UNIVERSAL RELIGION
We have followed Eucken's system developing step by step from the stage
of knowing the world up through the evolution of spiritual life in
history, in the soul, in art, and in society. Everywhere the
investigation has revealed a progressive autonomy and duration of
spiritual life in the midst of all the kaleidoscopic aspects of the
objects which presented themselves to consciousness. Something spiritual
has persisted and evolved in the midst of all the changes, and the
changes have been utilised by this deeper potency of the soul. Through
the evolution of this spiritual potency changes have been brought about
in the external world, in human society, and in the individual soul.
This spiritual potency has bent things to subserve its own inherent
demands. The union of conation and cognition within the soul has brought
forth everything that has happened outside the natural process of the
physical world, and much even of that world [p.129] has been made
subservient to man. When the attention is turned to this "fact of facts"
concerning the work of spiritual life, individually and collectively, it
is impossible to consider it as a mere addendum to the natural process,
however closely connected it may be with that process. Sufficient has
been said to prove the superiority of spiritual life over the whole
aspects and manifestations of Nature. The question, then, cannot be laid
aside concerning the nature of the life of the spirit in itself. What is
it now? What is it capable of becoming? Why should its evolution snap at
its highest point? Why cannot the power that has accomplished so much in
the history of our world, and has always done this the more efficiently
the more a remove from the realm of the sensuous took place--why cannot
such a power proceed farther on its course? And what limits can be set
to it? The pertinency of such and other questions cannot be doubted. The
spiritual life has ascended too high and accomplished too much to be
treated with indifference. And yet that is the way it is being treated
only too widely to-day. Men hesitate to grant to it a reality of its own
because of its close connection with mechanical and chemical elements.
They half affirm and half deny its reality. The question arises, What is
reality? Eucken agrees with the great idealists of the world that
reality in its highest manifestation is [p.130] something that pertains
to spirit and meaning rather than to matter and its behaviour.[44] Our
rigid clinging to a meaning of reality from the side of its physical
history is doubtless a remnant of a race--memory which may be largely
physical in its nature. We find a difficulty in conceiving as yet a
reality existing in itself--existing in itself though material elements
have helped it on its upward course. But even here it is not at all
certain that nothing but material elements have operated in this
fundamental process. Men have by now known enough of the connection of
mind with lower processes in order to be aware of a mystery present in
the whole operation--a mystery which does not yield itself to the
senses.
But even such a past history of the spiritual life is not all that can
be said concerning it. It is _now_ in process of evolution, and its
greatest work is always accomplished not by looking backward but
forward. The whole universe has operated in bringing spiritual life into
existence. Are there any reasons whatever for concluding that the whole
universe is not co-operating _now_ in its further development? Life,
civilisation, culture, morality, and religion are proofs that this life
of the spirit is moving onward and upward. It does not move without
checks and entanglements [p.131] from without and within, but in every
"long run" it is gaining some new ground and tilling it as its own. It
dare not turn back; it dare not throw away the pack of the _Sollen_ (the
Ought) off its shoulders. The over-individual norms have planted
themselves too strongly in the heart of humanity to be ever uprooted.
The meaning and value of life now lie in a _beyond_. It is not a
_beyond_ within any physical region that _was_; neither is it, so far as
we know, a _beyond_ in any physical region that _is to be_. It is a
_beyond of the spirit_; and as it is the most real and most requisite
possession of man, how can it have anything less than a _cosmic_
significance? The future of spiritual life is therefore governed not by
something that is _to be_ in the cosmos, but by something that is _now_
present in it--by the acknowledgment, assimilation, and appropriation by
man and humanity of spiritual norms which are far beyond their present
actual situation.
