Words to Live By

"it is my conviction that theology is too serious to allow humans to think theologically without playfulness and irony. To try to be as serious as the subject would be arrogant, and could lead the hearer/reader to believe that I considered everything to be precisely as I describe it. Of late I have become even more convinced of the theological necessity of irony -- and of its nobler cousin humor--as a safeguard against idolatry."

Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976, viii.