“For when Christianity is secularised in this way, no doubt in a genuine attempt to make it palatable for as wide an audience as possible, it risks becoming a dogmatic creed. Hence the spirit of division. Christianity itself can generate an ethical response, of course, but of itself it is pre-ethical and actually personal.

This is crucial because when ethical demands and moral law alone are stressed, something crucial to the gospel is forgotten, namely forgiveness. Indeed, if there were one feature that distinguishes the teaching of Jesus, it is forgiveness, which is not found in pre-Christian philosophies.

…there is also a higher vision, of God’s love for us, which offers a unity that can make space for differences, because everyone stands before that love, regards of how they choose to respond.”