more than it is, ironically I value it less appropriately than it deserves. Biblical psychology invites us to relate ourselves absolutely to the absolute and relatively to the relative. ~ Thomas C. Oden

Contrary to secularist myth, science in practice is innately and irrepressibly religious: it serves either God or idolatry. But one of the features of idolatry is deceit. In this case, idolatry conceals from itself that it is idolatry. ~ Vern Sheridan Poythress

Idolatry is not simply worshiping a stone image; idolatry is any concept of God that reduces Him to less than who He really is. ~ Ron Carlson

Idolatry, then, is always polytheism, an aimless passing from one lord to another. Idolatry does not offer a journey but rather a plethora of paths leading nowhere and forming a vast labyrinth. ~ Pope Francis

I won't put my ignorance on an altar and call it God. It feels like idolatry, like the worst kind of idolatry. ~ Robert Charles Wilson

Anything that I want, I must also be ok with not having, otherwise it's idolatry. ~ Mike Donehey

Humor, together with irony,forms a safeguard against idolatry. ~ Krister Stendahl

Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Families are nothing other than the idolatry of duty. ~ Ann Oakley

For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the Giver himself? ~ John Calvin

There are a still lot of people in today's church who can easily identify the idolatry outside the church and are pretty proud of the fact that they are not like them. And yet, we are far too slow to recognize the idolatry inside the church and more painfully, the idolatry inside our hearts. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

All of the modern counseling vernacular is really not dealing with the root issue of idolatry. Someone or something's preeminent rather than God. ~ Mark Driscoll

There is a danger in monotheism, and it's called idolatry. And we know the prophets of Israel were very, very concerned about idolatry, the worship of a human expression of the divine. ~ Karen Armstrong

Idolatry is huge in the Bible, dominant in our personal lives, and irrelevant in our mistaken estimations ~ Os Guinness

Oh, only those whose souls have felt this one idolatry can tell how precious is the slightest thing affection gives and hallows. ~ Letitia Elizabeth Landon

I loved him as we always love for the first time; with idolatry and wild passion. ~ Voltaire

To have a faith, therefore, or a trust in anything, where God hath not promised, is plain idolatry, and a worshipping of thine own imagination instead of God. ~ William Tyndale

Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a begging. ~ Martin Luther

I have ever thought so superstitiously of wit, that I fear I have committed idolatry against wisdom. ~ John Lyly

Many of us do not believe in any form of idolatry; but they have no right to object when others do it. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Rapine, avarice, expense, This is idolatry; and these we adore; Plain living and high thinking are no more. ~ William Wordsworth

Idolatry happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things ~ Timothy Keller

The enemy of joy is not suffering, it is idolatry. ~ Matt Papa

The real sin of idolatry is always committed on behalf of something similar to the State. ~ Simone Weil

We make a god out of whatever we find most joy in. So find your joy in God and be done with all idolatry. ~ John Piper

We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ultimately all idolatry is worship of the self projected and objectified: all idolization is self-idolization. ~ Will Herberg

Early on I saw the repression and idolatry of Stalinism, and when it cracked, I was open to religion again. ~ Lionel Blue

Speak of the moderns without contempt and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their age ~ Lord Chesterfield

One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The whole youth-idolatry oh-god-not-another-birthday thing has to be the most sure-fire way to be unhappy about the way things are progressing in your life. ~ Nat Friedman

My definition, a definition in the drill books from the time that General Von Steuben wrote the regulations for General George Washington, the definition of the object of military training is success in battle ... It wouldn't be any sense to have a military organization on the backs of the American taxpayers with any other definition. ~ Chesty Puller

How shall I speak thee, or thy power address Thou God of our idolatry, the Press ... Like Eden's dead probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee. ~ William Cowper

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Like navigation markings in unknown waters, definitions of poverty need to be distinctive and unambiguous. A definition that is not precise is as bad as no definition at all. ~ Muhammad Yunus

Definition of a Writer: One who tells stories that demand to be told. ~ Ana Patrick

The Great Beast is the only object of idolatry , the only ersatz of God , the only imitation of something which is infinitely far from me and which is I myself. ~ Simone Weil

Those who lapse from the Gospel to the Law are no better off than those who lapse from grace into idolatry. ~ Martin Luther

In my lifetime I have witnessed far too many miracles to believe in impossibilities, and so I am officially modifying the definition.
im·pos·si·ble [im-pos-uh-buhl]
Old definition: Unable to be done.
New definition: Unable to be ignored until done. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

My definition of cursing is probably different from what other people's definitions are. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

My definition of a character actor is - they never get the girl. ~ James Cromwell

My definition is that geo-enlightenment is understanding the interconnectedness of things. ~ Jack Dangermond

Orthodoxy is idolatry if it means holding the 'correct opinions about God' - 'fundamentalism' is the most extreme and salient example of such idolatry - but not if it means holding faith in the right way, that is, not holding it at all but being held by God, in love and service. Theology is idolatry if it means what we say about God instead of letting ourselves be addressed by what God has to say to us. Faith is idolatrous if it is rigidly self-certain but not if it is softened in the waters of 'doubt. ~ John D. Caputo

My only definition is that I am a pragmatist. ~ Enrique Pena Nieto

Know the true definition of yourself. That is essential.
Then, when you know your own definition, flee from it. ~ Rumi

The definition of freedom is that there is no dependency. Despite having the physical body, one feels no dependency. ~ Dada Bhagwan

