71 Quotes by Brian Zahnd

The first precondition of being called a spiritual leader is to perceive and feel the falsehood that is prevailing in society, and then to dedicate one’s life to a struggle against that falsehood. If one tolerates the falsehood and resigns oneself to it, one can never become a prophet. If one cannot rise above material life, one cannot even become a citizen in the Kingdom of the Spirit, far less a leader of others. – Vladimir Solovyov in his eulogy of Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1881.

Love all of God’s creation, both the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love animals, love plants, love each thing. If you love each thing, you will perceive the mystery of God in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin tirelessly to perceive more and more of it every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an entire, universal love.

If God can become human, then we must reconsider how we treat our fellow humans.

The lost beauty of God’s good creation is what is recovered in the Incarnation.

The beauty of the image of God marred in man through the Fall is what the Incarnation redeems.

It’s not enough to believe in Jesus; we also have to believe in the Jesus way!

Our task is not to protest the world into a certain moral conformity, but to attract the world to the saving beauty of Christ.

The truth is that for most of us economic self-interest is the single greatest obstacle to full participation in the kingdom of God. We cannot love our neighbor as our self without being willing to share our wealth.

It’s not the task of the church to change the world by legislative force. It’s the task of the church to be the world changed by Christ. This is revolutionary in a way that conventional politics never can be.