Robert Ellsberg Quotes & Sayings

But in the end they were not called saints because of the way they died, or because of their visions or wondrous deeds, but because of their extraordinary capacity for the love and goodness, which reminded others of the love of God. — Robert Ellsberg

As persons, so Mournier maintained, we possess both a spiritual and temporal dimension; we exist in history, in relationship with others, but open to transcendence and ultimately to God. This concept of the person, he believed, was denied as much by an atheistic totalitarianism of the Left as by the bourgeois materialism of capitalist society. To the extent that Christianity had become infected by the bourgeois spirit, it had become a prop in what he called, 'the established disorder. — Robert Ellsberg

Mournier defined his own position as one of 'tragic optimism
' a Christian attitude of absolute engagement in the struggles of history, despite the fact that the Absolute cannot be contained in history. — Robert Ellsberg

Consistently, [Yves] Congar emphasized the distinction between Tradition and traditionalism. The latter was an unyielding commitment to the past. The former was a living principle of commitment to the Beginning, a process that required creativity, inspiration, and a spirit of openness to the present as well as respect for the past.
Two of Congar's works, on reform in the church and on the theology of the laity, proved especially controversial ... Congar believed that reform was a vital and necessary dimension of the church. This was rooted in the distinction between the church and the kingdom of God and in the intermingling in the church of both divine and human elements. In light of the church's constant temptation to revert to institutionalism, it was always necessary to allow room for the prophetic voice, issuing from the margins, even though this might mean attending to uncomfortable truths. — Robert Ellsberg

He [Pierre Teilhard de Chardin] was thrilled with the idea that through work in the world human beings were participating in the ongoing extension and consecration of God's creation. — Robert Ellsberg