As promised a while back, here are some of my favorite quotes from Radical Christian Discipleship, the new book of popular-level essays by John Howard Yoder. There are quite a few here (as you might expect from a Yoder fan!), but if you take time to scroll through them, I think you'll find it's worth it:
"We must remember that the key to Christian obedience is not nonconformity but conformity...Paul [in Rom. 12] is more interested in helping us faithfully discern what it means not to be different from the world, but to be like Christ." (26-27)
"The most popular alternative to trying to fit in is to try to be different..What these rebels often do not see is that their rebellion is usually just as much a kind of conformity as that of blatant conformists. In fact, it is doubly so. The rebel is first a prisoner of the system that he or she rejects...There is nothing more compulsive, not to mention boring, than the nonconformity of any one generation's set of rebels." (28)
"Slavery to righteousness is true freedom precisely because no part of my life needs to be distorted when I commit myself totally to what God wants me to be." (30)
"Jesus said once that the dead should be left to bury the dead (Luke 9:60). This shows no disrespect for the dead. It shows an awareness that there are some functions in society that will be well taken care of without Christians investing their creativity in those functions...Let us reserve our limited creativity for functions that will not be taken care of if we do not do it." (41)
"Some of the ideas and practices that we have rethought and become modest about have been objects of sincere and profound religious devotion. For this reason, we must be careful when cutting ourselves down to size that we do not also cut God down to size." (43)
"When resurrection is the center of our message, human standards of possibility do not apply. When all the doors are closed, God opens a window or takes off the roof." (46)
"Th[e way of the cross] is not a theory about what God does in order to forgive, but what God did because God is forgiving." (52)
"It is a pleasant form of recreation and food for self-righteousness to meditate on other people's sins. Thinking about how much other people spend for cosmetics, alcohol, tobacco, and amusements creates a happy feeling in the breast of those who spend just as much for unnecessarily new automobiles, household appliances, vacationing, and bank accounts. Before the judgment of Christ, the fact that one sort of worldliness is more respectable than another seems to make little difference." (64)
"It would be possible to speak of two kinds of Christian use of time. One is productive activity, like farming or manufacturing. The other is religious, like preaching or praying. Such a distinction does as much harm as good. In fact, to reserve the term 'full-time Christian service' for the latter is to express an attitude that is foreign to the gospel. Plowing is, or should be, as religious as praying. Bible reading is, or should be, just as labor intensive as road building. Whatever activity full-time Christians turn to is, or should be, worthy of all their attention and ability, and subject to critical evaluation as a case of time-redeeming stewardship." (78)
"It is no accident that the need for vacations has arisen in an age that no longer honors Sunday. We need not be Puritans or advocates of sabbatarian legalism to recognize that in the weekly cycle of work and worship we have both the divine authorization for legitimate rest and a more natural way of meeting that need than the annual hurried trip to somewhere else." (79)
"The refusal to let our love be stopped by a border--be it of race, creed, or human sympathy--will be the measure of our Christian nonconformity." (92)
"Why should we pour our wealth, time, efforts, and personnel down the infinite drain of the world's neediness if there is no promise of return? Why expend ourselves in helping the ungrateful, forgiving the unrepentant, and witnessing to the hard of heart when we already have enough difficulty being honest and honorable ourselves? The only answer is that God is that way. God has been pouring love down the drain of our ingratitude for a mighty long time." (95)
"This is the paradox of Christian freedom: that when we give up living by the rules and begin living in daily fellowship with Christ, we discover that rules are helpful after all. We discover that the rules were really meant all the time to help us live in fellowship with Christ." (102)
"Christians will never let themselves think that they are in fellowship with God because they are different from the world, but they will be different from the world because of their fellowship with God." (103)
"Those who understand God's goodness can never keep it to themselves...the gospel kept for oneself is no gospel." (104)
"Whoever seeks for themselves consolation, reassurance, and stability will finally close themselves in with their own self-centeredness. Only those who lose their life and abandon all interest in feeling their own psychic pulse will one day be startled to find that their maladjustments and fears are being transformed in the victory that overcomes the world." (110)
"Hope is that quality of confidence that enables living as if God were to have the last word when at present that does not appear to be the case." (125)
"Despair need not always designate a state of melancholy. There are people whose lack of real hope and purpose permits them a carefree kind of happiness that Christians cannot share. The scientist who takes measurements without asking about truth; the devotees who make of art, sport, or the automobile end in themselves; the mothers who look no farther than the day's housework; the fathers who see their work only as a means of livelihood--all may embody forms of hopelessness or aimlessness, despite being occupied and even useful." (126)
"Peace is proclamation in the sense that we should talk not first of all about a social strategy for making the world a little less lethal, but about a victory already won. The gospel is about something that has already happened." (160)
