CHRISTIANITY
It has been noticed how "Characteristic" or "Specific" religion means
the carrying farther of the implications of "Universal" religion. It is
not only necessary to know the "grounds" of religion, as these reveal
themselves within the conclusions of the intellect: we have to plant
ourselves upon these "grounds"; we must _be_ what they _mean_. Thus,
religion becomes a personal task--something that can never be realised
until the whole nature comes to constant decisions of its own and acts
upon those decisions in the light of what has expressed itself in the
form of those over-personal norms which have further developed into a
conception of, and communion with, the Godhead. We have noticed further,
how this essence of religion was realised in the lives of great
personalities in history, as well as in the religions which they helped
to found.
Eucken does not hesitate to affirm that the highest of these religions
is the Christian [p.181] religion. The core of the Christian religion
consists, as we have already noticed, in its presentation of "a
world-denial and world-renewal" in a far higher degree than any of the
other religions, and also in the fact that it presents the union of the
human and the Divine in a clearer light than before. We have noticed,
too, how the Indian religions had to condemn the world in order to
penetrate to the very essence and bliss of religion. Mohammedanism
affirmed the world in too strong a manner, and its eternal world
constituted a kind of replica of the present material world on an
enlarged scale. The Jewish religion evolved through a series of stages
which finally culminated in Christianity. The Roman and the Greek
religions presented too many pluralistic aspects to be able ever to
reach the highest synthesis whereby the Many found their meaning,
interpretation, and value in the One.
Although the Christian religion cannot be designated as absolute
religion, still it may be designated as the highest and most perfect
manifestation of the Divine. The meaning of the term "absolute religion"
involves a conception impossible to maintain, on account of the fact
that in all religions some spiritual truth is discerned and realised.
The term "absolute religion" is also false on account of the fact that
no religion can contain the whole that is to be revealed and
experienced. Christianity [p.182] is best valued when it is seen, not as
a completion of the revelation of the Divine to man, but as a revelation
which has to be preserved, deepened, and carried farther. In the soul of
the Founder of Christianity there was doubtless present far more than is
expressed in the Biblical records, and far more than actually filtered
into the individual and collective consciousness of the earliest
Christian communities. But we cannot live on what has occurred in the
life of any other individual or community except in so far as this
enters also into our own individual and the collective consciousness. We
have already touched on this aspect of the impossibility of obtaining
sufficient strength for the warfare of the present in anything that
occurred in the past. Some measure of strength--and no psychology is
able to say how much--can be obtained from a vision of the spiritual
meaning and significance of the life of the Founder. But there is very
great danger in looking here alone for the sole source of all the help
we need. The spiritual principles of Christianity have been operating in
the world ever since the Master presented the Gospel which he lived and
died for. The problem of Christianity is thus a twofold problem. On the
one hand, we have constantly to go back to the Fountain-head, because it
is here that the stream is purest. But we have, on the other hand, to
enter into the religious current which surrounds us; and this may be not
so [p.183] pure as it was at its source. Alien waters have entered into
the current--waters of very different taste from those which even the
Founder expected. These have doubtless polluted the stream. But, on the
other hand, good elements--primary and secondary--have entered into the
deepest nature of Christianity itself. These have to be taken into
account. They have been necessitated by the new and ever more complex
situations and conditions into which Christianity has had to enter from
generation to generation. It was comparatively easy for Christianity in
its early beginnings to include within its compass the whole of life.
But by to-day life has branched off in so many new directions;
perplexing problems of knowledge and life have made their appearance. We
dare not dismiss these to a region outside the sphere of influence of
Christianity. Christianity, if it is to remain and increase as a living
force, has to interpret these problems; it has to help us to distinguish
between the chaff and the wheat.
