I was typing notes down from a stack of books yesterday and realized how much time theologians spend quoting the people that came before them. Sometimes they have long stretches of their own original ideas, but most of the time is spent quoting someone else and then discussing it. That’s exactly what I’m doing on this blog. Maybe I’m in good company. Or maybe we ALL aren’t very original!
Anyway, I found it kind of funny.
In “Wild at Heart”, I’m amazed at how often author John Eldridge quotes Philip Yancey.
From what I’ve read of Philip Yancey, he likes to quote C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.
Lewis and Chesterton in turn quote Augustine a lot.
Now we’re starting to get into some more meaty content. I feel like I’m traveling down a funnel…
Augustine quotes, hmmm, lets see, the New Testament quite a bit.
And in the New Testament, we have some really good fresh material from Jesus and Paul, but even they are quoting stuff all the time! From where? Well, the Old Testament! (Jude also quotes the Apocrypha a bit too. Apparently he didn’t get the memo.)
And now in the Old Testament, we’ve got the raw WORD OF GOD, in the law and the prophets. Along with some inspired hymns, poetry, wise sayings, and a lot of straight history.
I think this is why sometimes, we just need to skip all the middle men and read BIBLE.