Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
St. Paul would say to the philosophers that God created man so that he would seek the Divine, try to attain the Divine. That is why all pre-Christian philosophy is theological at its summit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the essence of humanity is a pursuit of the divine, linking philosophy to theology.
Hans Urs Von Balthasar emphasizes that the fundamental purpose of human existence is to seek a connection with the Divine. He argues that the highest points of pre-Christian philosophy inherently point towards theological concepts, underscoring the relationship between philosophical inquiry and the quest for spiritual understanding.
Themes
DivinePhilosophyTheologyHumanitySpirituality
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the intersection of philosophy and religion, this quote can illustrate the importance of seeking deeper truths.
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.
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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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