Attempting to Reform the World is Ultimately Unsatisfying

Only the Christian is in a position to judge clearly how basically unsatisfying it is for man, both as an individual and as a social being, to have as his ultimate goal the civilizing and humanizing of the world, because he himself has found his own fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. . . . If it is true however, that man is endowed by his very nature with the capacity to begin the work of making the earth his subject . .. then only the Christian, and he alone, since he knows God’s involvement for the world in Christ, will be able to direct right man’s strivings in the world and his efforts to attain transcendence. (pp. 69, 70)

Source: Engagement with God (Ignatius Press, 2008), by Hans Urs von Balthasar.