Alister Quotes & Sayings

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

A god that can be reduced to what reason can cope with is not a God that can be worshiped. — 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

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

I do not expect anyone will ever have the opportunity of constructing another course like Cypress Point, as I do not suppose anywhere in the world is there such a glorious combination of rocky coast, sand dunes, pine woods and cypress trees. — Alister MacKenzie

From this brief account of the origins of the English Reformation under Henry VIII, it will be clear that there are reasons for supposing that Henry's agenda was political, dominated by his desire to safeguard his succession and secure his own authority throughout his kingdom. Through — Alister E. McGrath

Imagination is the gatekeeper of the human soul. — Alister E. McGrath

Christianity, rather than being one myth alongside many others, is thus the fulfilment of all previous mythological religions. Christianity tells a true story about humanity, which makes sense of all the stories that humanity tells about itself. — Alister E. McGrath

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

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

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

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

Without the advent of printing, there would have been no Reformation, and there might well have been no Protestantism either. — 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

New ideas can be supremely bad ideas, and by the time people realize how bad they are, it is sometimes difficult to get rid of them. — Alister E. McGrath

True love involves a willingness to change, to become more like the ones we love. Love is dynamic, not static. God may accept us just as we are - but he isn't going to leave us there. God wants to move us on, to help us become the people we are meant to be. — Alister E. McGrath

Hope is rooted in the trustworthiness of God. — 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

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

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

Take Lewis's "argument from desire." He basically argues that we experience desires that no experience in this world seems able to satisfy. And when we see these experiences through the lens of the Christian faith, we realise that this sort of experience is exactly what we would expect if Christianity is true. — Alister E. McGrath

The idea that Christianity is basically a religion of moral improvement ... has its roots in the liberal Protestantism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century ... It is this stereotype which continues to have influence today ... But then came the First World War ... What had gone wrong was that the idea of sin had been abandoned by liberal Christianity as some kind of unnecessary hangover from an earlier and less enlightened period in Christian history. — Alister E. McGrath

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

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

Apologetics is about persuading people that there is a door to another world - a door that perhaps they never realized existed. Evangelism is about helping people to open that door and enter into the new world that lies beyond. — 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

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

It's the difference between utility and virtue. Many policy makers now think of education in functional terms. It's about learning skills that will help students find employment - such as using a word processor or spreadsheet. Yet what about helping people to figure out the meaning of life? Or become good people? Or make a difference to others? Is education for a stage in life, completed once we find jobs, or should it be a lifelong pursuit? — Alister E. McGrath

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

Reading works of literature is about "entering fully into the opinions, and therefore also the attitudes, feelings, and total experience" of other people.[96] To read literature is thus to open us up to new ideas, or to force us to revisit those we once believed we were right to reject. — Alister E. McGrath

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

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

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

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

At Oxford University, the certainties of my atheist faith (and atheism is a faith) began to crumble — 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

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

The solution was eventually found by Johannes Gutenberg, who made the breakthrough that finally established printing as the communication technology of the future. Similar ideas may have been under development around the same time in Prague and Haarlem. But in business, the key question is not about who else is in the race, it's about who gets there first. Johannes Gutenberg was the first to make the new technology work, ensuring his place in any history of the human race. — Alister E. McGrath

His aster-blue eyes shown out from a face blackened by bruises and soot, his fair hair glittering in the firelight. Dressed all in black, silhouetted against flame, he looked rather like a demon, raised from the dead, trading for souls on the other side. — Cinda Williams Chima

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

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

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

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

The God Delusion is a rather disorganized collage of arguments and pastiche of assertions which cannot be said to advance those ideas or enhance their critical edge, but rather harnesses them in the service of the advocacy of atheism. — Alister E. McGrath

If worldviews or metanarratives can be compared to lenses, which of them brings things into the sharpest focus? This is not an irrational retreat from reason. Rather, it is about grasping a deeper order of things which is more easily accessed by the imagination than by reason. — Alister E. McGrath