What, then, is the true meaning of Christianity? Eucken shows that it is
not possible to determine the nature of Christianity without realising
that the nucleus common to all religions lies in the fact "that they
manifest and represent a Divine Life, and that such a Life in its inmost
foundation is superior to its external configuration and activity, and
is able to withstand all the changes of time, and to [p.184] maintain
within itself, in spite of all its curtailment through the human
situation, _an eternal truth_." This nucleus lies deeper in Christianity
than in any other religion. But even Christianity itself is not a pure
spiritual nucleus. Much, as we have already noticed, has gathered around
it--much that reveals a lower grade of spirituality. All this
constitutes the clothing of Christianity. The clothing has been changed
again and again in the past. What reason is there for affirming that it
cannot be changed again? It is therefore necessary to differentiate
between the _Substance_ of Christianity and its _Existential-form_. The
Substance constitutes the fundamental Life superior to the world, and
has been present throughout the whole of the Christian era; and it is
this Substance which has raised men beyond the merely human situation;
it is the Substance that has enabled men to overcome the world, and
afterwards to see the world from the standpoint of the Divine. In this
work of differentiation we are dependent in a very large measure upon
the results of knowledge. Such results do not grant us the Substance of
Christianity, because this is something which has to be lived into in
order to be possessed. The transformation which occurs on account of a
change in the Existential-form may indeed prove helpful to the spiritual
nucleus itself, because it represents a truth of the intellect-a truth
which does not conflict with any [p.185] knowledge outside its own
sphere. There are many dangers to be discovered in this process of
interpreting the spiritual nucleus. A mode of interpretation whose
meaning has very largely passed away is bound to prove injurious,
because it comes into sharp conflict with a newer and more comprehensive
meaning, and consequently Christianity fails to win the support of those
who are acquainted with the new Existential-form. And even the
individual who retains the old clothing, and looks upon it as being
something of the same nature as the spiritual nucleus, is in danger of
basing a portion of his religion on a foundation of sand. But, on the
other hand, he who is aware of the flaws of the old Existential-form
without having assimilated the Spiritual Substance which lies beneath
it, is in danger of drifting from religion altogether. The only way of
serving best and carrying farther the development of the Christian
religion is to grasp and experience deeply the fact that the Spiritual
Substance is something entirely different from its form of existence.
Its form of existence is an attempt to account for the Substance; it
consists of intellectual concepts. And as with everything else in this
world so with religion; mere intellectual concepts change, and cannot be
more than receptacles used by the human mind to enshrine the things
which are presented as meanings and values within the soul.
[p.186] Eucken pays great attention to the necessity of this process of
differentiation between the two elements in Christianity. There is a
need to-day of a new form of existence for Christianity; but the
satisfaction of this need will not grant us the spiritual nucleus
itself. The spiritual nucleus is something to be gained not by means of
knowledge, but by means of love. Eucken goes so far as to state that the
idea of love and love of one's enemy as presented in Christianity forms
a new element for the redemption of the individual and of the race. To
grasp this idea and to penetrate into its nature is to solve all the
problems of life and death. This is the Eternal element in the Christian
religion. It is found, it is true, in other religions; but why should we
look for it elsewhere when it blossomed with such divine glory in the
life of the Founder? This is the highest spiritual synthesis
conceivable. The world has known nothing greater, and nothing greater is
to be known. This is the Eternal element in Christianity which has to be
possessed and preserved and furthered. If we ask the question concerning
the success or failure of Christianity in the future, the answer is to
be found by answering the question, Is Love to God and Love to man found
within it to-day? If we are able to answer in the affirmative, we are
thereby answering the question in regard to the future duration and
conquests of Christianity. And if it possesses [p.187] this element
deeply enough, it can adopt any existential-form which appears true
without any kind of alarm. If we have to answer in the negative, there
is no guarantee as to persistence of Christianity in the future.
Anything less than the spiritual nucleus of Love is lacking in strength
necessary to withstand the storms of the future.
We thus see that the essence of Christianity and its durability do not
lie in any kind of theology: it lies within the Spiritual Substance
which has abode within it throughout the centuries. Here will the world
find its peace and power; here will all social complexities be solved;
here will the meanings and blessings of the spiritual over-world of
goodness and love become the possession of man. This is what Eucken
means by contending that it is not the business of Christianity to deal
with social problems in any light but the light of Infinite Love.
