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, a.s.similation, 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 const.i.tutes 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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.p.a.ce; but spirit, though connected with, and largely conditioned by, matter as it exists in s.p.a.ce, 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 s.p.a.ce; it exists for consciousness and can persist within consciousness.
When reality is conceived as a substance subsisting in itself, the pa.s.sage 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, a.s.similates, 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 const.i.tutes 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 const.i.tute 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] const.i.tutes an important element in Eucken"s conception of "universal" religion.
"Universal" and "Characteristic" religion do not const.i.tute 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 a.s.sured 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 pa.s.sed through, for we can never feel certain upon a higher alt.i.tude unless we are certain of what had led to it. And although, on the higher alt.i.tude, 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.dhead; they mean the creation and sustaining power of all life. A communion with the G.o.dhead 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.
CHAPTER IX [p.151]
CHARACTERISTIC RELIGION
On the level of "Universal" religion great changes have taken place in life. The consciousness and conviction of the reality of a new kind of world have arisen; the sensuous, and even partially the intellectual, domains have been relegated to a secondary place: other values, higher in their nature and more universal in their scope, have attracted the attention of mind and soul. In all this a change has taken place in the disposition as well as in the will. Prior to this change the character had not become conscious of its own inwardness, but remained subservient to the norms of social and moral inheritance. Some amount of morality and good will have issued forth in this manner, and, indeed, the gain cannot be overestimated. But it is evident that something further has to happen if the movement of society is to proceed onward and upward, and if the energy for such a movement is to be discovered within the soul.
The whole material which enters into consciousness has to obtain a deeper meaning [p.152] than it hitherto possessed. And this happens on the level of "Universal" religion. The _spiritual_ is now recognised as the highest manifestation of life; and this spiritual is seen to be something which has to be gained through a struggle which calls the whole nature into activity. Such a movement from the less to the more spiritual proceeds side by side with the _freedom_ of the individual.
Freedom has now taken a new meaning. Hitherto it meant little more than the consciousness of the individual moving along the line of least resistance. The effort to move in such a direction is generally pleasurable; and when it tends to become painful the individual gives up the effort. The highest norms were not present with a categorical affirmation of their reality and value. But when they are present, the will is turned from the direction of ordinary life and its ease to the conception of the meaning and value of the highest norms. Something, appearing as of intrinsic value, now makes itself felt, and stirs the whole nature. Thus, a _new movement_ begins; the _pa.s.sive_ att.i.tude of the soul gives way to an _autonomous_ att.i.tude and movement. The will, consequently, is conscious of a deeper need than any hitherto experienced, and therefore calls into being some deeper elements of its own in order to reach its goal. The whole nature has now affirmed the _idea of the good_, which had dawned upon it as an imperative. It is in [p.153] such a moment that the real nature becomes free--it becomes conscious, through and through, of the possibility of leaving its old world and of ascending into a new one. This is, in Eucken"s words, the real spiritual evolution (_Wesensbildung_) of human nature. This evolution, which, prior to this, was considered very largely as a kind of gift of the environment, is now perceived as capable of realisation only in so far as the spiritual norms are willed. When we examine the progress of humanity, we discover that it has taken place in this manner; a task had to be set and the whole nature had to be called forth to realise it. The result is that a new creation takes place in the history of the world. Such a creation becomes a new norm in the moral world, as well as a possession in the life of the individual who has struggled to realise it.
Such a spiritual process, after something of its nature has been realised, finds necessities laid upon it on all hands. Once we have stepped into the very centre of spiritual norms and ideals they begin to reveal with a wonderful rapidity and impressiveness their own intrinsic content and value. "Universal" religion has enabled us to realise that we are dealing with "grounds" which are a demand of the deepest nature, and with convictions which seem, without a doubt, "to ring true." The man has found a shelter in the midst of all the chaos and welter of the natural process, [p.154] and his deepest reason has not failed to come to the a.s.sistance of his spiritual need. He now becomes conscious of security and even of victory in the enterprise before the battle has really begun on an arena outside his own nature; a conviction is being brought into being within his deepest soul that the best and strongest elements in the universe are on his side. Although hindrances and entanglements of all kinds increase in number, the increase in spiritual certainty, and faith in the final issue of his life, have grown at a greater ratio. Such a man has settled his destiny; he has come to the great spiritual affirmation of life--an affirmation which has to be repeated so often, and which each time distils something of a higher order within the soul.