One of the best introductions to the history and ideas of Calvinism, packed with insight and wisdom. — Alister E. McGrath

Whoa, Rebecca," Talia said smiling even wider, "Walking on the wild side, are we?"
Raisa seemed to think the situation needed more explaining. "He - uh - I'm tutoring him."
"She is," Han said solemnly. "She's very good. I'm learning a lot."
Pearlie snickered. "What's she teaching you?"
"Well," Han said, "we're jumping around a lot. — Cinda Williams Chima

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

God's existence may not be proved, in the hard rationalist sense of the word. Yet it can be affirmed with complete sincerity that belief in God is eminently reasonable and makes more sense of what we see in the world, discern in history, and experience in our lives than its alternatives. — Alister E. McGrath

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

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

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

How does humanity find God and enter into a relationship with him - a relationship that delivers humanity once and for all from fear of death, hell, or damnation? Luther is adamant: this relationship is made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and is appropriated through faith. For — Alister E. McGrath

The human quest for beauty is thus really a quest for the source of that beauty, which is mediated through the things of this world, not contained within them. — 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

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

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

Around this time, the term "Calvinism" was used by its opponents to refer to the Reformed type of Protestantism as a means of emphasizing that it originated from outside Germany. The term appears to have been introduced around 1552 by the Lutheran polemicist Joachim Westphal to refer to the theological, and particularly the sacramental, views of the Swiss reformers in general, and of John Calvin in particular.27 — Alister E. McGrath

For Luther, it (faith) is an undeviating, trusting outlook appointment life, a constant stance of the trustworthiness of the promises of God. — Alister E. McGrath

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

We must not think that religious concerns swamped all other social activities. They simply provided a focal point for them. — Alister E. McGrath

Clergy had a vested interest in retaining the old, ways, which made few demands of them as teachers, as spiritual guides, or as moral examples or agents. — 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

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

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

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

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

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 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

village." The scholar, Lewis declares, has "lived in many times" and can thus challenge the automatic presumption of finality inherent in present judgements and trends: We need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion.58 — 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

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

Christianity tells a big story. It allows us to see our own story in a new way. — Alister E. McGrath

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

To reenchant nature is not merely to gain a new perspective for its integrity and well-being; it is to throw open the doors to a deeper level of existence. — Alister E. McGrath

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

I want Alister's killer. I'm letting you work with me because you want to and because if I didn't, you'd just get in my way."
"You're 'letting' me work with you because you're too bad tempered to get information out of anybody on your own," she retorted. "I don't know why the lictors thought you might be useful to them. What do you do, stab prisoners with the sharp edge of your tongue until they beg for mercy? — Dru Pagliassotti

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

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

Lewis had experienced more trauma than most of his modern readers ever will. — Alister E. McGrath

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

It was a peculiar marriage of interests- Lord Averill and Captain Byrne and Lord Bayar and Han Alister agreeing on anything was as rare as gold in Ragmarket. — 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

For Tolkien, a myth is a story that conveys "fundamental things" - in other words, that tries to tell us about the deeper structure of things. The best myths, he argues, are not deliberately constructed falsehoods, but are rather tales woven by people to capture the echoes of deeper truths. Myths — Alister E. McGrath

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

One of the reasons why I, 'a medical man' decided to give up medicine was a firm conviction of the extraordinary influence on health of pleasurable excitement, especially when combined with fresh air and exercise. How frequently have I, with great difficulty, persuaded patients who were never off my doorsteps to take up golf, and how rarely, if ever, I have seen them in my consulting room again. — Alister MacKenzie

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

A good golf course is like good music. It does not necessarily appeal the first time one plays it. — Alister MacKenzie

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

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

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

Within each of us exists the image of God, however disfigured and corrupted by sin it may presently be. God is able to recover this image through grace as we are conformed to Christ. — Alister E. McGrath