The whole meaning here is that something _sub specie aeternitatis_ has
to take the foremost place in life. We are beings who perpetually
_move_. Eucken and Bergson are both emphasising this to-day. But the
latter deals with the movement alone; he has no notion whither we are
going, nor can he possibly have until he revises very largely his
conception of the function and meaning of intellect in life.[45] But
[p.132] Eucken states that we do know whither we are going. What are the
over-personal spiritual norms and standards but stars by which to steer
the direction of our course over the tempestuous sea of time? Everyone
who guides his life in connection with reason guides it by means of some
norm or other. Even the daily avocation requires this in order to be
fulfilled. And the norms which furnish guidance to the spiritual life
have originated and are utilised in precisely the same manner as those
of the daily avocation. The only difference is that there is more
meaning and value in the former than in the latter. But each is a
_Sollen_ and constitutes a _beyond_. This _Sollen_ is a certainty; it
exists, and its existence is _in itself._ It is the star for the
_Wollen._[46] The Will is our own; the Ought is not our own; the fact
that we possess it as an idea is no proof that it has become a
possession of the whole of life. In this sense the Ought has an
objectivity and a subsistence of its own. The Will has to travel in the
direction of the Ought, and its course is mapped out by this Ought at
every step of its progress. Hence, in order to reach towards the
_Sollen_ the nature of the _Sollen_ must become known. As noticed in
previous chapters, such a movement towards so high [p.133] a goal
becomes a difficult task--a task which demands the activity of the whole
spiritual nature. Man's dependency and the meaning of his life are thus
set before his eyes, and the aspects of momentary existence are valued
as of secondary importance. Unless this meaning of the norm becomes
clear, life will revolve around the reality nearest-at-hand, and will
consequently fail to unfold the deeper spirituality of its nature. "And
if all depended on the brief flash of the moment, which endures but the
twinkling of an eye, only to vanish into the dark of nothingness, then
all life would mean a mere exit into death. Thus, without eternity there
is no spirituality, and without connection there is no content of life.
But what is enthroned in itself above Time becomes for the man who wins
such a spirituality, first of all, an immense task which allows itself
to be grasped on the field of Time alone; and, also, the Eternal which
works within us and which hovers before us on the horizon of Eternity
can become our full possession only through the movement of Time. To
wish to check the course of Time means not to serve Eternity, but to
ascribe to Time what belongs to Eternity."[47]
It is not said by Eucken anywhere in his writings that the _natural_
sources at which Life drinks must be abandoned. These remain with us as
long as we are in this world of space and [p.134] time. But these are
not found in the same place, neither is the same importance attached to
them, once the meaning and value of the over-personal norms and the
potency of spiritual creativeness have come into union with one another.
What Eucken means by universal religion is the establishment of this
independency and supremacy of spiritual life over all else in the world.
We have already dealt with this aspect in former chapters; the
conclusion was reached that everywhere the presence of a life of the
spirit made itself felt, and gave a meaning and interpretation to all
life and existence. That is the conclusion Eucken arrives at in his
_Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt._ The problem of religion _qua_
religion is hardly touched. But, indeed, what other than religion can
all these conclusions mean? Norm and potency are emphasised. An
elevation above the world and above the "small self" has taken place.
But something still has to be done before we have entered into the very
heart of the matter. The problems which arise after all the conclusions
previously arrived at are acknowledged must be taken into account.
Having come so far in regard to the value and meaning of spiritual life,
we are bound to go _farther_. No point occurs where we can find a
terminus. Though we have already been constrained to grant the norms a
reality of their own, we have only just touched, here and there, [p.135]
upon their _cosmic_ significance. The matter thus reaches a further
point than we have yet touched. What justification is there for granting
spiritual life this cosmic significance?
Attention has already been called to the fact of a distinction between
nature and spirit. But attention has now to be directed to the necessity
of emphasising the reality of spirit. The nature of spirit is revealed
most clearly in the life and content of human consciousness. No
anthropomorphic standard from without can come to our aid to establish
the existence of spirit. The standard is to be found within the
consciousness itself. A distinction has to be made between _nature and
spirit_. However much they resemble each other in the beginnings of
life, spirit has travelled far beyond nature or matter. It has developed
for itself an essence which may be designated as _substance_. The chief
characteristic of matter is that it occupies space; but spirit, though
connected with, and largely conditioned by, matter as it exists in
space, is now something quite other--something which has to be granted
an existence of its own, and which forms the beginning of a _new kind of
world_ and unfolds a _new kind of reality_.
