a good reminder

 






"In true faith
the ultimate concern is a concern about the truly ultimate;
while in idolatrous faith preliminary,
finite realities are elevated to the rank of ultimacy. 
 The inescapable consequence of idolatrous faith
 is 'existential disappointment,' 
 a disappointment which penetrates
into the very existence of man! 
This is the dynamics of idolatrous faith:
 that it is faith, and as such,
the centered act of a personality;
that the entering point is
 something which is more or less on the periphery;
and that, therefore,
the act of faith leads to a loss of center
 and to a disruption of the personality. 
The ecstatic character of even idolatrous faith
can hide this consequence only for a certain time. 
But finally it breaks into the open."

                                   

                                  --Paul Tillich, The Dynamics of Faith, Chapter 1.3








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