Think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number

The Cassington Scholar is traditionally given to  a free thinker. It's his function to challenge the faith of the Scholars. Naturally he'd say that. But think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof it exists , but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it.

P. Pullman, Northern Lights (1995), 372-3

I blame the radio for sowing a good deal of confusion where theology is concerned

Two or three of the ladies had pronounced views on points of doctrine, particularly sin and damnation. I blame the radio for sowing a good deal of confusion where theology is concerned. And television is worse. you can spend forty years teaching people to be awake to the fact of mystery and then some fellow with no more theological sense than a jackrabbit gets himself a radio ministry and all your work is forgotten.

M. Robinson, Gilead (2004), 237

There are bad men and good men, it's as simple as that

'Divine mysteries, all nonsense,' she said. 'There are bad men and good men, it's as simple as that. Greed and malevolence face moderation and decency. Carlo always wants to bring theology into things, blame everything  on the devil.'
'That's his trade.'
'Yes, his trade. Evil's necessary to his trade. Without evil he'd have nothing to do.'

A. Burgess, Earthly Powers (1980), 300

Can you explain the Trinity to me?

[Mayor] 'Can you explain the Trinity to me? It was more than they could do in Salamanca.'

[Monsignor Quixote] 'I can try.'
'Try then.'
'You see these bottles?'
'Of course.'
'Two bottles equal in size. The wine they contained was of the same substance and it was born at the same time. There you have God the Father and God the Son and there, in the half bottle, God the Holy Ghost. Same substance. Same birth. They’re inseparable. Whoever partakes of one partakes of all three.'
'I was never even in Salamanca able to see the point of the Holy Ghost. He has always seemed to me a bit redundant.'
'We were not satisfied with two bottles, were we? That half bottle gave us the extra spark of life we both needed. We wouldn’t have been so happy without it.'
....

'May God forgive me,' Father Quixote said,  'for I have sinned.'
'It was only a joke, father. Surely your God does understand a joke.'
'I have been guilty of heresy,' Father Quixote replied. 'I think - perhaps - I am unworthy to be a priest.'
'What have you done?'
'I have given wrong instruction. The Holy Ghost is equal in all respect to the Father and the Son, and I have represented Him by this half bottle.'
'Is that a serious error, father?'
'It is anathema. It was condemned expressly at I forget which Council. A very early Council. Perhaps it was Nicaea.'
'Don’t worry, father. The matter is easily put right. We will throw away and forget this half bottle and I will bring a whole bottle from the car.'

G. Greene, Monisgnor Quixote (1982), 51-53

Heresy may advertise the existence of bad theology

Heresy may advertise the existence of bad theology. But it also indicates that men are thinking.

G.L. Prestige, Fathers and Heretics (1940), 3

In Paris do they always have the true answer?

"Therefore you don't have a single answer to your questions?"
"Adso, if I did I would teach theology in Paris."
"In Paris do they always have the true answer?"
"Never," William said, "but they are very sure of their errors."

U.Eco, The Name of the Rose (1980), 306

Nature is what makes one human or not

Nature is what makes one human or not. Christ has a completely human nature. Therefore Christ is completely human. One indication of the misunderstanding is reference to person, hypostasis, as something we have: 'Did Christ have a human hypostasis? We do. Then, if he did not, how can we claim he is fully human?' But hypostasis is not something someone has. The hypostasis is the someone who has whatever is had. If the divine hypostasis, the Word, has all the qualities that constitute someone as human - a human nature - then the Word, a divine hypostasis, is a human being, and fully so.

D.Helminiak, The same Jesus: a contemporary christology (1986), 292
Quoted in G. O'Collins, Christology (2009), 256

most philosophers have found the argument unpersuasive

most philosophers have found the argument unpersuasive, but actually refuting it turned out to be fiendishly difficult. Even Bertrand Russell admitted that 'it is easier to feel convinced that it must be fallacious than it is to find out precisely where the fallacy lies'

J. Hannam, God's Philosophers (2009), 45
On Anselm's ontological argument