[431] against introducing into nation^a or church^b, but also something which transcends both humanism^c AND the symbols^d of nation and church; then we have a point out of which it is possible to say No, out of which the prophetic protest against every form of fulfillment, even the religious form, AS ULTIMATE^e, can come. Now it is of course my belief as a Protestant^f that in the cross of Christ^g, this protest

against the church^h is expressed, that this is its main symbolic power: THE PROTEST AGAINST THE CHURCH. This is the paradoxⁱ, that in the cross of Christ the protest against the church, which gives the MESSAGE of the cross, is implied, is involved. But this is the point I want to make now. From this follows that Protestantism, if it RECOGNIZES this, CAN move beyond the different forms of education^j which I have mentioned. And negatively, I want to state that I don't believe that ANY education which is not ultimately INITIATION into--into the mystery of human existence--falls short of what it should do. And nothing is more revealing for this fact than the latest European history^k! [Applause]