Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

The section titled "Ubiquity" is preceded by two quotes. The first is a long one from the novelist Gore Vidal to the effect that it would be nice to know the answers to apparently unanswerable questions such as, say, the true meaning of "finite" and "infinite," but aside from these exceptions there is no mystery at the heart of things, because philosophy lays open all that can be answered. The second is from a Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president of Haiti: "The Bible commands us to love our enemies. I love the Pope very much." The chapter explores a question that arose in the medieval history of the Church of Rome. If a person's soul could be redeemed only through belief in Jesus Christ, what would become of those who died before Christ's time on earth, or those who never were aware...