American - Theologian | 1941 -
In deciding among theological views, one should be something of a consequentialist: the choice of one theological position over another should be, if not actually determined, at least heavily conditioned by the fact that it implies a better ethical outcome than the alternatives.
David Novak
BetterChoiceOverEthicalSomething
All the questions discussed in the Talmud and related rabbinic literature are normative questions: either they are questions of what one is to think or what one is to do. Every prescribed thought has some practical implication; every prescribed act has some theoretical implication.
ThinkThoughtQuestionsLiterature
At the political level, most Jews and most Catholics have accepted the liberal idea of religious freedom.
FreedomPoliticalLiberalLevelIdea
One cannot accept Christ and still be part of the normative Jewish community; one cannot live by Torah and still be part of the Church.
LiveCommunityChurchAcceptJewish
Because Judaism and Christianity are both covenantal religions, the relationship of the individual Jew or Christian to God is always within covenanted community.
GodRelationshipCommunityChristian
The community in which one hears the voice of God structures how one hears that voice and interprets what it says.
GodCommunityVoiceStructuresHow
The most important part of the process of mourning is regularly reciting kaddish in a synagogue. Kaddish is a doxology, which Jewish tradition has mandated children to recite daily in a synagogue during the year of mourning for a deceased parent and then on the anniversary of his or her death thereafter.
DailyChildrenAnniversaryDeath
I first came to Jewish-Catholic relations in 1963, while studying for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
New YorkNewFirstStudyingJewish
Each person is responsible only for his or her own sins. Even the Christian doctrine of 'original sin' does not mean that humans are punished for the sin of the first human pair but, rather, that humans seem inevitably to copy the sin of the first human pair.
ChristianCopyPersonSinMeanOwn
Religious traditions are in a constant state of development and renewed self-understanding.
DevelopmentTraditionsReligious
The right to privacy has both positive and negative connotations for those who consider themselves part of the natural law tradition.
PositiveLawNegativeTraditionWho
Every individual is a person necessarily imbedded in a range of multiple relations, and therefore, no one is really independent in anything but a relative sense; no one is truly autonomous.
PersonIndependentAnythingSense
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict David Novak quotes