Sublime

Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, in which he suggested that the primary purpose of religion at its earliest level was not to put people in touch with God, but to put them in touch with one another.

Warren’s building, and his own style, represented an openness, even a partnership, in helping individuals find their own purpose by allowing Jesus to help each person flourish and overcome the malaise that the age of authenticity seemed to leave in the wake of its individualized freedom. Yet Warren did not do this by speaking against individualized

Rest

Calvin Stowe helped free Henry from seeing ordinary life as a constant battle to keep each of its molecules sacred. Rather, Henry began to see that it was possible, even obedient and faithful, to seek happiness, for Jesus was a friend who accepts us.

The Protestant pastor particularly is to help people’s longing heart find rest in God. Whether with words or practices, the pastor’s job is to shape people’s inner life, sending them further inward to find the presence of God.

He told us that one reason he and his friends wanted to start the commune and learn to “live off the land” in a simple way was that “we want to be the last people on earth.” Vonnegut said, “Isn’t that kind of a stuck-up kind of thing to want to be?” In the way he spoke and the way he wrote, Vonnegut was always coming up with the plain-spoken words

how a single act of genuine and unassuming civility can change a life for ever.3