Vulgarians, or “the many,” regard the purpose of the intellect as to think up ways to improve the enjoyment of sensual experience and conceive of novel possibilities for entertainment. In this case, the body proffers desires and the soul strives to satisfy them. Technically, “the body” as it is employed above designates not the biological or anatomical body, but Plato’s ἐπιθυμητικόν, which is, by interpretation, “the appetitive element of the psyche.”
“Hell is to be contemplated strictly as a matter which concerns me alone. As part of the spiritual life it belongs behind the ‘closed door’ of my own room. From the standpoint of living faith, I cannot fundamentally believe in anyone’s damnation but my own; as far as my neighbor is concerned, the light of resurrection can never be so obscured that I would be allowed or obliged to stop hoping for him.”
—Hans Urs von Balthasar [Prayer, p. 266, Ignatius Press, 1986.]
“Hell is to be contemplated strictly as a matter which concerns me alone. As part of the spiritual life it belongs behind the ‘closed door’ of my own room. From the standpoint of living faith, I cannot fundamentally believe in anyone’s damnation but my own; as far as my neighbor is concerned, the light of resurrection can never be so obscured that I would be allowed or obliged to stop hoping for him.”
—Hans Urs von Balthasar [Prayer, p. 266, Ignatius Press, 1986.]
“Every human being who comes to share in some virtue by firm habit, certainly participates in God, who is the substance of all virtues.”
—Maximus Confessor