RELIGION AND SOCIETY
Eucken shows that the problems of history are closely allied with those
of society. The best accounts of the meaning he attaches to human
society are to be found in _The Main Currents of Modern Thought, Der
Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt_, and _Life Basis and Life Ideal_.
The conclusions reached in these three books are the same--they are an
insistence on the need of spiritual life as a creative power in the
utilisation of norms and ideals as well as in the creation of further
norms and ideals. He points out the devious paths which human society
has travelled over: all these, in the case of society and of the
individual, are shown to lead to disaster when they depend merely upon
the environment or upon the ideals of a utilitarian mode of a
historico-social construction.
Society has gained much through the necessity of emphasising some
aspects of a Whole--of thinking and acting collectively--instead [p.109]
of emphasising merely the Parts. The history of human society, in a very
large measure, is the history of shifting the centre of gravity of life
alternately from the Whole to the Parts and _vice versa_. When the
centre of gravity remains in some kind of Whole, a number of individuals
move towards the same goal, and much that is subjective has to be
shifted to the background of life. Now, this is a gain, and it is the
only path on which a corporate life becomes possible. Men (and women
too) stand shoulder to shoulder when some kind of Whole or Ideal seems
to them to be a necessity of their nature. But progress is brought about
not only through cementing human beings together in order to move
towards _any kind_ of ideal. The energy is in the right place, but the
question has to arise as to the _nature_ of the over-personal ideal
itself. All over-personal ideals cannot connote the good of _all_, but
the good of all must be present as possessing a validity of its own
before any lower over-personal ideal can prevent landing men in
disaster. The over-personal ideals which do not include the good of all
often represent the good of a section alone, and all other sections have
to become convinced that this is a good. Thus many Life-systems present
themselves. Each of these includes a good. The problem is, How is each
section to realise that there is a good present in what each other
section presents? [p.110] There must be some common standard by which
the ideal of each section of the community can be measured, for it is in
the light of such a standard alone that the lower good receives its true
place, meaning, and value. There are, beyond all sectional over-personal
ideals, values which connote the highest welfare of everyone "who
carries a human face." These values are the results of the partially
collective experiences of the deepest in life, and have been gained in
the history of the race. They are the values which are the needs and
rights of all. Justice, Sympathy, Love--these and others are the highest
syntheses. They have, as yet, been only partially reached; and this
partial realisation is the possession of a few, and has not yet
succeeded in becoming the necessary standard which shall pass judgment
on all lower ideals. "Rights are rights," we are told. This may be true,
but something higher has to interpret them, or else one set of rights
comes into conflict with other sets and stands but little chance of
realisation. And even if realised, a whole series of complexities
immediately arises. This has been, in the main, the history of human
society. And are we able to say that society has progressed much during
the past century in this direction of illuminating lower needs in the
light of higher ones which include the good of all? Eucken doubts
whether the progress has been great. And here once more, [p.111] in
connection with the deepest meaning of society and the individual, he
sees the need of ideals which are universally true and universally
valid. This means that the spiritual life as it presents itself in the
universally true, good, and beautiful, must become the sun which will
shine upon all that is below it; it is the Whole in which the Parts must
find their function and meaning. If the life of society relates itself
to anything lower than this, the best within it cannot come to flower
and fruit. In other words, society will have to return to a conception
and utilisation of an _absolute spiritual life_ before it can gain any
new territory of eternal value. Probably quite as much attention will
have to be devoted to the Parts--to the environment, the needs of the
hour, the material comforts and happiness of life. But granting that the
possession of all these will come about, what then? We are still
wretchedly poor in the "inward parts." What we have won has not within
itself sufficient spirituality to touch the deepest recesses of the
soul. Material plenty and pleasure are a good when they are used as they
ought to be used. Where is that "something" that teaches us this? Where
is the Ought? The Ought is something outside and infinitely higher than
all the gains which the environment or the group is ever able to bring
forth. "Life," says Eucken,[36] "cannot be made simply [p.112] a
question of relationship to environment and of the development of mutual
relationships (as this tendency would have it) without the independence
of the isolated factor [spiritual life] being most seriously reduced.
And it must not be forgotten that the individual is the sole source of
original spiritual life; corporate social life can do no more than unite
and utilise. The maintenance of the strength and freedom of this
original life would be less important, and its limitation would be more
easily endurable, if human life stood upon a firm foundation and needed
only to follow quietly in a naturally appointed direction. In reality,
life is not only full of separate problems, but being situated (as it
is) between the realm of mere Nature and the spiritual world, must begin
by systematically directing itself aright and ascending from the
semi-spiritual to the truly spiritual construction of life. It is hence
called upon to perform great tasks, which cannot be carried out without
serious efforts and the mobilisation of all our spiritual forces. This
necessarily leads us back to the original sources of strength, and hence
to the individual."
This passage represents well Eucken's main teaching in regard to our
social problems. We shall ever fail in the highest sense if the
spiritual content of life is no more than a _means_ to reach material
ends, however necessary such ends may be. For in such a [p.113] manner
spiritual life--the universally true and valid--is reduced to a lower
plane; it becomes entangled in lower stages, and thus ceases to be a
"light on the hill" illumining the steep upward path. Convictions of a
spiritual nature--the very forces which have moulded society--are absent
from such a system of life which has no more than the day or the hour to
look forward to. Individual and society become the creatures of mere
impulses and passions, stimulated to activity by a "dead-level"
environment. Something of value is gained when even this kind of
environment is a good; but the response is quite as readily given to
that which is injurious, simply because the "universally true and good"
is absent as an inwardness and conviction in the soul.
