There have been low moments before, but Christianity is an incredibly adaptable organism, using different parts of its repertoire to mutate into new ecological niches, yet preserving intact its story of grace, of love improbably triumphant.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the resilience and adaptability of Christianity throughout history, emphasizing its core message of grace and love.
In this quote, Francis Spufford illustrates how Christianity has navigated through difficult times by adapting and transforming while maintaining its fundamental beliefs in grace and love. He portrays the religion as a living organism that evolves to fit new contexts and challenges, yet its core narrative remains steadfastly focused on the triumph of love and grace over adversity.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a church service to remind congregants of the enduring power of love in challenging times.
Emotions can certainly be misleading: they can fool you into believing stuff that is definitely, demonstrably untrue. Yet emotions are also our indispensable tool for navigating, for feeling our way through, the much larger domain of stuff that isn't susceptible to proof or disproof, that isn't checkable against the physical universe.
Taking the things people do wrong seriously is part of taking them seriously. It’s part of letting their actions have weight. It’s part of letting their actions be actions rather than just indifferent shopping choices; of letting their lives tell a life-story, with consequences, and losses, and gains, rather than just be a flurry of events. It’s part of letting them be real enough to be worth loving, rather than just attractive or glamorous or pretty or charismatic or cool.
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild' is a snivelling modern invention, with no warrant in the gospels.
When I get lonely these days, I think: So BE lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings.
You know, I never imagined there were he-dryads. Not even in an oak tree." One of the giants grinned at him. Druellae snorted. "Stupid! Where do you think acorns come from?
The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.
The bigger a state becomes the more liberty diminishes.
Many things are mechanical and should remain mechanical. But mechanical thoughts, mechanical feelings—that is what has to be studied and can and should be changed. Mechanical thinking is not worth a penny. You can think about many things mechanically, but you will get nothing from it.
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