Rowan Williams Quotes

Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams

English Theologian

Born: Jun 14, 1950

Culture God Health People World You

Related authors: Benjamin Jowett Brooke Foss Westcott John Owen John Wycliffe Joseph Barber Lightfoot Roger Williams Ronald Knox

Marriage has a unique place because it speaks of an absolute faithfulness, a covenant between radically different persons, male and female; and so it echoes the absolute covenant of God with his chosen, a covenant between radically different partners. Rowan Williams

God Marriage Echoes Absolute Between Partners Because Female Faithfulness Covenant His Male Different Place Persons Speaks Radically Unique Chosen

Christian teaching about sex is not a set of isolated prohibitions; it is an integral part of what the Bible has to say about living in such a way that our lives communicate the character of God. Rowan Williams

Economists are coming to acknowledge that measures of national wealth and poverty in terms strictly of average income tell you little that is significant of the health or viability of a society. Rowan Williams

Health You Wealth Poverty National Society Strictly Tell Significant Economists Terms Coming Viability Acknowledge Little Average Measures Income

In spite of the haze of speculation, it is still something of a shock to find myself here, coming to terms with an enormous trust placed in my hands and with the inevitable sense of inadequacy that goes with that. Rowan Williams

Myself Trust Inevitable Sense Enormous Find Something Spite Haze Terms Still Coming Shock Hands Goes Placed Inadequacy Here Speculation

Quite a lot of our contemporary culture is actually shot through with a resentment of limits and the passage of time, anger at what we can't do, fear or even disgust at growing old. Rowan Williams

Violence is not to be undertaken by private persons. If a state or administration acts without due and visible attention to agreed international process, it acts in a way analogous to a private person. It purports to be judge of its own interest. Rowan Williams

We shall not find life by refusing to let go of our precious, protected selves. Rowan Williams

Life Our Find Shall Protected Go Selves Precious Refusing Let Go

Whether something is old-fashioned or not doesn't resolve the question of whether it's true or not. I can see the temptation of simply thinking, 'Well, there's a cultural mainstream which flows neatly in one direction. You just align with it'. And that really won't do. Rowan Williams

A public is a necessary fiction. Rowan Williams

Fiction Public Necessary

Bad human communication leaves us less room to grow. Rowan Williams

Communication Bad Leaves Human Room Us Less Grow

Christians should emphatically be campaigning for justice for the poor - but the Church is not a campaign. Rowan Williams

Justice Church Campaign Campaigning Poor Should Christians

In a spiritually sensitive culture, then, it might well be that age is something to be admired or envied. Rowan Williams

Age Culture Admired Something Spiritually Envied Well Sensitive Might Then

In sharp contrast to the idea that this stage of life is enviable, we hear high levels of anxiety about getting old, anxieties about health, mobility, access to facilities, simple routine care and attention. Rowan Williams

Life Health Anxiety Simple Old Care Getting Old Stage High About Facilities Enviable Attention Idea Sharp Access Hear Mobility Contrast Anxieties Getting Routine Levels

In the context of interfaith encounter, we need to bring to the surface how our actual beliefs shape what we do - not simply to agree that kindness is better than cruelty. Rowan Williams

Kindness Better Cruelty Our Shape Simply How Surface Context Encounter Than Agree Beliefs Actual Bring Need

It is impossible to deny that Christians and Muslims have a common agenda here: both faiths have at their heart the living image of a community raised up by God's call to reveal to the world what God's purpose is for humanity. Rowan Williams

The answer was that in Burundi, having a clean bill of health has taken on a very particular meaning: unless and until you have paid for your hospital treatment, you simply can't leave, you are in effect a captive. Rowan Williams

The Church exists to connect people at the level of their hunger for a new world. Rowan Williams

People World Church Hunger New Exists New World Connect Level

The twentieth century may tell us that we have nothing to be complacent about in the recent history of humankind; but it also tells us that there is nothing inevitable about tyranny. Rowan Williams

History Tyranny Inevitable Nothing Complacent Tell Tells About Also May Century Us Twentieth Twentieth Century Humankind Recent Recent History

To help the poor to a capacity for action and liberty is something essential for one's own health as well as theirs: there is a needful gift they have to offer which cannot be offered so long as they are confined by poverty. Rowan Williams

Health Liberty Gift Long Poverty Own Action Something Well Offer Offered Essential Confined Cannot Which Poor Capacity Help

Institutions develop because people put a lot of trust in them, they meet real needs, they represent important aspirations, whether it's monasteries, media, or banks, people begin by trusting these institutions, and gradually the suspicion develops that actually they're working for themselves, not for the community. Rowan Williams

Needs Trust People Important Community Meet Develop Put Develops Institutions Because Real Lot Trusting Begin Gradually Represent Suspicion Banks Whether Them Themselves Working Aspirations Media Actually

I think there is a great deal of interest still in the Christian faith. Rowan Williams

Faith Great Great Deal Christian Think Deal Still Interest Christian Faith

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