Sublime

the scholastic distinction between primary and secondary causality,

Now, an immanent frame enclosed our lives in entirely natural (as opposed to supernatural) ways of being.15 The immanent frame was being used to define as completely secular not only our ordinary lives but also the pastoral task.

a larger cultural forgetfulness on the part of believers and unbelievers alike.

In truth, our concepts ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ are taken not from biology, but from Christian theology. The theological meaning of ‘natural’ is ‘in accordance with the intentions of the God who created nature’.

If one can be swayed simply by the brute force of arithmetic, it seems worth noting that, among the apparently most explicit statements on the last things, the universalist statements are by far the more numerous. I am thinking of such verses as, say:

the idea that eternity is worth being devoted to is indispensable for the defense of religious faith.

But for Paul, the “although” is indeed the “because,” meaning God takes on the “although” action to justify “because” God is minister.