Page "religion" Paragraph 185

The source of this paradox is not difficult to identify.

It lies in institutions.

Institutions require structure, form, and definition, and these in turn entail differentiation and exclusion.

A completely amorphous institution would be a contradiction in terms ; ;

to escape this fate, it must rule some things out.

For every criterion which defines what something is, at the same time proclaims -- implicitly if not openly -- what that something is not.

Some persons are so sensitive to this truth as to propose that we do away with institutions altogether ; ;

in the present context this amounts to the advice that while being religious may have a certain justification, we ought to dispense with churches.

The suggestion is naive.

Man is at once a gregarious animal and a form-creating being.

Having once committed himself to an ideal which he considers worthwhile, he inevitably creates forms for its expression and institutions for its continuance.

To propose that men be religious without having religious institutions is like proposing that they be learned without having schools.

Both eventualities are possible logically, but practically they are impossible.

As much as men intrinsically need the unity that is grounded in God, they instrumentally require the institutions that will direct their steps toward him.