This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Toleration… is not true liberty when it is only a gracious concession by the state to the individual. Gracious concessions are incompatible with liberty of religion which is not something that a state, or an absolutist church offers, but that which the citizen claims and the law protects.
Church | Individual | Law | Liberty | Religion | Toleration |
People are coming to church not simply to partake of the sacred but to partake of sacred community.
Fulton Sheen, fully Archbishop Fulton John Sheen
In times of prosperity the church administers; in times of adversity the church shepherds.
Adversity | Church | Prosperity |
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, aka Vatican II
The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions… In Hinduism, men probe the mystery of God and express it with a rich fund of myths, and a penetrating philosophy… In the various forms of Buddhism the basic inadequacy of this changing world is recognized and men are taught with confident application how they can achieve a state of complete liberation… The Church also regards with esteem the Muslims who worship the one, subsistent, merciful and almighty God… They venerate Jesus as a prophet… Given the great spiritual heritage common to Christians and Jews, it is the wish of this sacred Council to foster and recommend a mutual knowledge and esteem.
Church | Esteem | God | Knowledge | Men | Mystery | Nothing | Philosophy | Sacred | World | Worship | God |
The cardinal doctrine of a fanatic's creed is that his enemies are the enemies of God.
As we have seen over and over again, whenever church and state enter into partnership, human freedom is restricted, intellectual growth is stifled, and education is formalized and routinized to exclude and smother innovation and creativity.
Church | Creativity | Education | Freedom | Growth | Innovation |
The church bell sometimes does better work than the sermon.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Man is born to believe, and if no church comes forward with all the title deeds of truths... he will find alters and idols in his own heart and his own imagination.
Church | Deeds | Heart | Imagination | Man | Title | Will | Deeds |
Yoga is not a philosophy though its practice will lead the way to a life that is philosophical. It is not a religion and it is not confined to any particular creed or dogma. There is no "instant Nirvana"...or instant ANYthing. One works hard for what one gets out of Yogic studies.
Creed | Dogma | Life | Life | Philosophy | Practice | Religion | Will |
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation.