" After the sixteenth century, when Westerners became more rational and literate, most of us stopped thinking symbolically, allegorically, or typologically. But in so doing, we lost something quite important in our spiritual, intuitive, and nonrational understanding of God and ourselves. We narrowed the field considerably and actually lessened the likelihood of inner religious experience. The Bible became an excuse for not learning how literature “works.” Catholics were on symbolic overload; Protestants reacted and became symbolically starved. "

― Richard Rohr , The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe