“la luz no absuelve ni condena,
no es justa ni es injusta.”
– Octavio Paz, “La Vista, El Tacto”

“the light does not absolve or condemn,
it is neither just nor unjust.”
– Octavio Paz, “Sight and Touch”

“αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ κρίσις, ὅτι τὸ φῶς ἐλήλυθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον καὶ ἠγάπησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι μᾶλλον τὸ σκότος ἢ τὸ φῶς· ἦν γὰρ αὐτῶν πονηρὰ τὰ ἔργα. πᾶς γὰρ ὁ φαῦλα πράσσων μισεῖ τὸ φῶς καὶ οὐκ ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸ φῶς, ἵνα μὴ ἐλεγχθῇ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ· ὁ δὲ ποιῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸ φῶς, ἵνα φανερωθῇ αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔργα ὅτι ἐν Θεῷ ἐστιν εἰργασμένα.” – Κατα Ιωαννην 3:19-21 (Nestle-Aland 28)

“And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” – John 3:19-21 (NRSV)

Michelangelo, Conversion of Saul 1542-5.jpg
Michelangelo. Conversion of Saul. Cappella Paolina, Vacitcan City. 1542. Fresco.

“Read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.” – Karl Barth

“Although frequently cited, the Barth Center has thus far not been able to discover an authoritative source for this quotation. Barth did occasionally make similar remarks.” -Princeton Theological Seminary

Van Gogh, Vincent. The Church at Auvers. Paris. Musée d'Orsay. 1890. Oil on canvas.
Van Gogh, Vincent. The Church at Auvers. Paris. Musée d’Orsay. 1890. Oil on canvas.”

“At the cross God got justice and we got righteousness. So now, in the church, we who are righteous ought to be found fighting for justice. . . . How is it that for so long American Christianity has had its finger on parsing the language of righteousness but its feet far from fighting injustice? And now, today, we are witnessing the emergence of a new generation of Americans that are fascinated with justice but they haven’t met the Author of righteousness.” – Charlie Edward Dates, MLK50 Conference

Picasso, Pablo. Guernica. 1937. Oil on canvas..jpg
Picasso, Pablo. Guernica. 1937. Oil on canvas.

“Where oppression and human liberation seem to make God irrelevant—a God filtered by our longtime indifference to these problems—there must blossom faith and hope in him who came to root out injustice and to offer, in an unforeseen way, total liberation.” – Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation

Dettmann, Ludwig. Near the water lilies in the marsh. 1897. Oil on canvas..jpg
Dettmann, Ludwig. Near the water lilies in the marsh. 1897. Oil on canvas.

“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask the just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us not judge, that we not be judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purpose.” – Abraham Lincoln, The Second Inaugural Address

Mosler, Henry. The Lost Cause. Augusta, GA. Morris Museum of Art, 1869. Oil on canvas..jpg
Mosler, Henry. The Lost Cause. Augusta, GA. Morris Museum of Art, 1869. Oil on canvas.