John Douglas Hall

Darkness entered into, darkness realized, is the point of departure for all profound expressions of Christian hope. 'Meaningless darkness' becomes 'revelatory darkness' when it is confronted by the courage of a thoughtfulness and hope that is born of faith's quest for truth.

If one starts out to dominate the natural world, one cannot stop short at that reputedly “rational animal” who, however rational, is also animal - and by all accounts creation’s most problematic animal. “Man against nature” becomes “man against humanity” in this sense too, that it contains the obvious directive that what is “natural” within the human species must be brought under control.

To glorify God is to be engaged in a concrete spirituality that refuses to draw marked distinctions between sacred and secular, contemplation and deed, theology and ethics.

Whatever else religion may be, it is also anthropology - in the sense that it fosters conceptions of human authenticity on whose basis moral codes can be drawn up and the actual behavior of individuals and societies assessed, challenged, and altered. Religion speaks not only of the divine but of the divine intention for the human.