"If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" (1 Cor 15:14-15.)
The Christian faith stands of falls with the truth of the testimony that Christ is risen from the dead. If this were taken away,. it would still be possible to piece together from the Christian tradition a series of interesting ideas about God and men, about man's being and his obligations, a kind of religious world view: but the Christian faith itself would be dead. Jesus would no longer be a criterion; the only criterion left would be our own judgment in selecting from His heritage what strikes us as helpful. In other words, we would be alone. Our own judgment would be the highest instance. Only if Jesus is risen has anything really new occurred that changes the world and the situation of mankind. Then He becomes the criterion on which we can rely. For then God has truly revealed Himself.
-Benedict XVI