The reality of spiritual life is not discovered in anything which is
external to life; it is to be found in life itself. The reality is
revealed and, indeed, created by an act of the spirit of man. Such an
act must be the act of one's [p.136] own deepest being. But although
such a new reality is not to be found in anything external to life, yet
the very revelation points, as we have already observed, to something
which is over-individual. Even the meaning of the reality itself, from
its _immanent_ side, is something quite other than the natural life and
its contents. It is something revealed, but not as yet possessed; it is
hard to be reached; and even within the man's own nature obstacles and
hindrances of various kinds are to be found. But the new reality
persists in the midst of the hindrances; the man discovers himself as
the possessor of a deeper kind of truth than was present and operative
in the ordinary life. A cleavage is therefore made between the "small
self" and the spiritual life. In the degree the former wins through the
calling forth of the deepest activities of the soul, in that degree does
the transcendent aspect of the new reality urge itself upon man. And
when the two aspects--immanent and transcendent--of the reality are
firmly grasped by the soul, the soul moves upward in the exploration and
possession of its new world.
The failure to enter into this region of religion is due to the fact
that men often attempt to construct religion on certain so-called
faculties of the soul. Some attempt to discover and establish religion
through the power and conclusions of the intellect. It is evident that
when the knowing aspect of consciousness [p.137] takes such a leading
part, and deliberately ignores the affective and active aspects, no more
than a segment of the reality can be discovered, and such a segment
leaves out of account important elements of human nature. If the
affective aspect takes the lead at the expense of the other two aspects,
we are here again in a region where only certain fragments of our nature
are touched. If the active aspect busies itself without carrying along
with itself the content of meaning and value to be discovered in
consciousness, the true element of the greatness of the reality is
missing. Eucken shows in his _Truth of Religion_ that there must be a
point in the soul, at some deeper level than any of the three, where the
three are working conjointly.[48] It must be so, because what is now at
stake is more than knowing a thing; it is to _be_ the thing we know we
_ought to be._ It is unfamiliarity with such a truth that brings a
difficulty into the mind when face to face [p.138] with the problem of
religion. The mind has not learned how to attend to the truth in its own
self-subsistence, but posits this truth in its relation to the
conditions in the external world which brought it forth.[49] Thus the
conception of truth is made up very largely of its history on its
physical side, and this history of the truth comes to possess the entire
meaning of the truth itself! The road to religion, in its deepest sense,
is barred to everyone who fails or refuses to grant the deeper reality
which presents itself within the soul _a self-subsistence._ The only
existence of such a reality can be its own self-subsistence. The reality
is now conceived as something quite other than an existence in space; it
exists for consciousness and can persist within consciousness.
When reality is conceived as a substance subsisting in itself, the
passage to the Absolute is opened. This Absolute is the most universal
and complete meaning and value which the soul is capable of possessing;
its very nature forces itself upon man as being true; and its value has
revealed itself in its being the only power which will carry farther the
spiritual evolution of the soul. If such an Absolute is left out of
account, it is evident that the most universal [p.139] truth which
presents itself to life as absolutely necessary cannot enter into the
deepest recesses of the soul; it cannot be more than a subsidiary
element accompanying lower intellectual elements of life, which are more
closely allied on such a lower level with physical processes of the body
and with the physical world. And when truth is treated in this manner,
it cannot possibly make its abode and become a power in the soul.
