"Guardini rejected Soren Kierkegaard's view that theonomy requires a wholly private act of faith. Although he drew on Kierkegaard's thought, he could not accept the Danish philosopher's devaluation of Christian beliefs communal aspect. Guardini maintained that "a person goes to the Father only through Christ, and one sees Christ properly only within the space of the Church as oriented by the Holy Spirit." But he immediately added, "Of course, the Church is not identical with a single part of the hierarchy, or with a particular theological school, or with a conventional way of doing things. It is much more than this; beyond every individual part, there opens the experience of the Church's totality and essence." In sum, if human beings intend to become whole persons, they must participate in the community of believers."