Without such an inwardness and its content the deeper energy of life is
not touched, and men drift with the tide of the environment. Without the
ideals or syntheses which are, in their very nature, universal and
absolute, progress comes to a standstill, and degeneration soon sets in.
The ordinary situation, apart from the presence of the content of the
over-world within the life of the soul, swings like a pendulum between a
shallow optimism and a blind pessimism. There is no power present in the
soul to come to any fundamental decision, but life drifts on a river
between Yea and Nay; a failure to penetrate beneath the [p.114] crust of
chance and circumstance becomes evident, and the deeper values and
meanings of life disappear.
Eucken's only solution for our present-day troubles is a return to our
own deeper nature as this was depicted in previous chapters. The signs
of the times, he tells us, are encouraging; the utilitarian mode of life
is wearing itself out; the tastes of material comforts have been with us
long enough to experience the poverty of their quality; and the mad
gamble for the "things which perish" is gradually weeding out its
devotees. Eucken's solution to the problems of society is a _religious_
one. Where is the conception of religion as the solution of the
momentous and intricate problems of our day to be found in the teachings
and writings of our economists? It is not to be found. These deal either
with petty details or with laws which have no spiritual content whatever
in them. Society may proceed with various Life-systems--individualism,
socialism, or any other, but until it gets into touch with its deepest
soul, each such system of life is hastening towards its own destruction
and towards the injury of progress.
The conception of the State is presented by Eucken in a similar manner.
He points out how we stop short in our politics of dealing with the
universally true and good. Party strives against party, and nation
against nation. [p.115] Groups of all hues and cries propound their own
particular ideals as the all-important ones. Higher ideals are left out
of account, so that we find the world to-day spending its energies in
warfare concerning many things of minor importance. How can we expect
fruition and bliss to follow on such lines?
Eucken presents in a convincing manner the danger of resting upon the
external in Society and State. "We are experiencing to-day a remarkable
entanglement. The older forms of Life, which had hitherto governed
history and its meaning, have become too narrow, petty, and subjective
for human nature. Through emancipation from an easy-going subjectivity
and through the positing of life upon external things and, indeed, upon
the whole of the great universe, Life, it was believed, would gain more
breadth and truth; and in a noteworthy manner man undertook a struggle
against the pettiness of his own nature and for the drawing out of all
that was merely human and trivial. A great deal has been gained through
such a change and new tendency of life. In fact we have discovered far
more than we had hoped for. But, at the same time, we have lost
something--a loss which at the outset occasions no anxiety, but which,
however, through painful experience, proves itself to have been the 'one
thing needful.' Through its own development the work has destroyed its
own vehicles; it has [p.116] undermined the very ground upon which it
stood; it has failed, notwithstanding its infinite expansion, through
its loss of a fundamental and unifying Life-process; and in the entire
immersion of man into activity his deepest being has been sacrificed.
Indeed, the more exclusively Life transforms itself into external work,
the more it ceases to be an inner personal experience, and the more
alien we become to ourselves. And yet the fact that we can be conscious
of such an alienation--an alienation that we cannot accept indifferently
--is a proof that more is firmly implanted in us than the modern
direction of life is able to develop and satisfy. We acknowledge
simultaneously that we have gained much, but that the loss is a painful
one. We have gained the world, but we have lost the soul; and, along
with this, the world threatens to bring us to nought, and to take away
our one secure foothold in the midst of the roaring torrent of material
work."[37]
Eucken shows that the individual will obtain his true place in Society
and the State only when spiritual ideals have become fixed norms--norms
which form the highest synthesis to be conceived of. And Society and the
State will discover their vocations in precisely the same manner. It is
impossible to shut our eyes to the fact that things are not well with
the world to-day. The growth of the material [p.117] interests of the
world and of life has become a menace on a scale unknown in the previous
history of civilisation. There is only one refuge in the midst of all
this welter and chaos. That indestructible refuge is "an inner synthesis
and spiritual elevation of life." It is this alone which can prevent the
disintegration that is bound to follow in its absence. The petty human
element cannot be eliminated from this; and the mere life of the
hour--the life that has no substance of duration within itself--cannot
be stopped on its reckless career without the presence of spiritual
ideals within and without. If the world proceeds in its denial of the
reality and need of spiritual life and its over-world, the negation,
when it reaches its climax of disaster and despair, will "turn again
home"--to the necessity of spiritual values--and out of the ruins a new
humanity will emerge.
Thus, once more we are landed into the province of a religion of
spiritual life as a necessity in the affairs of the world and of the
State. Eucken's great plea is that the civilised nations of the world
should become aware of all this before it is too late to turn
back--before the boat has reached too near the rapids to avoid disaster.
The remedy is in our own hands. How to create the consciousness of the
situation is the problem of problems, and all individuals are called to
bring the whole of their energies to its solution.
[p.118] It is evident that some kind of uneasiness has to take place in
the deepest recess of the human soul, but the best ways and means of
doing this are not yet quite evident.[38] We know what we need and what
prevents decadence of individuals and nations. "If ye know these things,
blessed are ye if ye _do_ them" (Gospel of John). The bridge between a
knowledge of the Ought and its possession is difficult to construct, but
its importance is necessary to be brought constantly before the people.
The majority of the people have thought fit to leave almost the only
place where such an obligation was presented--_i.e._ the Christian
Church. Until they return, or some other institution higher than the
Church is brought into existence, the peril will remain. No individual
conviction, based on anything less than spiritual ideals, will suffice.
What we are looking for is in our midst; it is and has been from the
very beginning, in spite of an "existential form," largely archaic,
present in the spiritual nucleus of the Christian religion.
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