James 2:14–20 (NRSV) — Ethics

christian authoritiespragmatismfaith

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe⁠—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren?

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Suppose that the world’s author put the case to you before creation, saying: “I am going to make a world not certain to be saved, a world the perfection of which shall be conditional merely, the condition being that each several agent does its own ‘level best.’ I offer you the chance of taking part in such a world. Its safety, you see, is unwarranted. It is a real adventure, with real danger, yet it may win through. It is a social scheme of co-operative work genuinely to be done. Will you join the procession? Will you trust yourself and trust the other agents enough to face the risk?”

C.S. LewisC.S. Lewis

If anyone swear by Tash and keep their oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that they have truly sworn, though they know it not, and it is I who reward them. And if anyone do a cruelty in my name, then, though they say the name Aslan, it is Tash whom they serve and by Tash their deed is accepted.

IrenaeusIrenaeus

How, then, shall he become a God, who has not as yet been made a man? Or how can he be perfect who was but lately created? How, again, can he be immortal, who in his mortal nature did not obey his maker? For it must be that thou, at the outset, shouldest hold the rank of a man, and then afterwards partake of the glory of God.