Without an experience of this deepest source of Christianity, we do not
possess the equipment for doing anything more than patching and
re-patching the evils of the world. And all our patching, when but a
small span of time has passed away, will leave the situation just as it
was, or probably worse. Every solution will give birth to a new
complexity; the world may be incessantly active in connection with the
betterment of the social situation,'but we shall never heal the wounds
of individuals and of nations until they are [p.188] brought to the
depth of the spiritual life revealed in Christianity as Eternal Love. "A
warm love towards all humanity runs through Christianity; it longs to
redeem every individual; it gives man a value beyond all special
achievements and on the other side of all mental and moral deeds; it has
been the first to bring the pure inwardness of the soul to a clear
expression. But it has also, through the linking of the human to a
Divine and Eternal Order, raised life beyond all that is trivial and
merely human with its civic ordinances and social interests. He who,
with the best intention, views Christianity as a mere means for the
betterment of the social situation, draws it from the heights of its
nature, and deprives it of the main constituent of its greatness--the
emancipation from the petty-human within the depths of the human itself.
It is essentially the nature of Christianity that it transplants man
into a new world over against the world that is nearest to our hands; it
has planted the fundamental conviction of Platonism of the existence of
an Eternal Order over against the world of Time amongst a great portion
of the human race, and has given a mighty impetus to all effort. But it
has, though it separated the Eternal from Time, brought it back again
into Time; and through the presence of the Eternal it has, for the first
time, proposed to mankind and to each individual a fundamental inner
renewal, [p.189] and through this has inaugurated a genuine
history."[63]
Acknowledging such a nucleus as constituting the very substance of
Christianity, Eucken proceeds to show the necessity of preserving and
unfolding the nucleus against the changes of Time. The nucleus has to be
preserved over against Nature. It has been noticed in previous chapters
how modern science has presented us with a view of Nature immensely
vaster than that presented in Christian theology. Such a view has
destroyed for ever a large number of the theological conceptions of the
past. The earth has been reduced to a subsidiary place within the
cosmos; and any attempt to return to the old conceptions is bought at
too high a price. A new mode of thought in regard to the interpretation
of the physical universe has come to stay, and the sooner the Christian
Church comes to an understanding with it the better for the Church
itself. And this new mode may be gladly accepted, because it cannot
touch the nature and destiny of the _soul_ of man. We are not able to
view the perfect circle of things, but we are able to [p.190] trace a
segment of it in the fact of the unmistakably cosmic character of the
spiritual life. The progressive intensifying of the Life-process has
made the fact abundantly clear that Nature is not the final reality it
was supposed to be by the scientific mode of the past, but that it
signifies no more than a "human vista of reality." And, as we have
already observed in connection with the Theory of Knowledge, the nature
of that "vista" is determined by a mental process and a construction
beyond Nature. Nature appears as no more than an environment when once
the power of Eternal Life has appeared within the soul. An insistence on
this power and _its_ capacity has raised man to a level from which he
recognises the "priority of spirit" in spite of all the "palpableness of
sensuous impressions." Man thus appears great as against Nature; but
there is more than enough to make him humble when he views himself in
the light of that truth which constitutes the Spiritual and Eternal
Substance of Christianity.
