Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

The trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

the parable asks: Can we assess what is of ultimate value in our own lives, not simply in terms of relativizing, but in terms of ultimate concern? More,

The theologian Paul Tillich declared that faith is “the state of being ultimately concerned.” He argued that because each person has something of ultimate concern that defines their life and identity, all people are religious—even the atheist. Every person has something in their life that functions as their god. For some, this god-function is occup

We certainly have plenty of false gods in our own time—status, wealth, beauty, likes, retweets—that we seek to appease and that make us utterly miserable. When we obsessively chase after such things, our lives really can become barren, and we can feel like we’re losing ourselves. But when we strive for things like friendship, love, justice, compass