Paradise Reclaimed by Halldor Laxness

Mine is a bad doctrine," said the Lutheran. "And, what's more, I cannot substantiate my doctrine. The man who has the best doctrine is the one who can prove that he has the most to eat; and good shoes. I have neither, and live in a dugout."

"I've heard that one before many a time," said Pastor Runólfur. "Those who never have anything to eat or to wear are never tired of declaring their aversion to people who have plenty of food. And yet one of the Prophets said that a man needs to have food and clothes in order to perform virtuous deeds. You forget that every single thing contains a higher concept-good broth no less than a pair of topboots; the Greeks called this the Idea. It is this spiritual and eternal quality in all existence and in every thing by which we Mormons live. If anyone is so incompetent that he has neither broth nor topboots, nor the manliness to raise himself from a dugout, he is not likely to have a spirit, or eternity, either."