How many people in the pews know that [ Jonathan Edwards] is both a founder of evangelicalism and, say, an idealist who denied that the material world exists?

There is no such thing as a stationary tradition. Traditions are always developing, living things.

The confessions don't speak with one voice. They are more like a cluster of closely-related but distinct voices - a kind of choir, if you like.

[John] Calvin is often identified with his account of predestination. Yet that appears in the third book of his Institutes, not the first.

[John] Calvin's Institutes is often called a summary of Christian piety. You can't say that about many modern works of theology. You can say it of Calvin.

I think everyone who has an interest in Reformed theology, or just in Christian theology more generally, should read John Calvin Institutes.

God shows us in Christ what he would have to do if he were to punish us for our sins.

[Calvinistic tradition] has fashioned and shaped my thinking since I was a teenager.

The best Reformed theology isn't just about careful arguments for theologically sophisticated conclusions. It is about how to live the Christian life.

The atonement chapter [from the book Saving Calvinism] shows how there are real riches in Reformed theology that most Christians today have no idea about.

Reformed theology belongs to this confessional tradition, and Reformed theologians and churches continue to write confessions even today.

Most often it is in heartache that we love more boldly.

Ideas and principles that do harm are as a rule, though not always, cloaks for evil passions.

The old ideals are dead as nails--nothing there. It seems to me there remains only this perfect union with a woman--sort of ultimate marriage--and there isn't anything else.

Wound me . . . I can only feed on my humiliated blood.

My favorite cause is the enlightenment of others. I think that is the best place to put money. You get the highest yield in terms of karma on your money.

I like my jokes to be built on a foundation of ideas, or at least smart observations.

In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.

I'm being made aware of my mortality all the time.

If I grew up in a different background, I could see myself getting a gun and shooting an abortionist. That's my job, to imagine what could happen, what can make people go in different directions.

Communism is like prohibition, it is a good idea, but it won't work.