"The foundering of the postulate of brotherly love in its collision with the loveless realities of the economic domain once it became rationalized led to the expansion of love for one’s fellow man until it came to require a completely unselective generosity. Such unselective generosity did not inquire into the reason and outcome of absolute self-surrender, into the worth of the person soliciting help, or into his capacity to help himself. It asked no questions, and quickly gave a shirt when a cloak had been asked for in mystical religions, the individual for whom the sacrifice is made is regarded in the final analysis as unimportant and fungible, his individual value is negated. One’s fellow man is simply a person whom one happens to encounter along the way, he has significance only because of his need and his solicitation This results in a distinctively mystical flight from the world which takes the form of a non-specific and loving self-surrender, not for the sake of the man but for the sake of the surrender itself — what Baudelaire has termed “the sacred prostitution of the soul.”"
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Original Language: English
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pp. 221-222
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sociology_of_Religion_(book)
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Sociology of Religion (book)
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