QoD: The Least Self-Regarding Virtue

Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays not attention to itself at all. While we are looking at god we do not see ourselves – blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.

 A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God.

QoD: The Church Against the Powerless

So, I want to start a new thread of posts based on interesting quotes I come across in my daily book readings. I figured this would be an easy way to introduce some of you to some really good writers that you might not otherwise read or at least prompt interaction with those whom you have read. Plus, putting my own thoughts in context of a larger community makes me look less crazy sometimes.

For your part, I’d like you to reflect on and interact with the quote(s). Sometimes I will put things up that I don’t agree with but still find intriguing. This means the views expressed in any given quote may or may not reflect my particular opinion.

Here’s our first one…

“Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on th side of the strong against the weak. This is a matter of tremendous significance , for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life too often has been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to…defenseless peoples.”

Howard Thurman, “Jesus and the Disinherited.” (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1949), 11-12.