Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
They all attended Hester's church, which Dellarobia viewed as a complicated pyramid scheme of moral debt and credit resting ultimately on the shoulders of the Lord, but rife with middle managers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the complex nature of moral obligations within a community, suggesting that true responsibility lies with a higher power.
In this quote, Barbara Kingsolver highlights the intricate dynamics of moral responsibility that individuals navigate within their community, likening it to a pyramid scheme where debts of morality are owed and collected. Hester’s church symbolizes a collective structure that demands ethical adherence from its members, yet it is portrayed as being managed by intermediaries who complicate the straightforward relationship to divine accountability.
Themes
MoralResponsibilityCommunityFaithEthics
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the complexities of faith communities during a sermon.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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