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About this quote

What does it mean?
Religious vision offers optimism by countering the pain and transience of life.
In plain terms
Spiritual hope helps make life meaningful beyond suffering.
What can you take from it?
Seek vision that lifts life beyond pain.

Where it applies

  • spiritual crisis
  • philosophical inquiry
  • counseling

Putting it to work

  • find hope
  • build meaning
  • share vision

Questions to consider

  • What makes life meaningful?
  • How do you find hope?

Another view

Optimism can exist without religious frameworks.

More from Alfred North Whitehead

  1. Religion is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be…

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  2. The worship of God is not a rule of safety - it is an adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable. The death of religion comes with the repression…

    Permalink to quote #17
  3. Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God. The presentation of God under the aspect of power awakens every modern instinct of critical rea…

    Permalink to quote #14

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