A possible real connection with the animal kingdom is itself
of relatively little theological importance, for anything in it that would be
important for the theological interpretation
of human life in the present, can also be known without it, that is to say, the
vulnerability of man in face
of the powers
of this earth, man's temptation to see himself from the
point of view
of his animality, his liability to death, man's dynamic orientation and task
of developing to his perfection from below upwards, beyond his beginnings.