It is evident that such an affirmation of the reality of spiritual ideals, which have now an existence of their own, should lead us farther. If they mean so much, why cannot they mean more? If they subsist in themselves, they must be what they _are_. They are to us meaning and value of infinite significance. But such and other spiritual characteristics are _not things_, and, as we have seen, not mere projections of our own individual selves. There is nothing short of personality and over-personality by which they can be even partially designated and determined. We are forced to this conclusion if they are to be objects of communion and union: and we are forced [p.155] further to gather the Many into the One. That was what was done on all lower planes. Why stop short here, because infinitely much happens when the Many find their points of union and meaning in the One?[52] We have said that infinitely much happens when the Many find their meaning in the One. A need of the nature has arisen which demands this, and it has arisen at its _highest possible level alone_. Such a nature will never become absolutely certain of the meaning and value of all that has led up to this until the One obtains a self-subsistence. If this effort fails, the whole effort of development towards unity and inwardness fails. And when such a chain of effort snaps at its highest link of spiritual development, everything that had entered into the process at all the levels below it snaps along with it in so far as it had any validity whatever in the light of what is higher than itself.
But the fact that this conception of the One, conceived as Absolute Spiritual Life, has produced so many effects of the highest kind is a proof of its existence. Qualities come into being which can never come with such power in any other way. The spiritual experiences, revealed at such a level, have something to say on this matter. These experiences, [p.156] although aware of the meaning of universal concepts, have become aware of something higher still: Knowledge has given place to Love; a region has been reached beyond all the contradictions of the world and beyond all the dialectics of knowledge. It is a region which includes the good of all without injuring the good of any; and all the meaning of the world and of life is interpreted from this highest standpoint. This is the essence of "characteristic "or specific religion. On the level of "universal" religion, G.o.d was seen from the standpoint of the world; in "characteristic" religion the world is seen from the standpoint of G.o.d.
The appearance of the world is consequently different from each standpoint. All must now be viewed and valued from the standpoint of "characteristic" religion, from the standpoint of the One--the G.o.dhead; and if humanity is ever to be brought to this standpoint, the nature and the meaning of the One have to be presented to it. And it is this, as Eucken shows, which has been partially accomplished by the religions of the world. Their founders were personalities who had scaled the heights towards the "holy of holies" of the One; they descended into the plains to reveal what they had seen and heard and experienced on the heights.
They had been able to commune with the Alone, and their natures had been completely transformed. In pa.s.sing thus from the stage of "universal"
[p.157] religion to the higher stage of "characteristic," men have discovered a further security and spiritual evolution of their whole being. Their views of man and the world have become changed; they now long to make mankind the possessor of the "vision splendid" which has meant all for them. Communion with the One as Infinite Love has revealed to them a peace and a power which are far beyond all the lower unities.
It is of value, in the midst of all the complexities of life, of the partial interpretations of the various branches of knowledge, to have pa.s.sed through the several stages below the One. Some must guard the highest citadel of religion and keep open the avenues to Infinity, Eternity, and Immortality. And the greater the number who are able to do this, the better for the world and for the individual. But a taste of this Infinite Love can be obtained without all this. Just as some of us are able to walk without a knowledge of the bodily mechanism and to eat and digest without a knowledge of the history of our bread, so the deeper spiritual potencies inherent in man are able to find a vast amount of satisfaction by resting upon and trusting in a Love Absolute, Eternal, and Infinite. Here, man is in a region of infinite calm beyond the distractions of the world and of knowledge. He cannot remain here for any great length of time; he has to return to the world, but he is never [p.158] again the same being after having scaled the "mount of transfiguration." "Religion holds as certain and conclusive that this new inner foundation is the greatest thing of all and the wonder of wonders, because it carries within itself the power and certainty of the overcoming of the old world and the creation of a new one; it is on account of this that religion longs for the conviction of the whole man, and brands the denial of this as pettiness and unbelief. The world may therefore remain to the external view as it appeared before--a kingdom of opposition and darkness; its hindrances within and without may seem to nullify everything else; they may contract and even seemingly destroy man and his spiritual potencies; all his acts may seem fruitless and vain, and his whole existence may seem to sink into nothingness and worthlessness. Yet, through the entrance of the new life and a new world, everything is transformed from within, and the clearness of the light appears all the more by contrast with all the depth of the darkness. Indeed, in the midst of all the mysteries of existence, hope and conviction and certainty will consolidate our experience, so that ultimately evil itself must serve the development of the good."[53] Or in the words of Luther: "This is the spiritual power which reigns and rules in the midst of enemies, and is powerful in the midst [p.159] of all oppression. And this is nothing other than that strength is perfected in weakness, and that in all things I can gain life eternal, so that cross and crown are compelled to serve and to contribute towards my salvation."[54]
Eucken shows how this idea of G.o.d comes from the Life-process itself.
The G.o.dhead is present, not as an external revelation but as the ever fuller meaning and experience which have been carried along in the soul in its pa.s.sage from the natural level to the highest spiritual plane. At its summit the development unfolds its true spiritual content of Love.
