Monday with… Robert Capon Farrar

Posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 by Ali Johnson

Robert Farrar Capon (born 1925) is an American Episcopal priest and author. A lifelong New Yorker, for almost thirty years Capon was a full-time parish priest in Port Jefferson, New York. This has to be my favourite quote of all time. I am so challenged by this quote and challenged to consider if I really believe that the good news is actually good at all.

We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore, He changes them into ‘nice people’.’ But radical Christianity wasn’t nice; it was category-smashing, life-threatening, anti-institutional; it spread like wildfire throught he 1^st century and was considered by those in power to be dangerous. ‘I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating tht I am considred wild and unpredictable and … well …dangerous’. I want to be dangerous to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered dangerous by our predictable and monotonous culture. Dullness is a cultural issue.’

Let me know what you think?

Ali Johnson is the youth pastor at Swan Bank in Burslem. He loves Jesus, Port Vale, Facebook and coffee. He is also the owner of this blog.

Posted in Blog

5 Responses to “Monday with… Robert Capon Farrar”

Comment by stf on January 18, 2010

a mutual friend from Cliff put me onto this quote – it SO fits where I am … am linking to it in my blog.

God bless

Comment by dave perry on January 20, 2010

Hi Ali. Many thanks for this quote which is new to me and resonates powerfully. Bless you.

Comment by Joel Watson on August 27, 2010

I have known him for over 40 years. He was my teacher, confessor and friend. And he changed my life and still is changing my life and this quote is what he not only teaches, but I think lives….

Comment by J COLLINS MEEK PhD on February 24, 2011

Bravo, Robert Capon Farrar! Dullness is not only an issue in religion. It is an issue in our educational system, by and large. I am going to post an article on THE LEARNING CLINIC WORLDWIDE blog about “Dullness is not our calling.” )- Doc Meek, http://www.docmeek.com, Friday, February 25, 2011.