“I believe in the holiness of the human person and of humanity as a phenomenon. I believe our failings, which are very great and very grave– after all, we have brought ourselves to the point of possible self-annihilation– are a cosmic mystery, a Luciferian disaster, the fall of the brightest angel. That is to say, at best and at worst we are within the field of sacred meaning, holy. I believe holiness is a given of our being that, essentially, we cannot add to or diminish, whose character and reality are fully known only to God and are fully valued only by him.”

–Marilynne Robinson, in “Onward, Christian Liberals,” The American Scholar, v 75 n 2.