“ For reasons that will never be entirely clear, God has a soft spot for religious strangers, both as agents of divine blessing and recipients of divine grace - to the point that God sometimes chooses o… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ Because Jesus died instead of ushering in the messianic age, Paul responded with a doctrine of atonement. Because the risen Christ struck his followers as very close kin to God, the early church respo… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ Religions are treasure chests of stories, songs, rituals, and ways of life that have been handed down for millennia - not covered in dust but evolving all the way- so that each new generation has some… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ I always wondered why it took three days for significant things to happen in the Bible--Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale, Jesus spent three days in the tomb, Paul spent three days blin… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ Human beings have a hard time regarding anything beautiful without wanting to devour it. Barbara Brown Taylor
“ The earth had granted me a lifeline, by letting me siphon off some of the water that was on its way somewhere else. Because of me, there would be less water flowing into the Chattahoochee River: less… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ Later, when I stood in front of an alter waving incense, I would remember standing in front of the bar at Dante's waving cigarette smoke out of my face, and the exact same feeling of tenderness would… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ If you have ever belonged to such a community, however, you may have discovered that the trouble starts when darkness falls on your life, which can happen in any number of unsurprising ways: you lose… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ I noted that it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are being killed or saved by the hands that turn your life upside down. Barbara Brown Taylor
“ We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light. —H… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ If we could learn to be attentive every moment of our lives, he said, we would discover the world anew. We would discover that the world is completely different from what we had believed it to be. Bec… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ After years of being taught that the way to deal with painful emotions is to get rid of them, it can take a lot of reschooling to learn to sit with them instead, finding out from those who feel them w… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ When visitors come to a worship service in my own religious tradition, a great deal depends on how warmly they are welcomed and whether they feel included or excluded by what they hear during the shor… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ How many times since then have I rejected Love because it did not present itself the way I expected, in a form acceptable to me? Barbara Brown Taylor
“ I produced a fulsome sermon. When the appointed Sunday arrived, I used all of my best grooming skills. I picked the cat hairs off my most expensive suit, smoothed my hair, and put a Band-aid on the th… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ Even religious people are vulnerable to this longing. Those who belong to communities of faith have acquired a certain patience with what is sometimes called organized religion. They have learned to f… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ Instead, I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need… Barbara Brown Taylor
“ At least one of the purposes of church is to remind us that God has other children, easily as precious as we. Baptism and narcissism cancel each other out. Barbara Brown Taylor
“ To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings. —Wendell Berry Barbara Brown Taylor
