All practical teachers know that education is a patient process of mastery of details, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
I consider Christianity to be one of the great disasters of the human race... It would be impossible to imagine anything more un - Christianlike than theology.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the rigid structures of theological interpretation within Christianity, suggesting they deviate from the core values of the faith.
Alfred North Whitehead's statement provocatively positions Christianity's theological frameworks as a significant misstep in human history, implying that these systems can obscure the true compassionate and loving spirit that should define the religion. By labeling theology as un-Christianlike, he emphasizes the need for a more authentic understanding and practice of faith that resonates with the foundational teachings of love and inclusivity rather than dogma and rigidity.
Themes
ReligionTheologyChristianityHumanityFaith
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the role of religion in society, you might reference this quote to illustrate the dangers of dogmatism in faith.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
All quotes βThe vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervour, live for it, and, if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervour; so the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies.
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The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.
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As society is now constituted, a literal adherence to the moral precepts scattered throughout the Gospels would mean sudden death.
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Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
The progress of Science consists in observing interconnections and in showing with a patient ingenuity that the events of this ever-shifting world are but examples of a few general relations, called laws. To see what is general in what is particular, and what is permanent in what is transitory, is the aim of scientific thought.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
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Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.
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