"Where there is no total commitment to the gospel, there has been no total liberation by the gospel." (175)
"We must remember that the key to Christian obedience is not nonconformity but conformity...Paul [in Rom. 12] is more interested in helping us faithfully discern what it means not to be different from the world, but to be like Christ." (26-27)
"The most popular alternative to trying to fit in is to try to be different..What these rebels often do not see is that their rebellion is usually just as much a kind of conformity as that of blatant conformists. In fact, it is doubly so. The rebel is first a prisoner of the system that he or she rejects...There is nothing more compulsive, not to mention boring, than the nonconformity of any one generation's set of rebels." (28)
"Slavery to righteousness is true freedom precisely because no part of my life needs to be distorted when I commit myself totally to what God wants me to be." (30)
"Jesus said once that the dead should be left to bury the dead (Luke 9:60). This shows no disrespect for the dead. It shows an awareness that there are some functions in society that will be well taken care of without Christians investing their creativity in those functions...Let us reserve our limited creativity for functions that will not be taken care of if we do not do it." (41)
"Some of the ideas and practices that we have rethought and become modest about have been objects of sincere and profound religious devotion. For this reason, we must be careful when cutting ourselves down to size that we do not also cut God down to size." (43)
"When resurrection is the center of our message, human standards of possibility do not apply. When all the doors are closed, God opens a window or takes off the roof." (46)
"Th[e way of the cross] is not a theory about what God does in order to forgive, but what God did because God is forgiving." (52)
"It is a pleasant form of recreation and food for self-righteousness to meditate on other people's sins. Thinking about how much other people spend for cosmetics, alcohol, tobacco, and amusements creates a happy feeling in the breast of those who spend just as much for unnecessarily new automobiles, household appliances, vacationing, and bank accounts. Before the judgment of Christ, the fact that one sort of worldliness is more respectable than another seems to make little difference." (64)
"It would be possible to speak of two kinds of Christian use of time. One is productive activity, like farming or manufacturing. The other is religious, like preaching or praying. Such a distinction does as much harm as good. In fact, to reserve the term 'full-time Christian service' for the latter is to express an attitude that is foreign to the gospel. Plowing is, or should be, as religious as praying. Bible reading is, or should be, just as labor intensive as road building. Whatever activity full-time Christians turn to is, or should be, worthy of all their attention and ability, and subject to critical evaluation as a case of time-redeeming stewardship." (78)
"It is no accident that the need for vacations has arisen in an age that no longer honors Sunday. We need not be Puritans or advocates of sabbatarian legalism to recognize that in the weekly cycle of work and worship we have both the divine authorization for legitimate rest and a more natural way of meeting that need than the annual hurried trip to somewhere else." (79)
"The refusal to let our love be stopped by a border--be it of race, creed, or human sympathy--will be the measure of our Christian nonconformity." (92)
"Why should we pour our wealth, time, efforts, and personnel down the infinite drain of the world's neediness if there is no promise of return? Why expend ourselves in helping the ungrateful, forgiving the unrepentant, and witnessing to the hard of heart when we already have enough difficulty being honest and honorable ourselves? The only answer is that God is that way. God has been pouring love down the drain of our ingratitude for a mighty long time." (95)
"This is the paradox of Christian freedom: that when we give up living by the rules and begin living in daily fellowship with Christ, we discover that rules are helpful after all. We discover that the rules were really meant all the time to help us live in fellowship with Christ." (102)
"Christians will never let themselves think that they are in fellowship with God because they are different from the world, but they will be different from the world because of their fellowship with God." (103)
"Those who understand God's goodness can never keep it to themselves...the gospel kept for oneself is no gospel." (104)
"Whoever seeks for themselves consolation, reassurance, and stability will finally close themselves in with their own self-centeredness. Only those who lose their life and abandon all interest in feeling their own psychic pulse will one day be startled to find that their maladjustments and fears are being transformed in the victory that overcomes the world." (110)
"Hope is that quality of confidence that enables living as if God were to have the last word when at present that does not appear to be the case." (125)
"Despair need not always designate a state of melancholy. There are people whose lack of real hope and purpose permits them a carefree kind of happiness that Christians cannot share. The scientist who takes measurements without asking about truth; the devotees who make of art, sport, or the automobile end in themselves; the mothers who look no farther than the day's housework; the fathers who see their work only as a means of livelihood--all may embody forms of hopelessness or aimlessness, despite being occupied and even useful." (126)
"Peace is proclamation in the sense that we should talk not first of all about a social strategy for making the world a little less lethal, but about a victory already won. The gospel is about something that has already happened." (160)
"Where there is no total commitment to the gospel, there has been no total liberation by the gospel." (175)
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