Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Quote of the Day: Ernst Bloch

I'm reading Ernst Bloch' Atheism in Christianity: The Religion of the Exodus and the Kingdom, probably something I should have read years ago, but, alas, am getting to only now. It is a fascinating read so far, and is a nice counterbalance to the usual scholarly rubbish I have to wade through.

There is only this point, that Church and Bible are not one and the same. The Bible has always been the Church's bad conscience. Tolstoy, speaking against her, called not on Haeckel but on the words of Jesus. The Enlightenment, therefore, will be all the more radical when it does not pour equal scorn on the Bible's all-pervading, healthy insight into man. It is for this very reason (one not remote from the Enlightenment) that the Bible can speak to all men, and be understood across so many lands and right on through the ages. (Ernst Block, Atheism in Christianity, 9-10; trans. J.T. Swann)

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