This lecture was given at Peace United Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC, on April 25, 2026. My thanks to Nikolas Mothershed for the video production and to all who made this event possible.
The start of the lecture:
"I am convinced that one of the greatest errors we are facing in the Catholic Church today—and one that, in a hidden way, drives a lot of other problems we are suffering under—is the dominance of an activist, utilitarian, this-worldly notion of what Christianity is all about. It’s taken for granted that religion is for the sake of social justice, ecology, international peace, improvement of quality of life, that it’s a matter of being busy with charitable projects, of making ourselves “useful” in various ways, and so forth...
In my talk this evening I would like to present to you a totally different way of thinking about the meaning of Christianity and the purpose of human life. I will offer you the traditional vision, which, needless to say, is not well understood in modern times. And I will do so starting from a book of the Bible that used to be at the heart of all of theology but has suffered enormous neglect, namely, the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is all about priesthood, sacrifice, and heaven; its very title underlines the profound continuity between the worship of Israel instituted by God through Moses and its fulfillment in the worship of the New Israel instituted by the God-man Jesus Christ."
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