Prior to an individual's encounter with the love of God at a particular time in history, however, there has to be another, more fundamental and archetypal encounter, which belongs to the conditions of possibility of the appearance of divine love to man.

The Holy Spirit knows what a particular age's most pressing need is far better than men with their programs.

The work with which we embark on this first volume of a series of theological studies is a work with which the philosophical person does not begin, but rather concludes.

Hell is to be contemplated strictly as a matter which concerns me alone. As part of the spiritual life it belongs behind the 'closed door' of my own room. From the standpoint of living faith, I cannot fundamentally believe in anyone's damnation but my own; as far as my neighbor is concerned, the light of resurrection can never be so obscured that I would be allowed or obliged to stop hoping for him.

It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.

Thus it is necessary to commence from an inescapable duality: the finite is not the infinite.

Christian obedience, by its very nature, has a heroic character.