Grace of god

[mexiholic]

how would you translate the saying, "only by the grace of God"

[aleCcowaN]

Sólo por (la) gracia de Dios.

[poli]

I think you may say por el azar in Spanish.
Por la gracia de diós.
Por la gracia de buenas circunstancias

A common phrase in English and an example of the English subjuntive
is: There but for the grace of god go I.

It means if you see someone truly suffering you may say that humbling phrase meaning I could be that person were it not for my mor fortunate circumstances.

[aleCcowaN]

Context should be provided.

You can never say "por azar" meaning "por la gracia de Dios" no matter the real efficient causes behind the facts, as saying "por la gracia de Dios" implies a social and psychological approach to reality and not a falsifiable hypothesis about any real causation.

People like to say A LOT "(sólo) por milagro" instead "por la gracia de Dios", because a "gracia" is free and unmerited, but later it implies some kind of retribution. Miracles are 100% free. When a kid is saved because a multiple organ transplant, mothers tend to thank God "por el milagro" and later -if they even do- they thank doctors and the donor's relatives. I've never heard a mother thanking scientists, society, institutions and government, no matter the transplant and even lifetime medication is 100% payed with taxes.

[poli]

I propose there but for the grace of science, technology and better circumstances go I.

[aleCcowaN]

I say "it just happens that the big dice rolled and I fell standing up"

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by poli

A common phrase in English and an example of the English subjuntive
is: There but for the grace of god go I.

This saying is attributed to John Bradford. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations says the words actually spoken were "But for the grace of God there goes John Bradford." which was then adapted.

I only mention this because I can't see why there should be a subjunctive. In the first person, the form is identical to the indicative, but in the original quotation, it is third person and clearly indicative.

[poli]

You are right. Translating it to contemporary English revives the subjunctive: If it weren't for God's grace, I might be in the same situation.

[aleCcowaN]

Today I was remembering this thread because last night we had the first air disaster in 12 years as a small plane servicing medium size cities fell to earth in flames killing 22 people. It was its final scale in the trip, if not we'd have more dead to mourn. But the point is the tweets of the passengers, both killed or "miraculously" saved because they got off in previous scales, and their comments, photos taken in the cabin, and previous blog posts, all of it is taken as a signal of fate, tragedy, miracle, God's will, luck and all the sort of things men use to explain what we can't oppose to. It's scaring the amount of "old things" that are being recycled in new formats.