Christ is a persuasion, a form evoking desire, and the whole force of the gospel depends upon the assumption that this persuasion is also peace: that the desire awakened by the shape of Christ and his church is one truly reborn as agape, rather than merely the way in which a lesser force succumbs to a greater, as an episode in the endless epic of power. (3) David Bentley Hart
About This Quote

The great strength of spiritual force is the assumption that it is peace, not power. 1 Corinthians 13 describes the church as being “Christ’s body.” It is the body of Christ, the church, which does not seek its own good but always seeks to do what is best for its members. The church should be described in these terms because Christians can achieve their strength through their ability to live in peace.

Source: The Beauty Of The Infinite: The Aesthetics Of Christian Truth

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More Quotes By David Bentley Hart
  1. God's pleasure--the beauty creation possesses in his regard--underlies the distinct being of creation, and so beauty is the first and truest word concerning all that appears within being; beauty is the showing of what is; God looked upon what he had wrought and saw that...
  2. Wisdom is the recovery of innocence at the far end of experience.
  3. Christianity has from its beginning portrayed itself as a gospel of peace, a way of reconciliation (with God, with other creatures), and a new model of human community, offering the 'peace which passes understanding' to a world enmeshed in sin and violence. (1)
  4. Christ is a persuasion, a form evoking desire, and the whole force of the gospel depends upon the assumption that this persuasion is also peace: that the desire awakened by the shape of Christ and his church is one truly reborn as agape, rather than...
  5. Christians, indeed, have a special obligation not to forget how great and how inextinguishable the human proclivity for violence is, or how many victims it has claimed, for they worship a God who does not merely take the part of those victims, but who was...
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