“He that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion.”

—  Jonathan Edwards

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "He that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion." by Jonathan Edwards?
Jonathan Edwards photo
Jonathan Edwards79
Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian 1703–1758

Related quotes

Martin Luther photo

“Religion is not 'doctrinal knowledge,' but wisdom born of personal experience.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Holborn, Hajo; A HISTORY OF MODERN GERMANY: The Reformation; 1959/1982 Princeton university Press

Carl Sagan photo

“Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.”

Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World

Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Alexander Maclaren photo

“Love is the foundation of all obedience. Without it, morality degenerates into mere casuistry. Love is the foundation of all knowledge. Without it religion degenerates into a chattering about Moses and doctrines and theories; a thing that will neither kill nor make alive, that never gave life to a single soul or blessing to a single heart, and never put strength into any hand in the conflict and strife of daily life.”

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 400.

“How can a doctrine be essential in a religion if the founder of the religion never mentions it, or teaches his apostles to pass it on?”

Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976) English theologian

99
The Christian Agnostic (1965)

Charles Babbage photo

“The true value of the Christian religion rests, not upon speculative views of the Creator, which must necessarily be different in each individual, according to the extent of the knowledge of the finite being, who employs his own feeble powers in contemplating the infinite : but it rests upon those doctrines of kindness and benevolence which that religion claims and enforces, not merely in favour of man himself but of every creature susceptible of pain or of happiness.”

Charles Babbage Passages from the life of a philosopher

"Passages from the life of a philosopher", The Basis Of Virtue Is Truth, p. 404-405
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

Felix Adler photo

“Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 2 : Religion
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)

Harlan F. Stone photo

“To say that only those businesses affected with a public interest may be regulated is but another way of stating that all those businesses which may be regulated are affected with a public interest.”

Harlan F. Stone (1872–1946) United States federal judge

Tyson and Brother v. Banton, 273 U.S. 418, 451 (1927).

Henry Jenner photo

“There has never been a time when there has been no person in Cornwall without a knowledge of the Cornish language.”

Henry Jenner (1848–1934) British Celticist

A Handbook of the Cornish Language.

“Poetry is a highly visible art in Ireland; in our rapidly secularised society, it has become a kind of erzatz religion, applying the elevated ceremonial language without the divisive doctrine.”

Dennis O'Driscoll (1954–2012) Irish poet, critic

Other Quotes

Joan Robinson photo

“But, as soon as speculators become an important influence in the market, their business is to speculate on each others behaviour.”

Joan Robinson (1903–1983) English economist

Source: Contributions to Modern Economics (1978), Chapter 5, The Rate of Interest, p. 46

Related topics