Not only do we find the two different elements present in the
Christianity of our day; they are also apparent in the presentation of
Christianity found within the Gospels themselves. The miraculous
elements in the Gospels exhibit a number of contradictions; and an even
more serious objection to them is the fact that they come into direct
conflict [p.191] with the scientific interpretation of Nature. As Eucken
says: "To place a miracle in that one situation would mean an overthrow
of the total order of Nature, as this order has been set forth through
the fundamental work of modern investigation and through an incalculable
fulness of experiences. What would justify such a breach with the total
mode of reality ought to appear to us with overwhelming, indisputable
clearness. Has the traditional fact this degree of certainty, and cannot
it be explained in any other way? Who is able to assert this with entire
assurance? If the superiority of the Divine was, on this particular
occasion, to be proclaimed in a tangible manner, why did all this happen
for a small circle of believers alone, and why did it not happen to
others? There seems, however, to have been necessary a certain state of
the souls of the disciples to make them see what they thought they saw;
but in all this there is found a psychic and subjective factor in
operation--a factor whose potency is very difficult to define and to
mark its boundaries. It would have been a fact of a wonderful nature if
the souls of the disciples, from within, became suddenly and without
intermediary convinced of the continuation of the life and the presence
of the Master: all this would have been no sensuous miracle--no break in
the course of Nature. But we have to bear in mind how times of strong
religious agitation and [p.192] convulsion are so little qualified to
judge concerning external phenomena, and how easily a psychic state
solidifies into a supposed percept! Within and without Christianity
there are numerous examples of the sensuous appearance of a dead person
being considered to be fully authenticated by the narrower circle of
friends. Savonarola appeared more than a hundred times after his death,
but always to those whose hearts clung to him; and to fifteen nuns of
the convent of St Lucia he gave the consecrated wafer through the
opening in their _grille_."[64]
Eucken shows that an inability to accept the miraculous element in the
Gospels need not prevent anyone from being the possessor of the
Spiritual Substance. The spiritual content of Christianity is a content
which lies beyond the region of physical phenomena, whether those
phenomena are natural or are supposed to be supernatural. Christianity
is dragged down to a lower level by confusing its mode of existence with
its spiritual kernel. Religion is able to subsist without such aids
simply because it has discovered the true wonder within the spiritual
life itself. We do not know what future investigations may reveal from
the scientific side. It may be that Nature will appear more and more
mechanical in many of its manifestations; but even if this should prove
to be the case, it can produce no injury whatever to the nature [p.193]
and content of spiritual life. It may be, on the other hand, that the
scientific movement now proceeding in the direction of neo-Vitalism will
produce results which will modify and even overthrow the mechanical
conceptions of life, and thus enable the future to construct a
Metaphysic of Nature.[65] The battle between these two schools of
science is proceeding to-day. But even if the final issue should be a
decision in favour of mechanism, the destiny of Christianity or of the
human soul does not depend upon such a decision. If the issue should
turn in favour of the vitalistic conception, great gains are bound to
accrue to religion; for thus a warrant for a belief in a reality higher
in nature than what is termed physical will be established and shown to
be at work in the origin and constant "becoming" of physical phenomena.
The main point for us to-day is to hold fast to the superiority of
spiritual life to all that we know concerning the physical universe.
Unless this is done, we shall lose the deeper inward connections of
life, and shall be in danger of sinking back to the level of
naturalism--a level from which the culture and religion of the Western
world have partially emerged. Further, the spiritual nucleus of
Christianity [p.194] must be preserved over against the changes of
history. Changes in human society threaten Christianity more directly
than even the changes of Nature. These changes, in so far as they are
judged by a spiritual standard to be good, can be accepted by
Christianity, but only on the presupposition that Christianity has
learned how to differentiate between its Eternal Substance and its
temporal form of existence. The mere flow of the events of Time is
insufficient to produce a religion of substance and duration, for here
we are dependent upon the content of the moment. This aspect has been
already dealt with in the chapter on Religion and History.[66] A similar
necessity for differentiating between the Eternal and the temporary
which Eucken enforced in regard to Christianity applies in his view to
all the movements of the world. Whatever form--scientific,
philosophical, social, theological--these movements may take, they have
all to find their meaning in a Standard which is Eternal. Whenever such
a Standard has been recognised, mankind was able to move in an upward
direction; whenever it was absent, the complexities of knowledge and
life increased and had no light to reflect upon themselves, and no power
to [p.195] raise themselves to a higher plane. When the Eternal and
Substantial is present at the governing centre of life, all of reality
that can possibly present itself to man is viewed in an entirely
different light. Great spiritual movements cannot possibly arise from
any shallower source. There must be present in all such movements a
consciousness of something of Eternal value, and a faith in the
possibility of attaining a higher grade of reality in the midst of all
the fragmentary factors which present themselves. Religion is thus
viewed as a movement which takes place not by the side of life, but
within life itself. A power of immediacy grows within the soul; it is
now able to sift and winnow, to select and to reject; it is able to
penetrate into the difference between first and second things, and to
relegate all minor things to their lower sphere.[67]
It is of no avail to ignore this difference; and neither is it of any
avail to ignore the difference between the _old_ and the _new_
existence-forms of Christianity. The old and the new conceptions cannot
possibly flow together. One mode has to take a primary place, and the
other a secondary place. The old intellectual presentation of
Christianity has, in many ways, become inadequate. But [p.196] still it
cannot be thrown overboard in any light-hearted manner, if for no other
reason than that it has grown along with the growth of the Spiritual
Substance itself. Some kind of shock, and even loss, may be temporarily
experienced in parting with it; but this is a process that has to be
passed through; and once it is passed through, the new clothing of
Christianity cannot but help man to see a richer meaning in the Eternal.
