Robert Farrar Capon (born 1925) is an American Episcopal priest and author. A lifelong New Yorker, for almost thirty years Capon was a full-time parish priest in Port Jefferson, New York. This has to be my favourite quote of all time. I am so challenged by this quote and challenged to consider if I really believe that the good news is actually good at all.
We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore, He changes them into ‘nice people’.’ But radical Christianity wasn’t nice; it was category-smashing, life-threatening, anti-institutional; it spread like wildfire throught he 1st century and was considered by those in power to be dangerous. ‘I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating tht I am considred wild and unpredictable and … well …dangerous’. I want to be dangerous to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered dangerous by our predictable and monotonous culture. Dullness is a cultural issue.’
Let me know what you think?
a mutual friend from Cliff put me onto this quote – it SO fits where I am … am linking to it in my blog.
God bless
Hi Ali. Many thanks for this quote which is new to me and resonates powerfully. Bless you.
I have known him for over 40 years. He was my teacher, confessor and friend. And he changed my life and still is changing my life and this quote is what he not only teaches, but I think lives….
Bravo, Robert Capon Farrar! Dullness is not only an issue in religion. It is an issue in our educational system, by and large. I am going to post an article on THE LEARNING CLINIC WORLDWIDE blog about “Dullness is not our calling.” :o)- Doc Meek, http://www.docmeek.com, Friday, February 25, 2011.