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I think that where Christianity as a religion and Christianity as a philosophy breaks with one another is how each looks at hell. I think the religiously minded will tend to take the view that our failing to live like Jesus Christ will end in hell, and that is something to fear. The philosophically minded will instead look at the teachings of Jesus and think, "Why would breaking from the teachings of Jesus place us in a state akin to hell? What is it about this morality that is pure and good? What is it about everything else that is impure and evil?" It is like Buddhism, where misery arises out of our straying off the righteous path.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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