It may not fit quite so compactly for a time; it may not merge easily
with the Spiritual Substance. We are far less comfortable in a new suit
of clothes than in an old one; but comfort is not the only criterion in
regard to the things of the body or of the soul. There may be a need for
a change, and our needs are of more significance than our comforts. The
change from old to new can be accomplished when the difference of
Substance and Form is clearly perceived, and when the Substance is
preserved in the midst of the change. This is one of the greatest tasks
set to the Christian Church to-day, and no one is competent to undertake
it if he has not experienced in the very depth of his own soul the
meaning of the Eternal as the essence of the Christian religion. Eucken
has grasped this truth in an unmistakable manner; and he sees nothing
but disaster for religion in any attempt to present a new clothing at
the expense of ejecting the Eternal kernel. But still he insists that in
[p.197] theology the claims of the new forms are overwhelmingly
necessary and just.
When we turn to Eucken's conception in connection with the place of the
personality of the Founder in the Christianity of the present, we are
treading on very difficult ground. This is a question which cannot be
decided by the cold, calculating intellect. Without a doubt, there is
here something unique in the history of the world--something which no
psychology can fathom and no logic can construct into exact
propositions. But here once again, the two elements--the Spiritual
Substance and its Form--are apparent in the life of the Founder, and in
our conceptions concerning his life and death. But we need not fear that
any real loss will accrue if we hold fast to the indisputable fact of
the presence of a divinity within his life--a divinity which has to be
repeated on a smaller scale in our own lives before we are ever able to
have even a glimmer of it. It is out of such a spiritual experience that
the life of the Master can gain its real value and significance for us.
But in the past there has been a tendency to see a good deal of this
significance in theological constructions which have now ceased to
contain any genuine meaning. At the best these constructions could never
mean more than the best intellectual presentations of good men.
Something besides them--deeper than them all--had to appear before any
soul could be [p.198] converted to the things of Eternal Life. Here
Eucken shows that metaphysical concepts such as the Trinity have tended
to become purely anthropomorphic and mythological, probably necessary at
a certain level of religion, but which have now been superseded by truer
conceptions of life and existence. There is no longer any meaning in
asking whether the Founder was a "mere man" or a God. He was an
intermediate reality between the two. To measure the depth and content
of his soul is a presumption of shallow minds; to determine in a
speculative manner the exact nature of his divinity, and to formulate
imposing doctrines out of all this is quite as presumptuous. It is
sufficient for us to know that he overcame the world, that the Godhead
dwelt in a form of immediacy within his soul. All this is an
experimental proof of the working of the Divine upon the plane of Time.
