Ideals
Christ-based Individualism
Manning teaches a message of individualism within a context of Christ. "When I accept in the depth of my being that the ultimate accomplishment of my life is me -- the person I've become and who other persons are because of me -- then living in the wisdom of accepted tenderness is ... a way of life." When a person accepts himself as loved by God, he is liberated from conceptions of "the blood line, the nation, the church, money, ego, entitlement, sexual muscle, security, violence, and the paltry gods of modern life." He rejects the idea of teaching the love of God with limits. "I cling to the God of my experience, whose love beggars belief."
The Church as Mystery
Manning presents the Roman Catholic Church's treatment of married priests. After citing examples, he says that he is "dismayed, infuriated, and heartbroken over its travesty of tenderness." He asserts that "church abuse isn't limited to one denomination." The institutional church, which exists to serve the people of God," he states, "is never to be confused with the church as mystery...". The Church as Mystery, according to Manning is everyone who is Christ-centered, faithful to the Bible, tender and compassionate. It consists of those "who walk the talk.".
Jesus is the Human Face of God
Manning contrasts the brutality of the institutional church with Jesus treatment of the adulterous woman of John 8:1-11 and of his meeting of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). He proclaims Jesus as "the human face of God."
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Famous quotes containing the word ideals:
“Let the will embrace the highest ideals freely and with infinite strength, but let action first take hold of what lies closest.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“It does not follow, because our difficulties are stupendous, because there are some souls timorous enough to doubt the validity and effectiveness of our ideals and our system, that we must turn to a state controlled or state directed social or economic system in order to cure our troubles.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“Our chaotic economic situation has convinced so many of our young people that there is no room for them. They become uncertain and restless and morbid; they grab at false promises, embrace false gods and judge things by treacherous values. Their insecurity makes them believe that tomorrow doesn’t matter and the ineffectualness of their lives makes them deny the ideals which we of an older generation acknowledged.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)