The Highest Power--however much there still remains dark concerning it--has had communication with man, is present within his soul, has become his own life and nature, as well as his self-subsistence over against the order of the world. Here Love is raised up into an image of the G.o.dhead--Love as a self-communication and as an essential elevation of the nature, and as an expression of inmost fellowship.[55] "There originates a mutual intercourse of the soul and G.o.d as between an I and a Thou." It has already been stated that Eucken insists that no close determination, in an intellectual form, should be given to this conception and experience of G.o.d. The idea of a personality of G.o.d is not an intellectual idea presented in any doctrinal form; it is an idea [p.160] born _within_ the _Life-process_ on its highest levels. On such levels it becomes obvious and indispensable. Man may be clearly conscious of the symbolism of the idea, and yet, at the same time, grasp in it an incontestable intrinsic truth which he knows to be far above all mere anthropomorphism. Eucken shows that it is not merely a human greatness that has been transferred to the Divine, but that the whole meaning here is a return to the source of a Divine Life and its mutual communication with man; and therefore the whole process is not an argument of man concerning the Divine, because the Divine has to be apprehended through the Divine within us. "All opposition to the idea of the Divine personality is ultimately explained by the fact that an energetic Life-process is wanting--a Life-process which entertains the question not so much from without as from within. Whenever such a Life-process is found, there is simultaneously found, often in overt contradiction to the formal doctrinal statement, an element of such a personal character of G.o.d."[56] But this _immanent_ aspect of the idea of G.o.d is accompanied by a _transcendent_ aspect. We have noticed already that the very nature of the _Ought_ included a transcendent and objective aspect.[57] The same fact becomes evident in [p.161] religious experience. The two poles--immanence and transcendence--are complementary. The former shows that something of the Divine nature has been implanted within human nature; the latter shows that more is in existence than we have already possessed. Spiritual norms never decrease but increase in splendour the nearer man is to their attainment.
Something is here discovered which is not found in the world; it is a kind of transcendent summit, a mysterious sublimity. And an approach towards this summit produces experiences never to be possessed in any other kind of way. As Eucken himself puts it: "If this sublimity superior to the world secures an abode in the soul, and, indeed, becomes the inmost and most intimate part of our being, and enables us to partic.i.p.ate in the self-subsistence of infinity, it opens up within us a fathomless depth, in which the existence that lies nearest to our hands is swallowed up, and it makes us a problem to ourselves--a problem which transforms the whole of life--whilst it enables us to understand and to handle what at the outset appeared to be its whole life as a mere phase and appearance. Thus it is the same religion which opens out from G.o.d to man and which simultaneously opens itself out in man himself and becomes a great mystery to him. Therefore, in the idea of G.o.d the intimate and the ultimate must both be present if religion is to reach its full development and to [p.162] avoid the dangers which everywhere threaten it."[58] Both these aspects interlace in one Life-process; the unity is present in the manifold, and the ultimate present in the intimate.
According to Eucken, it is out of such an experience as we have noticed that the idea of immortality becomes a firm belief and faith within the soul. The idea cannot be proved scientifically, simply because its spiritual content is greater than anything which is _below_ it. The whole proof lies within the experience itself at this, its highest summit. "The Infinite Power and Love that has grounded a new spontaneous nature in man, over against a dark and hostile world, will conserve such a new nature and its spiritual nucleus, and shelter it against all perils and a.s.saults, so that life as the bearer of life eternal can never be wholly lost in the stream of time." We are here in a region farthest removed from sense and understanding; but the remarkable thing is that the conviction of immortality does not dawn on any lower level; it is not on the lower levels a portion of spiritual experience. It seems as if an element of immortality is only to be gained at a certain height of the spiritual life. On all levels below, men seek for proofs in the a.n.a.logies of Nature, in the supposed return of the spirits of the dead, and in the craving found in their own lives. All these proofs have one thing in common: they [p.163] are all of a lower order of value than the meaning which the content of experience gives to immortality on its highest level. For at this highest level the proof is not something happening outside the man; it is the deepest part of his own being which now actually possesses a taste of life eternal. It seems, then, that there is no answer to the problem outside ourselves, because it is not something to be known, but something to be experienced after long toil and a stirring of the nature to its lowest depths in the drift of all that is highest and best.[59] It is sufficient for us to possess a life which is spiritual and timeless in its nature: and when such a life is possessed, empirical proofs are neither demanded nor desired. It is within one"s own new and spiritual world that proofs are now discovered, and they are timeless and s.p.a.celess in their own intrinsic nature. "Do this, and thou shalt live." If the man has to negate all concerning the preservation of his natural individuality, the new world he has gained for his soul will have abundant affirmation within itself, without the support of any earthly props. It is his own highest life which testifies to him that "death does not count" at all.
Eucken"s whole plea is that spiritual life at the point of its highest manifestation should not be interpreted by anything below itself.
