Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
A truth that is merely handed on, without being thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truth must be actively reflected upon to retain its significance and impact.
This quote suggests that simply accepting or passing on a truth without reflecting on its underlying principles causes it to lose its essence and effectiveness. True understanding requires deep contemplation and reevaluation of ideas to ensure they retain their relevance and vitality in our lives.
Themes
TruthReflectionUnderstandingKnowledgePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of critical thinking in education.
More from Hans Urs Von Balthasar
All quotes βIt 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
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
Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
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How difficult it is to avoid having a special standard for oneself.
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