Authors:

Jaroslav Pelikan Quotes

Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of western culture for almost twenty centuries... It is from his birth that most of the

Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of western culture for almost twenty centuries... It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Religious, Jesus, Prayer
Jaroslav Pelikan (1996). “Jesus through the centuries: Mary through the centuries”

If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen-nothing else matters.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Religious, Jesus, Matter

Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Peace, Ubuntu, People

Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Life, Death, Faith
Jaroslav Pelikan, Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Patrick Henry (2005). “Orthodoxy & Western Culture: A Collection of Essays Honoring Jaroslav Pelikan on His Eightieth Birthday”, p.16, St Vladimir's Seminary Press

Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide. Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Past, Done, Firsts
Jaroslav Pelikan, Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Patrick Henry (2005). “Orthodoxy & Western Culture: A Collection of Essays Honoring Jaroslav Pelikan on His Eightieth Birthday”, p.16, St Vladimir's Seminary Press

Jesus Christ is too important to be left to the theologians.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Jesus, Important, Christ

An agnostic position is one that leaves open the question whether there exists a god or gods, professing to find such a question unanswered or unanswerable. For the atheist, the question has been answered, and in the negative.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Atheist, Negative, Agnostic
Jaroslav Pelikan (2014). “The Melody of Theology: A Philosophical Dictionary”, p.8, Wipf and Stock Publishers

The church is always more than a school. But the church cannot be less than a school.

Jaroslav Pelikan
School, Church
Jaroslav Pelikan (1984). “The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine”

The only alternative to tradition is bad tradition

Jaroslav Pelikan
Alternatives, Tradition

To invoke a Kierkegaardesque figure of speech, the beauty of the language of the Bible can be like a set of dentist's instruments nearly laid out on a table and hanging on a wall, intriguing in their technological complexity and with their stainless steel highly polished--until they set to work on the job for which they were originally designed. Then all of a sudden my reaction changes from "How shiny and beautiful they all are!" to "Get that damned thing out of my mouth!

Jaroslav Pelikan
Beautiful, Bible, Jobs
Jaroslav Pelikan (2006). “Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures”, p.229, Penguin

Both Socrates and Jesus were outstanding teachers; both of them urged and practiced great simplicity of life; both were regarded as traitors to the religion of their community; neither of them wrote anything; both of them were executed; and both have become the subject of traditions that are difficult or impossible to harmonize.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Teacher, Jesus, Community
Jaroslav Pelikan (1996). “Jesus through the centuries: Mary through the centuries”

Unlike most readers in Antiquity who read their books aloud, we have developed the convention of reading silently. This lets us read more widely but often less well, especially when what we are reading-such as the plays of Shakespeare and Holy Scripture-is a body of oral material that has been, almost but not quite accidentally, captured in a book like a fly in amber.

Jaroslav Pelikan
Book, Reading, Play
Jaroslav Pelikan (2006). “Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures”, p.16, Penguin

You May Also Like: