Here’s the quote, from von Balthasar: All ancient...

Here’s the quote, from von Balthasar: All ancient peoples have their gods. The God of Israel, however, is distinguished from all other gods by the fact that he brings into being a people to worship him by his own free sovereign act of choosing – whether we look at the first manifestation of this choice of a people – when God called Abraham – or at his choosing his people when he led them out of Egypt at the hand of Moses (who himself had first to be called of God), thus making something like a nation out of a miserable collection of uncultured and demoralized slaves; before all this, in each case there is a free act of the divine initiative that can neither be foreseen, demanded, nor deduced. (Engagement With God, pp. 13)

God has an Israel | Easter in the Ordinary (via mshedden)