‘My immortality is necessary if only because God would not want to commit an injustice and utterly quench the flame of love for him once it has been kindled in my heart. And what is more precious than love? Love is higher than existence, love is the crown of being, and how is it possible that existence is not subordinate to it? If I have come to love him and have taken joy in my love, is it possible that he should extinguish both me and my joy and turn us into nothing? If God exists, then I am immortal too! Voilà ma profession de foi!’49
Stepan declares that God is necessary because God is the only being capable of eternal love. He says that all of human existence rests on the fact that people can bow before something unfathomably great. Without that, people would die of despair.
