The Christian Universe -E.L.Mascall

Buy this book -About the author  
- blog article: Mascall as Anglican Patrimony (The AngloCatholic)

"To put the matter quite simply, I hope to show that the affirmations about God, man and Christ which the Christian Church has taught throughout it's history, and the manner of living which these affirmations imply, are more satisfying to our intellect, more enriching to our imagination and more fulfilling to our whole personality than either the secularist humanism which is so widespread today or the etiolated substitutes for orthodox Christianity which are frequently offered for our consumption. I hope, in short, to show that the faith which the Church has proclaimed throughout the ages is fuller, more interesting, more comprehensive, more demanding, more liberating, more satisfying, that it synthetises a wider range of human thought, embraces and co-ordinates a wider range of human experience, opens up more possibilities of human living and offers in the end a deeper and richer ecstasy of fulfilment than any alternate way of life and thought; that it is in every way grander, more inspiring and more fruitful." (10-11)


"What I have tried to show is that the world in which we live and of which we are part does not make sense of itself. So we are presented with this choice. We may, if we so decide, make the best of a world which is in the last resort a sensless and hostile desert, in which we must either bury our heads in the sands or make, each for himself our little private oasis. Or we may look for the world's meaning in some order of reality outside and beyond it, which can do for the world what the world can not do for itself." (45)


"...it is significant that the church has adopted the luxuriant nuptial imagery of the Song of Solomon as an analogy of the love of God for man and of man for God; for our enjoyment of God in heaven will be more, not less, ecstatic than the most passionate sexual experience on earth. And, if we want to acquire some remote understanding of the wonder and glory of the Christian God, we may well find the poets more helpful than the theologians." (53)


" "The true alternative", it has been well said, "is not mystery or clarity, but mystery or absurdity"". (65)


"...to penetrate to the heart of the truth of God, it is not enough to have been given it; you must love it, cling to it, and live by it." (71)


"Then there are men who are seeking the God they do not know, in shadowy imaginings; God is not far from men of this kind, for he gives to all men life and breath and all we have..." (73)


"He can either accept his dependence upon God and turn to God in gratitude and loving obedience, and by so doing he will be acting in accordance with his nature; or he can rebel against it and claim the right to self-sufficiency which he doers not in fact posses." (102)


"...two classic facts of Christian teaching stand out clearly: first, that sin is basically falshood, it is, as we say, "acting a lie"; secondly, it is frustration, for it is fighting against the law of our own being. Division between man and man, and division within our own selves, are the natural consequence of man's separation of himself from God." (103)