Wednesday, November 14, 2007

QUOTE: Ernest Renan on Jesus' contribution to religion


"Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion; and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved the Divine rank the world has accorded to him. An absolutely new idea, the idea of a worship founded on purity of heart, and on human brotherhood, through him entered into the world -- an idea so elevated that the Christian Church ought to make it its distinguishing feature, but an idea which, in our days, only few minds are capable of embodying."
- Ernest Renan (1823-1892), 19th century French philosopher and writer, taken from the fifth chapter of his 1863 book, The Life of Jesus (Vie de Jesus)

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I am also a growing artist, an ex wife, and a mother to an African American daughter. I looked up Ernest Renan on Google blogger and found your blog. Have you read The Flax Pounder?

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