Consciousness hesitates to create a further cleft within itself because
the evidence of truth at such a height as this does not lend itself to
the senses. The result is that the full power of the truth fails to
produce effects on the consciousness, and thus keeps it on practically
the same level as that on which it has been accustomed to work. The
higher truth--the higher spiritual life--has not become anything more
than a fact of knowledge or a probability. It has not become one's own
life. It is only when this higher aspect of spiritual life becomes
_one's own life_, and is acknowledged and used, that it is ever possible
for man to become the possessor of an original energy, of an independent
governing centre, and so to realise himself as a co-carrier of a cosmic
movement. This is the presupposition of religion: it testifies that
within man's soul there appears something higher than sense or
intellect, but which remains surrounded by alien elements which impose
checks to its further development. It is quite evident that the
appearance of [p.140] truths which are absolute and complete within the
life is in direct antagonism to much that was previously present within
it. This fundamental fact, however, is not evident without a great deal
of attention paid to the nature of the higher elements which present
themselves. Without comparing the values of the higher and the lower
elements, how is it ever possible to know what they are and what they
mean? When the whole being attends to both elements--higher and
lower--there is no possibility of making a mistake concerning the
_different_ values of what are presented. A higher grade of reality
reveals itself over against all that had been previously gained. The
soul is forced to admit that something of a higher nature than it
hitherto possessed seeks admission. And this Higher, if it enters into
the whole of life, so far from revealing itself as a continuation of
what had already happened, reveals itself as something which is
discontinuous with the ordinary life, and superior even to the highest
attainments of the intellectual life. And it is this aspect which
produces the conviction of such a revelation as being _objective_ in its
very nature. It belongs to something or somebody outside our own
individual experience or achievement. That there is much which is
mysterious in all this, is only what might be expected. But the very
fact that the Higher comes with such power when the soul expects,
assimilates, and appropriates it [p.141] is a proof of its existence
somewhere at the core of the universe. It cannot mean an illusion; it
brings changes of too fundamental a nature to be no more than that. Its
very value and the enormous difficulty of turning it from being an idea
into being a possession demand too much energy of the soul to allow of
its being dismissed without any more ado. It contains elements so
different in their nature from the ordinary life of the hour as to
render it impossible to be considered of no more than of subsidiary
importance. For it has to be borne in mind that the values and norms
farthest removed from the regions of sense and intellect appear only
when man follows the drift of his own higher being; it is not when he
remains effortless and satisfied with the life of the hour that such
values and norms appear. They appear when the ordinary life is seen
through as no more than a stage for the further evolution of the soul
through the grasping of a higher kind of reality than has as yet
presented itself to it. As Eucken says: "Religion proves itself a
kingdom of opposites. When it steps out of such opposites, it destroys
without a doubt the turbidity and evanescence of ordinary commonplace
life, and separates clearly the lights and shadows from one another. It
sets our life between the sharpest contrasts, and engenders the most
powerful feelings and the most mighty movements; it shows the dark abyss
in our nature, but also [p.142] shows illumined peaks; it opens out
infinite tasks, and brings ever to an awakening a new life in its
movement against the ordinary self. It does not render our existence
lighter, but it makes it richer, more eventful, and greater; it enables
man to experience cosmic problems within his own soul in order to
struggle for a new world, and, indeed, in order to gain such a genuine
world as its own proper life."[50]
All this is not a matter of speculation, but of fact. And it is in the
recognition of this fact that Eucken's philosophy of religion
constitutes a new kind of idealistic movement--a movement tending more
and more in the direction of Christianity. But he differs here again
from the absolute idealists and the pragmatists. The former base their
Absolute upon the demands of logic, whilst Eucken bases all upon the
demands and potencies of life; the pragmatists emphasise the primary
place of the will in the development of the inner life, but they have
certainly ignored the presence of over-individual norms, as the goal of
volition, whilst Eucken holds to the necessity of both. With the
absolutists the relation of the Absolute with the will is not clearly
perceived, and consequently the Absolute becomes merely an object of
thought and contemplation; and in all this the individual does not
become aware of a burning desire to move in the direction of the goal.
[p.143] The pragmatist leaves the individual at the mercy of the
momentary content of consciousness; this content is quite as likely to
be trivial as to be great; and hence there is no absolute standard
present to determine the nature and value of this content of the moment,
and consequently no more than a life of effortless drifting can issue
out of all this.
