Wendell Berry: On Abundant Life

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It seems to me that all the religions I know anything about emerge from an instinct to push against any merely human constraints on reality.  In the Bible, such constraints are conventionally attributed to 'the world' in the perjorative sense of that term, which we may define as the world of the creation reduced by any of the purposes of selfishness.  The contrary purpose, the purpose of freedom, is stated by Jesus in the fourth gospel: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."  This astonishing statement can be thought about and understood endlessly, for it is endlessly meaningful, but I don't think it calls for much in the way of interpretation.  It does call for a very strict and careful reading of the word 'life.' -- Wendell Berry in Blessed are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings about Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness