Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
Lovers are the ones who know most about God; the theologian must listen to them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that lovers possess a deep understanding of divine love and spirituality that theologians can learn from.
Hans Urs Von Balthasar emphasizes that the experiences and insights gained from love are profound and valuable in the understanding of God. He argues that lovers, through their emotional and spiritual connections, have a unique perspective that transcends academic theological study, suggesting that personal relationships and love can reveal deeper truths about the divine.
Themes
LoveGodTheologyRelationshipsSpirituality
In practice
Example use cases
In a wedding speech, one might say, 'Lovers are the ones who know most about God; the theologian must listen to them.' to highlight the importance of love in understanding spirituality.
More from Hans Urs Von Balthasar
All quotes →It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
A truth that is merely handed on, without being thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
The Holy Spirit knows what a particular age's most pressing need is far better than men with their programs.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
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.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
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
Similar quotes
You are adorable, mademoiselle. I study your feet with the microscope and your soul with the telescope.
Victor HugoRead
Rochester: "I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree in Thornfield orchard…And what right would that ruin have to bid a budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness?" Jane: "You are no ruin sir - no lighting-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop.
Charlotte BronteRead
Yes, and only if my own true love was waiting If I could hear his heart softly pounding Yes, and only if he was lying by me Would I lie in my bed once again.
Bob DylanRead
My heart is the throne of the Beloved, the Beloved the heart's destiny: Whoever breaks another's heart will find no homecoming in this world or any other.
Yunus EmreRead
He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.
Leo TolstoyRead
She learned her hands in a fairy-tale, And her mouth on a valentine.
Edna St. Vincent MillayRead