This blend of absolutism and pragmatism is richer in its content than
either of the two. Each has missed something of importance, and it is
here supplied by Eucken.
Norms and potency become two indissoluble factors in the evolution of
the higher life. As already stated, the norms have an objectivity of
their own, and consequently when they enter into life, life becomes
conscious of their being something _given_ and not brought into
existence by its own potency. It is out of this conclusion to which life
is forced that the doctrine of Grace, found in some way or other in all
religions, is to be accounted for. And it is out of the consciousness of
the interval between norm and achievement that the sense of _guilt_
follows man whenever he penetrates deeply into the deeper experiences of
the soul. Grace and guilt--naming only two experiences of the soul--are
not remnants of a traditional theology, but essential elements which
accompany the deepest experience of the soul. When they are wanting, it
is most probable that the soul has not plumbed its own [p.144] existence
to its very depths, but has rather chosen to be satisfied with what lies
but a little way beneath the surface--with what does not cause too much
uneasiness, but is sufficient for a life to persist as a good member of
the society by which it is surrounded. Only half a religion can become
the possession of any individual who does not at least pay as much
attention to the nature and value of over-individual norms as he pays to
the nature of the environment and of the ordinary life. It is always a
sign that humanity is drifting to the shallows of life when it looks
upon religion as the flowering of the mere natural life of good custom,
earthly happiness, and ease. Whenever the tragedy born in the conflict
between norms and ordinary life is absent, the very elements which
constitute greatness and the "taste of eternity" are also absent. It is
on account of this fact that Eucken insists that no individual or nation
that loses its own deeper religious experience can be really great or
true; for the purest spring of human life and conduct is wanting, and
the whole life issues from a shallower stream. It is impossible here to
enter into the truth of this matter; but our individual observation
concerning men and communities is almost enough of itself to verify the
statement. That such a higher spiritual life is a reality may be
evidenced further through its effects. It changes the whole relationship
of the man [p.145] who has experienced it to everything he comes in
contact with. New convictions and new points of view have now actually
occurred within his soul; man has become conscious of a spiritual
inwardness, brought forth through the presence of an over-personal
spiritual life coupled with his own spiritual needs. With the possession
of such spiritual elements, how is it possible for him any more to look
upon the world and human life with the same eyes as before? The dawning
of a new reality has made him a new creature; he is now compelled by his
own deeper nature to preserve and to reflect the light which is within
him; and all this brings prominently forward the need of something other
for the progress of the world than the first look of things is able to
show. It is in such manner as this that we must account for all the
ideals which have moved mankind from the level of animalism and greed to
the level of civilisation, culture, morals, and religion. The work is
far from being completed: the world still clings to the old level of
ordinary life, and is so slow to grasp the value of the life of
spiritual ideals. Still, something has been accomplished in the course
of the ages; and although, probably, the progress has not been
continuous, there has been a gain in the "long run." But the point to
bear in mind is that it is the power of the over-individual ideal which
has carried the race along. Ideals have been perverted, it is true; they
have been [p.146] drawn down and mixed with what was inferior in its
nature, yet they have never been completely destroyed in this evil
process. They have still a marvellous power of disentangling themselves
from human perversions, and of revealing themselves once more in their
pristine power and glory. "But the spiritual life declares its ability
also positively within the human province through a persistent effort to
move outside the 'given' situation, through a tracing out and a holding
forth of ideals, through a longing after a more complete happiness and a
more complete truth. Why is not man satisfied with the relativity which
so obstinately clings to his existence? Why has he a longing for the
Absolute in opposition to such relativity, and through this plunges
himself into the deepest sorrows and distractions? This has happened not
only in special situations of individuals, but in the whole process of
culture; indeed, the upward march of culture would have been impossible
without a striving of man from a level above his 'given' position and
even above himself. Was not subjective satisfaction more easily reached
by him in the semi-animal stages of his existence than in culture and
civilisation with all their toils and tangles, and does the progress of
culture and civilisation with all their mechanical appliances make him
in the merely human sense happier? What else could compel him to step
into this perilous track but the necessity of his own nature [p.147]
revealing to him the presence of a new order of things?"[51]
The whole of this movement is from within without. Even the physical
world has to enter into consciousness before it can be known and
interpreted; even the over-individual norms have to be accepted and
interpreted by the spiritual potency before the reality which they
possess in themselves can become our own personal reality. We receive
from without on the plane of Nature and on the planes of mentality and
spirituality. The consciousness does not evolve its content on any level
of its progress from itself alone. Material from without has to enter
into it. But the whole of this material will become one's own possession
in the degree it is attended to after it has entered consciousness;
something has to happen to the material _within_ consciousness; it has
to awaken a potency, and has to distil its own content within that
potency. But as this potency is not of the same nature entirely as what
presents itself as possessing value, it is clear that the higher element
which presents itself has to enter into a struggle for the throne of
life with elements of a lower order. As this all-important fact has been
dealt with in a previous chapter, there is no need to dwell on it again;
but it is well to bear in mind that the fact [p.148] constitutes an
important element in Eucken's conception of "universal" religion.
