“If the endeavor to analyze the world is a trifle, it is because the world is such. The sum of things can have no second intention, nor can it be characterized by any trait that is not included in itself. Some things are sweet, but what is our sense which perceives them; some things are good, but what is our conscience which judges them; some things are true, but what is our intellect which argues them; some things are deep, but what is our reason which fathoms them? Everyone who thinks deeply, must have reflected that, if the purposes and results of man’s practice are vanity, so also must be those of his speculation. Goethe said, that there was no refuge from virtues that were not our own, but in loving them; and Ecclesiastes, that there was none from the vanity of life, but in fearing and obeying God. So, also, from the vanity of speculation there is no refuge but in acquiescing in its relative nature, and accepting truth for what it is.”
About This Book
An extended theological and philosophical meditation that proposes human beings as the culminating purpose of creation, arguing against purely naturalistic accounts. It examines how providence supplies for distinct human needs—physical sustenance, social organization and power, intellectual truth, moral righteousness, aesthetic sensibility, and spiritual love—and concludes by treating immortality as the permanence of the completed human life. Each chapter treats one dimension in turn, blending metaphysical claims with practical and ethical reflections.