(It's better to create than destroy what's unnecessary)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Introduction To Christianity - pg. 204

Let us be plain, even at the risk of being misunderstood:
the true Christian is not the denominational party-member
but he who through being a Christian has become truly
human; not he who slavishly observes a system of norms,
thinking as he does so only of himself, but he who has
become freed to simple human goodness. Of course,
the principle of love, if it is to be genuine, includes faith.
Only thus does it remain what it is. For without faith,
which we have come to understand as a term expressing
man's ultimate need to receive and the inadequacy of
all personal achievement, love becomes an arbitrary deed.
It cancels itself out and becomes self-righteousness:
faith and love condition and demand each other reciprocally.
Similarly, in the principle of love there is also present the
principle of hope, which looks beyond the moment and its isolation,
and seeks the whole. Thus our reflections finally lead of
their own accord to the words in which Paul named the main
supporting pillars of Christianity: "So faith, hope, love abide,
these three; but the greatest of them is love"

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