Wednesday quote

“For the post-industrial self, the compassionate response of the father turns this story [the prodigal son] not into an account of pride and guilt or confessed sin that is forgiven. Rather, it is a story about an isolated, alienated and fragmented person who is unconditionally welcomed by a father just as he is. The story of the prodigal son is about the creation of a valued-self through valuing that person. The relational dysfunction that is so obviously present in the narrative is absorbed by the father on the return of his son, bringing the at-one-ment they both desire.”— Atonement for a "Sinless" Society, p. 116