“Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision.”

“Faster than the devil *times* Sharper than wind! That's the ultimate law of the hero!!”

“Who but the sports-mad [Norman] Mailer would liken the battle between God and the Devil to a game of American football? The contest, for sure, has with [sic] own laws (so that after God and the Devil 'tackle a guy, they don't kick him in the head'), but each side is not above cheating—with God breaking the rules occasionally by throwing in 'a miracle'. Strangely, Mailer doesn’t mention Jesus in this agonising analogy, but then the notion of the 'super-sub' may be an image too far even for him.”

“The glory of God is the living man, but the life of man is the vision of God', says St. Irenaeus, getting to the heart of what happens when man meets God on the mountain in the wilderness. Ultimately, it is the very life of man, man himself as living righteously, that is the true worship of God, but life only becomes real life when it receives its form from looking toward God.”

“And if there were a devil it would not be one who decided against God, but one who, in eternity, came to no decision. ”

“Man provides his own goods and his own evils, neither God nor the Devil has anything to do with it.”