But such Divine breaks in pieces if it is subjected to exact
determinations. Some account of it we must have: the understanding
demands this; but that account must include what the best light of
knowledge has to throw on the subject. But when all is said, something
infinitely greater remains unsaid, and yet to be experienced--something
that requires the soul to exert itself in order to experience what all
this means. When face to face with the meaning and value of the life and
death and spiritual resurrection [p.199] of the Founder of our
Christianity, we are face to face with an eternal reality revealed
within the soul of the "son of man." At such a depth of our nature, the
petty questions concerning how much or how little was present disappear
into the background of life, and we are able through such a vision to
pass to the Father. When emphasis is laid on such a fact as this,
Christianity will again become a religion of the spirit--a religion
which will unite all mankind at a point of unity beneath all close
intellectual determinations and differences. And Eucken points out that
it is not in the life of Jesus alone that we can obtain such a vision.
But we do not gain the vision by merely _saying_ this. If we know of any
other character who _was_ so much and who _did_ so much, probably we
shall obtain there what we need. But in the Western world at least we do
_not_ know any such character; the essence of his life and personality
has been always connected with the conception of God. But this is not
the sole conception and, as Eucken says, we cannot bind ourselves
entirely to this one point in Christianity. The narrow paths which lead
to religion are many; we have to draw help from all quarters where the
Divine has been revealed. But the danger lies in merely knowing so many
such paths while walking on none of them. The personality of Jesus will
remain in Christianity, and the world in its darkness will turn again
and [p.200] again to that palpable proof of the Divine seen on such a
summit, and endeavour to scale the same everlasting hill of God. "Here
we find a human life of the most homely and simple kind, passed in a
remote corner of the world, little heeded by his contemporaries, and,
after a short blossoming life, cruelly put to death. And yet, this life
had an energy of spirit which filled it to the brim; it had a Standard
which has transformed human existence to its very root; it has made
inadequate what hitherto seemed to bring entire happiness; it has set
limits to all petty natural culture; it has stamped as frivolity, not
only all absorption in the mere pleasures of life, but has also reduced
the whole prior circle of man to the mere world of sense. Such a
valuation holds us fast and refuses to be weakened by us when all the
dogmas and usages of the Church are detected as merely human
organisations. That life of Jesus establishes evermore a tribunal over
the world; and the majesty of such an effective bar of judgment
supersedes all the development of external power."[68]
We may bring this chapter to a close by once more pointing out Eucken's
insistence on the Spiritual Substance of Christianity and the need of a
new Existential-form. The Substance was present in the life of the
Founder; mankind has to turn to that fact for one of [p.201] the
experimental proofs of the Divine. But such a fact is not sufficient. It
is something which happened in _someone else_, and not in ourselves. The
fact is to serve as an inspiration that something similar shall and can
happen _in ourselves_. When this is realised, we become conscious of the
power of the Divine within the soul; and the problems of our own day are
seen and interpreted in the same spirit as that in which Jesus faced and
interpreted the problems of his day. Such a spiritual experience will
become a power to use all the good of life, and thus sanctify it in the
very using of it. The over-personal norms and standards have now become
our own possession; they enable us to see the world as it ought to be
seen and to work for the realisation of the vision; and the norms mean
even more than this, for we have already seen that they point to
something _beyond_ themselves and yet continuous with themselves. They
point to Infinite Love as the very essence of the Godhead. The reality
of the over-individual norms and the conception of the Divine as
Infinite Love thus induce in us a conviction of the possibility of an
evolution of the spirit and of a reality beyond sense and time. The
Eternal thus enters into Time and overcomes Time. This is Eucken's final
conclusion in regard to the Christian religion and the destiny of man.
But all this has to be experienced before it [p.202] can be realised.
