“It is not God who will save us — it is we who will save God, by battling, by creating, and by transmuting matter into spirit.”
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: We do not struggle for ourselves, nor for our race, not even for humanity.
We do not struggle for Earth, nor for ideas. All these are the precious yet provisional stairs of our ascending God, and they crumble away as soon as he steps upon them in his ascent.
In the smallest lightning flash of our lives, we feel all of God treading upon us, and suddenly we understand: if we all desire it intensely, if we organize all the visible and invisible powers of earth and fling them upward, if we all battle together like fellow combatants eternally vigilant — then the Universe might possibly be saved.
It is not God who will save us — it is we who will save God, by battling, by creating, and by transmuting matter into spirit.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Nikos Kazantzakis 222
Greek writer 1883–1957Related quotes
Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison.
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
Context: You've done the morally right thing. God save us all from people who do the morally right thing. It's always the rest of us who get broken in half.
“But may God, who grants pardon and loves to save man”
Quoted in, Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, Peter de Roo, 2:378 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt/search?q1=%22God%2C+who+grants+pardon+and+loves+to+save+man%22&id=mdp.39015013144061&view=1up&seq=9 http://www.attomelani.net/index.php/english/the-new-series-of-monaldi-sorti/the-doubts-of-salai/ Compare: For God loves saving, not condemning, and therefore He is patient with bad people, in order to make good people out of bad people." - St. Augustine, On the Verse of the Psalm: God Will Come Openly, (420-425), Sermon 18:2. Works of Saint Augustine, A translation for the 21st Century, (1990), Pt. III - Sermons, vol. I, (1-19), Edmund Hill, O.P.,translation and notes, John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., New City Press, New York, p. 374. Latin: Non enim amat Deus damnare sed salvare, et ideo patiens est in malos, ut de malis faciat bonos. http://www.augustinus.it/latino/discorsi/discorso_022_testo.htm http://books.google.com/books?id=Z2w7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PT10&dq=Non+enim+amat+Deus+damnare+sed+salvare,+et+ideo+patiens&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_c41U5u-BbTTsASR8oDwDQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Non%20enim%20amat%20Deus%20damnare%20sed%20salvare%2C%20et%20ideo%20patiens&f=false
Context: But may God, who grants pardon and loves to save man, in his goodness, give strength to us and make prosperous the Holy See.
<p>Dieu est le seul être qui, pour régner, n'ait même pas besoin d'exister.</p><p>Ce qui est créé par l’esprit est plus vivant que la matière.</p>
I http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Fus%C3%A9es#I
Journaux intimes (1864–1867; published 1887), Fusées (1867)
“He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”
St. Augustine, Sermo 169, 11, 13: PL 38, 923 as quoted in Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S. J.. Saved: A Bible Study Guide for Catholics (p. 15). Our Sunday Visitor. Kindle Edition.
Sermons
To his brother Louis at the Siege of Harlem (1573), as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 68
"Trinity" article in The Encyclopedia of Religion (1987) Vol 15, p. 53
Context: TRINITY. Trinitarian doctrine touches on virtually every aspect of Christian faith, theology, and piety, including Christology and pneumatology, theological epistemology (faith, revelation, theological methodology), spirituality and mystical theology, and ecelesial life (sacraments, community, ethics). This article summarizes the main lines of trinitarian doctrine without presenting detailed explanations of important ideas, persons, or terms. The doctrine of the Trinity is the summary of Christian faith in God, who out of love creates humanity for union with God, who through Jesus Christ redeems the world, and in the power of the Holy Spirit transforms and divinizes (2 Cor. 3:18). The heart of trinitarian theology is the conviction that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is involved faithfully and unalterably in covenanted relationship with the world. Christianity is not unique in believing God is "someone" rather than something," but it is unique in its belief that Christ is the personal Word of God, and that through Christ's death and resurrection into new life, "God was in Christ reconciling all things to God" (2 Cor. 5:19). Christ is not looked upon as an intermediary between God and world but as an essential agent of salvation. The Spirit poured out at Pentecost, by whom we live in Christ and are returned to God (Father), is also not a "lesser God" but one and the same God who creates and redeems us. The doctrine of the Trinity is the product of reflection on the events of redemptive history, especially the Incarnation and the sending of the Spirit.
“God save us from reading nothing but the best.”
Reading (1990)
Context: Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work. I have known people who have actually read all, or almost all, the guaranteed Hundred Best Books. God save us from reading nothing but the best.