"Universal" and "Characteristic" religion do not constitute two
different religions, but two grades of the one religion. In "Universal"
religion Eucken deals very largely with the intellectual grounds of
religion. He is aware that it is necessary for us to carry our whole
potencies into religion. Intellect is one of these, and we cannot afford
to construct our religion on what comes into perpetual conflict with
intellectual conceptions. Eucken has shown that intellectual
conclusions, if they are carried far enough and include the whole of
their own meaning, lead us into religion. We have already noticed how
the presence of norms and standards were necessitated by the very theory
of knowledge itself. It is a great gain for man to know that this is
so--that in so far as knowledge testifies anything in regard to religion
and spiritual life it affirms more than it negates. It is of enormous
advantage to be assured that knowledge is on our side in the quest for
something that is deeper than itself.
Further, Eucken conceives it as the function of religion on this
"Universal" level to present, on the other hand, the actual situation.
What but knowledge can reveal to us the difference between spiritual
norms and ordinary life, between intellect working alone and intellect
merged with the spiritual potency of one's [p.149] being? We are bound
to know these and a hundred other things. They all go to prove that
there is justification for the movement of spiritual life in the
direction of an over-world, and in its hope for the possession of a new
grade of reality. It is well and necessary to affirm all this before we
enter on the "grand enterprise." When an affirmation, based upon
insight, is made, there will be present within the soul a greater power
to resist hunting after shadows or slipping to a lower level when we are
in the very midst of the quest. And, indeed, on this very level of
"Universal" religion something besides the mere knowledge of religion
has taken place. Values which are intellectually true are bound to
exercise some influence on the life. Thus, something of the nature of
the higher reality has touched the soul and will of man. We _know_ in
what we have believed. This is a stage which must be passed through, for
we can never feel certain upon a higher altitude unless we are certain
of what had led to it. And although, on the higher altitude, there is
the merging of intellectual truth in something higher than itself, still
what is discovered on this higher level is richer in content if we can
call up at times intellectual affirmations for its support.
But "Universal" religion has its limitations, and has to pass into
something more characteristic, specific, and personal. The over-personal
norms, which are spiritual in their very nature, [p.150] have not only
to be interpreted, they have also to be appreciated and reverenced. The
_How_ of their appearance, after it is settled, takes a secondary place,
and the norms in their own value and subsistence are attended to. Thus,
they become not merely ideas having some kind of reality of their own,
but also become revelations of the very nature of the world; they become
the source of all creation; the one spring of all being. In other words,
they are made to mean the Godhead; they mean the creation and sustaining
power of all life. A communion with the Godhead now takes place, and man
finds himself in possession of experiences brought about without the
intervention of the world. Thus "Universal" religion culminates in a
"Characteristic" or personal religion. And to this culmination, as it is
presented by Eucken, we now turn.
* * * * *