"The task to-day is to work energetically, to labour with a free mind
and a joyful courage, so that the Eternal may not lose its efficient
power by our rigid clinging to temporal and antiquated forms, so that
what we have recognised as human may not bar the way to the Divine as
that Divine is revealed in our own day. The conditions of the present
time afford the strongest motives for such work. For once again, in
spite of all the contradictions which appear on the surface of things,
the religious problem rises up mightily from the depth of life; from day
to day it moves minds more and more; it induces endeavour and kindles
the spirit of man. It becomes ever plainer to all who are willing to see
that mere secular culture is empty and vain, and is powerless to grant
life any real content or fill it with genuine love. Man and humanity are
pressed ever more forcibly forward into a struggle for the meaning of
life and the deliverance of the spiritual self. But the great tasks must
be handled with a greatness of spirit, and such a spirit demands
freedom--freedom in the service of truth and truthfulness. Let us
therefore work together, let us work unceasingly with all our strength
as long as the day lasts, in the conviction that 'he who wishes to cling
to the Old that ages not must leave behind him the old that ages'
(_Runeberg_), and that an Eternal of the real kind cannot [p.203] be
lost in the flux of Time, because it overcomes Time by entering into
it."[69]
Eucken is aware of the various Life-systems which present themselves on
every side as all-inclusive. But he sees no hope for a real spiritual
education of mankind until every Life-system shall seek for a depth
beyond the _natural_ man and all his wants. And such a movement is
visible amongst us to-day. It needs to be possessed and proclaimed. The
redemption of the world depends upon its success. The Christian religion
is such a Gospel. "But a movement towards a more essential and
soul-stirring culture--to a progressive superiority of a complete life
beyond all individual activities--cannot arise without bringing the
problem of religion once more to the foreground. Our life is not able to
find its bearings within this deep or to gather its treasures into a
Whole unless it realises how many acute opposites it carries within
itself. Life will either be torn in pieces by these opposites, or it
must somehow be raised above them all. It is the latter alone that can
bring about a thorough transformation of our first and shallow view of
the universe as well as the inauguration of a new reality. Man has
emerged out of the darkness of nature and remains afflicted with the
afflictions of nature; yet at the same time, with his appearance upon
the earth the darkness begins to illumine, and [p.204] 'nature kindles
within him a light' (Schopenhauer); he who is a mere speck on the face
of a boundless expanse can yet aspire to a participation in the whole of
Infinity; he who stands in the midst of the flux of time yet possesses
an aspiration after infinite truth; he who forms but a mere piece of
nature constructs at the same time a new world within the spiritual life
over against it all; he who finds himself confined by contradictions of
all kinds, which immediate existence in no way can solve, yet struggles
after a further depth of reality and after the 'narrow gate' which opens
into religion. Through and beyond all the particular problems of life
and the world, it behoves us to raise the spiritual life to a level of
full independence, to make it simultaneously superior to man as an
individual and to bring it back into his soul. When this comes to be
there is at the same time a transformation of his inmost being, and for
the first time he becomes capable of genuine greatness.... These final
conclusions strengthen the aspiration after a religion of the spiritual
life.... Such a religion is in no way new, and Christianity has
proclaimed it and clung to it from the very beginning. But it has been
interwoven with traditional forms which are now seen through by so many
as pictorial ideas of epochs and times. Earlier times could allow the
Essence and the Form to coalesce without discovering any incongruity in
this. But the [p.205] time for doing this has irrevocably passed away.
The human which once seemed to bring the Spiritual and Divine so near to
man has now become a burden and a hindrance to him. A keener analysis, a
more independent development of the Spiritual and Divine, and, along
with this, the truth of religion, do not succeed in reaching their full
effects if religion is looked upon as merely something to protect
individuals, instead of as that which furthers the whole of humanity
--as that which is not merely a succour in times of trouble and sorrow
but also as that which guarantees an enhancement in work and
creativeness. The situation is difficult and full of dangers, and small
in the meantime is the number of those who grasp it in a deep and free
sense, and who yet are determined to penetrate victoriously into it, so
that the inner necessities of the spiritual life may awaken within the
soul of man. Whatever new tasks and difficulties lie in the lap of the
future, to-day it behoves us before all else to proceed a step upward in
the direction of the summits and to draw new energies and depths of the
spiritual life into the domain of man; for this kind of work will
prevent the coming of an 'old age' upon humanity and will breathe into
its soul the gift of Eternal Youth."[70]
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