Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
What the Father gives is the capacity to be a self, freedom, and thus autonomy, but an autonomy which can be understood only as a surrender of self to the other.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that true autonomy and freedom come from selflessness and commitment to others.
Hans Urs Von Balthasar explores the concept that being a true self involves a blend of autonomy and surrender. He suggests that freedom is not merely about personal independence but is deeply intertwined with the relationships we have with others, where giving oneself to others ultimately leads to authentic self-expression and fulfillment.
Themes
AutonomySelfFreedomSurrenderOther
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community service, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of selflessness for collective well-being.
More from Hans Urs Von Balthasar
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A truth that is merely handed on, without being thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power.
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The Holy Spirit knows what a particular age's most pressing need is far better than men with their programs.
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The first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite.
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But the saints are never the kind of killjoy spinster aunts who go in for faultfinding and lack all sense of humor. (Nor should the Karl Barth who so loved and understood Mozart be regarded as such.)For humor is a mysterious but unmistakable charism inseparable from Catholic faith, and neither the "progressives" nor the "integralists" seem to possess it - the latter even less than the former.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
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The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation.
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A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
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I'd rather there wasn't an afterlife, really. I'd much rather not be me for thousands of years.
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