[p.164] We have already noticed how, on lower levels, spiritual life was even there interpreted by its _norms_, and not by its connections with what was _below itself_. The disappearance of miracle in religion is an indispensable stage which must be pa.s.sed over. It is necessary only on a mid-level of religion, and has really been far more of the nature of a symbol than of a fact. It is at our peril that in religion we give up such a symbol until a more "inward wonder" has happened within our own soul. When the self-subsistence of the spiritual life and the reality of the norms of the over-world, now all united in G.o.d, are experienced, all miraculous manifestations of the Divine, imaginary or real, are relegated to a secondary place. They all belong to a point which the man has pa.s.sed; they are milestones to which he can never return. "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet." As Eucken points out, "This is no other than the sign of spiritual power and of a Divine message and greatness." The movement from signs and miracles is a movement from the outward to the inward, from percept to spirituality; and the essence of religion, as a reality in itself and as an experience of the soul, is to be found by taking such a step. The centre of gravity of life has now been shifted from the outward to the inward. To accomplish this means nothing less than a [p.165] struggle for _the governing centre of life_. Unless we succeed in this struggle, the inner life will reach no independence and subsistence of its own. Even when the struggle succeeds in gaining its longed-for depth, it has not removed for once and for all the contradictions from without and within.
Difficulties, from the lower side, will accompany the spiritual life in its higher evolution, but once it has become conscious of its own Divine nature and certainty it will gain sufficiently in content and power to relegate them all to the periphery. Something has happened within the soul which can never be obliterated. As Eucken says: "The contradiction is now removed from the centre to the periphery of life; it can therefore only touch us from without, and is not able to overthrow what is within; it will not so much weaken as strengthen the certainty, because it calls life to a perpetual renewal and brings to fruition the greatness of the conquest."[60]
CHAPTER X [p.166]
THE HISTORICAL RELIGIONS
We have noticed in the two preceding chapters how Eucken distinguished the two stages of religion--the "Universal" and the "Characteristic"
--and how he showed the necessity of both stages. As man cannot escape from the conclusions of his intellect, it becomes necessary for him to come to an understanding with those conclusions; and although such conclusions do not form a complete account of life in its deepest aspects, still they are indispensable for him in order to know that he is on the path towards a further development of his spiritual nature.
Hence the grounds of religion have to be emphasised by the conclusions of the intellect. But though intellectual conclusions, as we have already seen, warrant us in holding fast to the presence and reality of a life of the spirit and to the possibility of an evolution of such a life, all this does not mean that such an evolution is actually reached through the affirmations of [p.167] the intellect. The road of spiritual development is marked out, but we have to travel over that road ourselves. Something more than an intellectual acknowledgment of the existence of such a road is necessary before the actual movement takes place. When the actual movement does take place, when the intellectual conclusions come in contact with a will arising from our deepest needs, the matter becomes personal--it becomes something that has to be affirmed by the blending of intellect with the deeper spiritual potencies. The vision at this higher stage const.i.tutes not only the certainty of a path for man--a path which leads to higher regions--but brings forth hidden energies in order to start him on the enterprise.
The whole vision is now seen to be possible of realisation only through personal decisions of the whole nature in the direction of the over-personal values which present themselves. These over-personal values increase as the soul pa.s.ses along the upward path and as it grants a self-subsistence and unconditional significance to these values. There follows here an increase of spiritual reflection; the content of the vision is loosened from sense and time; its self-subsistence becomes more and more real and more and more and more different from all that was experienced on any level below; knowledge steps into the background, and love and appreciation now guide the whole movement of [p.168] the soul. As we have already seen, when this happens, the idea of G.o.d as Infinite Love presents itself, and the soul"s main task is to climb to the summits "where on the glimmering limits far withdrawn G.o.d made Himself an awful rose of dawn." Religion is at such a level more than an intellectual insistence upon its grounds; the soul looks now rather to its summits. Hence the two stages of Universal and Characteristic religion become necessary. And it is not always true that the Universal mode ceases once the Characteristic mode is partially realised. The soul has to descend from the heights into the ordinary world below. And as it now sees the world with new eyes, it sees much more to be condemned than was previously possible for it to see. There comes the constant need of certifying the validity of its experience on the heights, and of getting others who have never attempted the experiment to do so. The man possessed of something of the vision within his own soul proclaims his "gospel," and conceives of all kinds of ways and means by which humanity can be drawn towards the same goal.
This is the meaning which Eucken attaches to the origin and development of the union of universal and specific religions as these have been revealed in human history. The intellectual grounds of religion as well as something of the actual spiritual experiences are presented by the founders. Every kind of [p.169] religion has originated in this manner.
They are all attempts at showing that a _here and now_ and a _beyond_ have united and become potencies of life, and can become actualities.
The _here and now_ always points to a _beyond_, and the _beyond_, when it is realised, returns to the _here and now_ and always transforms it.
Thus, we are in the midst of two worlds which are continuous with one another just as the valley is continuous with the base of the mountain.