I don't think Stoppardian has a precise definition. ~ Tom Stoppard

Too much faith in personality has a tendency to produce weakness and idolatry, but intense love for the Guru makes rapid growth possible. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshipped. ~ Saint Augustine

Keep yourselves from idols." The warning isn't given to them because it wasn't a real danger or because there was an off chance someone might fall into idolatry. It was given because this is our root problem on any given day. It is what we, especially as followers of Jesus, must fight against. ~ Joe Thorn

Idolatry, like all sin, is devastating to the soul. It cuts us off from the comforts of grace, the peace of conscience, and the joy that is to be our strength. ~ Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Idolatry involves putting the things we love in the place of God or seeing God as a means of getting the things that we want, and that's the second great struggle of our lives. ~ Colin S. Smith

If you look up the definition of greatness in the dictionary, it will say Michael Jordan. ~ Elgin Baylor

Obviousism - I would give you a definition, but the definition would only be an example of the word. ~ Jarod Kintz

It's the perfect definition of a settlement. Both parties didn't get what they wanted. ~ David Geffen

The definition of an 'operating system' is bound to evolve with customer demands and technological possibilities. ~ Virginia Postrel

Isn't that the definition of a star? Someone who can get a film made? ~ Bruce Robinson

Yes, translation is by definition an inadequate substitute for being able to read a masterpiece in the original. ~ Terry Teachout

Other than out of a pure curiosity and the aim for veracity, or perhaps for educational purposes, why should it matter to you the color of Jesus? Would you love Him and what He has done for you any more or any less? If so, that would be idolatry. ~ Criss Jami

The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud. ~ Thomas Paine

In my teens, I developed a passionate idolatry for a teacher of English literature. I wanted to do something that he would approve of more, so I thought I should be some sort of a scholar. ~ Trevor Nunn

A person's own definition of leadership defines the glittering crown of his leadership. ~ Anuj

I call that church free which enters into the covenant with the ultimate source of existence. It binds together families and generations, protecting against the idolatry of any human claim to absolute truth or authority. ~ James Luther Adams

I am the complete and utter definition of a Luddite. ~ Graham McTavish

My definition of courage is never letting anyone define you. ~ Jenna Jameson

Quit analyzing me. My crazy needs no definition. ~ K.F. Breene

My definition of modernism took a while to develop. ~ Peter Gay

Armed attack has a definition in international law. It means sudden, overwhelming, instantaneous ongoing attack. ~ Noam Chomsky

A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words. ~ Samuel Butler

Too narrow a definition tends to complicate any endeavour. ~ Steven Redhead

Architecture is by definition a very collaborative process. ~ Joshua Prince-Ramus

By definition startups usually do not turn a profit. ~ Kevin Harrington

Everybody has a different definition of the good side. ~ Will Wright

I like people that define their own values. I am much more interested in somebody who has their own definition of what they value, their own definition of what success is, their own definition of what love is. ~ Spike Jonze

Hip-hop is too young to put a definition on it. ~ Saul Williams

Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

[Those who accept] the Americanized, Constantinian paradigm [say:] We are of God; they are of the Devil. We are the light; they are the darkness. Our wars are therefore "holy" wars. With all due respect, this is blatant idolatry. ~ Gregory A. Boyd

My definition of literature would be just this: words that have become deeds. ~ Robert Frost

Definition of money is the reward you get for solving people`s problems. ~ Sunday Adelaja

Life is stress by definition. ~ Rebecca McNutt

Well, fluffy shirts are, by definition, very comfortable. ~ Hugh Dancy

My definition of success is not having things thrown at me! ~ Orson Welles

I guess the definition of a lunatic is a man surrounded by them. ~ Ezra Pound

Suggestion is generally better than Definition. There is a seeming dogmatism about Definition that is often repellent, while Suggestion, on the contrary, disarms suspicion and summons to co-operation and experiment. Definition provokes discussion. Suggestion provokes to love and good works. Defining is limiting. Suggestion is enlarging. Defining calls a halt; Suggestion calls for an advance. Defining involves the peril of contentment: "I am here, I rest." "Thus far," says Definition, and draws a map. "Westward," cries Suggestion, and builds a boat. ~ Maltbie Davenport Babcock

I think that the definition of autism is too broad. You got to remember, autism definition is a behavioral profiling. ~ Temple Grandin

A careful reading of the Old and New Testaments shows that idolatry is nothing like the crude picture that springs to mind of a sculpture in some distant country. The idea is highly sophisticated, drawing together the complexities of motivation in individual psychology, the social environment, and also the unseen world. Idols are not just on pagan altars, but in well-educated human hearts and minds ~ Richard Keyes

It always seems as though the definition of love will remain debatable by an opinionated world. ~ Criss Jami

The accepted definition of a serial killer is a person who kills at least three times with a cooling off period in between his murders. ~ Pat Brown

Love is always by definition a choice ~ Sunday Adelaja

'Dystopian,' by definition, promises a darker story. ~ Lauren DeStefano

Definition of lecture: An art of transmitting Information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of students without passing through the minds of either.
Definition of conference: The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present
Definition of office: A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life.
"What people say about me behind my back is none of my business." ~ RuPaul

Influence is the key word in any definition of leadership. ~ Aubrey Malphurs

I have loved the every single person I met in my life, just the definition and situation varied. ~ Pushpa Rana

Self-love is an idolatry. Self-hatred is a tragedy. ~ Elizabeth Hardwick

To expand the definition of freedom you have to keep on setting something free… ~ Talismanist Giebra

Shiva will always be a true definition of love. ~ Kuldeep Gera