Many now veer away from the time-honored use of the term Father as applied to the Christian God ... This difficulty rests mainly, I believe, on failure to distinguish between a symbol and a definition.

the most common type of pessimism is neither philosophical nor religious: it is the pessimism of thwarted desire. ... It is the cynical sneer of the man who, seeking roses, finds only ashes.

The great danger is that in the confession of any collective sin, one shall confess the sins of others and forget our own.

religion is perhaps its own worst enemy. For religion, masquerading under the guise of archaic creeds, and impossible literalisms, and ecclesiasticism indifferent to human needs, has brought about an inevitable and in many respects wholesome revulsion.

Prayer is essentially a process by which ideals are enabled to become operative in our lives. It may be more than this, but it is at least this.

The sooner the doctrine of original sin disappears, the better it is for theology.

The perpetual danger which besets religion is that it may substitute gentility and aestheticism for prophetic insight and power.