Literature that is not the breath of contemporary society, that dares not transmit the pains and fears of that society, that does not warn in time ag… - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions.

Of course, one cannot declare that only my faith is correct and all other faiths are not. Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God. One must not have any negative attitude to any religion but nonetheless the depth of understanding God and the depth of applying God's commandments is different in different religions. In this sense we have to admit that Protestantism has brought everything down only to faith. Calvinism says that nothing depends on man, that faith is already predetermined. Also in its sharp protest against Catholicism, Protestantism rushed to discard together with ritual all the mysterious, the mythical and mystical aspects of the Faith. In that sense it has impoverished religion.

Surely people should eventually cease to be surprised at anything? And yet they continue to be.