Thus, both the information received by me after the publication of
my book, as to how the Christian teaching in its direct and true
sense has without interruption been understood by the minority of
men, and the criticisms upon it, both the ecclesiastic and the lay
criticisms, which denied the possibility of understanding Christ's
teaching in the direct sense, convinced me that, while, on the one
hand, the true comprehension of this teaching never ceased for the
minority, and became clearer and clearer to them, on the other hand,
for the majority, its meaning became more and more obscure, finally
reaching such a degree of obscuration that men no longer comprehend
the simplest propositions, which are expressed in the Gospel in the
simplest words.
The failure to comprehend Christ's teaching in its true, simple,
and direct sense in our time, when the light of this teaching has
penetrated all the darkest corners of human consciousness; when,
as Christ has said, that which He has spoken in the ear, they now
proclaim upon the housetops; when this teaching permeates all the
sides of human life,--the domestic, the economic, the civil, the
political, and the international,--this failure to comprehend would
be incomprehensible, if there were no causes for it.
One of these causes is this, that both the believers and the
unbelievers are firmly convinced that Christ's teaching has been
comprehended by them long ago, and so completely, indubitably, and
finally, that there can be no other meaning in it than the one they
ascribe to it. This cause is due to the duration of the tradition
of the false comprehension, and so of the failure to understand the
true teaching.
The most powerful stream of water cannot add a drop to a vessel that
is full.
It is possible to explain the most intricate matters to a man of
very hard comprehension, so long as he has not formed any idea about
them; but it is impossible to explain the simplest thing to a very
clever man, if he is firmly convinced that he knows, and, besides,
incontestably knows, what has been transmitted to him.
The Christian teaching presents itself to the men of our world
precisely as such a teaching, which has for a long time and in a
most indubitable manner been known in its minutest details, and
which cannot be comprehended in any other manner than it now is.
Christianity is now understood by those who profess the church
doctrines as a supernatural, miraculous revelation concerning
everything which is given in the symbol of faith, and by those
who do not believe, as an obsolete manifestation of humanity's
need of believing in something supernatural, as a historical
phenomenon, which is completely expressed in Catholicism, Orthodoxy,
Protestantism, and which has no longer any vital meaning for us.
For the believers the meaning of the teaching is concealed by the
church, for unbelievers by science.