Such historical religions do not, then, originate in the collective experiences of humanity, but in what has actually happened in the life of unique personalities. These personalities have become, as it were, mediators between G.o.d and man. Such religions adopt the most diverse forms, because the personalities have given of the content of their own personal experiences, and no two experiences view anything from standpoints precisely identical. The historical religions may consequently be narrow in their outlook. The personalities are dependent upon their race, place, training, and inheritance for the particular intellectual presentation of their religion. Thus, each historical religion has its own view of the universe and its own morality. But the value of no historical religion is to be judged from this standpoint alone. Such views of the universe and such morality must have appeared to them somehow as a good--as [p.170] ways and means to what lay _beyond_. We may have outgrown such ways and means; other ways and means higher in their nature may have become our inheritance. But these higher ways and means could not have evolved out of their lower stages had not some element of the _beyond_ instilled itself into them. The historical religions could never have flourished on immorality and superst.i.tion, however much of these we may discover in them. It is the _beyond, over-personal_ element which has kept them alive, and this element has always had a hard struggle to overcome and transform _the here-and-now_ elements. Whenever the historical religions are traced back to their sources, there is discovered an element _above_ the world in the souls of their founders and of their immediate followers. As Eucken puts it: "To these founders the new kingdom was no vague outline and no feeble hope, but all stood clear in front of them; the kingdom was so real to their souls and filled them so exclusively that the whole sensuous world was reduced by them to a semblance and a shadow if they could not otherwise gain a new value from a superior power. The new world could attain to such immediacy and impressiveness only because a regal imagination wrestled for a unique picture in the tangled heap of life, and because it invested this picture with the clearest outlines and the most vivid colours. Thus the new world dawns on humanity with [p.171]
fascinating power, rousing it out of the sluggishness of daily routine, binding it through a corporate aim, raising inspiring ardour through radiant promises and terrible threats, and creating achievements otherwise impossible. This prepared road into the kingdom of the invisible, this creation of a new reality which is no merely serene kind of play but a deep seriousness, this inversion of worlds which pushes sensuous existence down into a distance and which prepares a home for man within the kingdom of faith--all this is the greatest achievement that has ever been undertaken and that has ever worked upon human soil.
... Their works seemed to carry within them Divine energies; wonders surrounded their paths; their life and being bridged securely the gulf between heaven and earth."[61] Now, Eucken shows that it is of great importance to acknowledge these personalities in order that life may be brought into a safe track. Enough has already been said of the impossibility of finding a sufficiency for life and death within the span of ordinary existence. And as this is so, a whole span of past and present has to be taken into account. The world cannot move a step towards the heights of the future without this. The real future is the blend of what _was_ and _is_ forming the standard and the receptacle for what is _to be._ We have already noticed how such a standard [p.172]
evolves; and how, when it is followed to its utmost limits, it merges into the conception of G.o.d. But as all this is a conception spiritual in its nature--devoid of flesh and blood as its clothing--it becomes extremely difficult for the majority of mankind to hold fast to its reality in a world where flesh and blood mean so much. Something more tangible is craved for by man as a proof of an over-world and of an over-personal life. Such proof men are able to obtain in the great religious personalities of the world without having to go through the intellectual processes of discovering the grounds of religion. Men are able to view this spiritual truth as they view a picture. It becomes easy to understand how such personalities have been raised beyond all human valuations to a likeness to G.o.d and even to an equality with G.o.d.
Such personalities were the highest conceptions which men could possess of the G.o.dhead. This seems to have been a necessary stage in the evolution of the religious life as well as of religious conceptions. And even to-day attention is not to be diverted from such personalities. The question whether they were or were not G.o.ds has become meaningless. What psychology is able to fathom the soul of any individual? Every attempt at doctrinal formulation states less than was present within the souls of such personalities. But, on the other hand, it does seem necessary, [p.173] according to Eucken"s teaching, to avoid confusing such personalities with the All. They were great; they possessed elements above the world; but none of them possessed the whole that is in existence.
The truth concerning these founders of religion seems to lie in the fact that they realised a depth of life beyond the world, the intellect, and the span of ordinary life. It is this fact that needs to be brought prominently forward in our day. And such a fact becomes an experimental proof of the presence and efficacy of the Divine within the soul and points to an upward direction the total-movement of the world. If such a fact does not succeed in holding for itself a primary place, other subsidiary facts will colour and weaken its true spiritual content and value. This is the road on which speculative and superst.i.tious ideas have found an entrance into the historical religions. When such is the case, the spiritual reality is gradually weakened, is lowered to the level of intellectualistic dogma, until it ultimately becomes, though in the guise of religion, the worst enemy which spiritual religion has to encounter. All hard and fixed dogmatic settings of religion usurp the supremacy of the spiritual life itself.
Eucken shows this in connection with religious inst.i.tutions--inst.i.tutions which were meant by their founders to be essential but [p.174] still subservient to the needs and aspirations of spiritual life. Thus, genuine religion is measured by a doctrinal standard or by a sacrament. These may possess an incalculable value in religion, when used as means and not as ends; but they may, and often do, issue in its degradation to a stage which is hardly a spiritual one.
Every historical religion possesses some absolute truth, but does not possess the whole truth; and also each historical religion possesses some elements which have to pa.s.s away. But this matter will be dealt with in a later chapter.
The main service of the historical religions is to bring home to us the fact that in the course of human history a spiritual life above the world has again and again dawned on mankind through the experiences and works of great personalities. To realise intensely such a fact is to realise the fact that all this can happen again in a more concentrated form than is actually presented in the slow and toilsome effects of the results of the collective life of the community.
It may be well to refer here to Eucken"s cla.s.sification of the religions of the world. This cla.s.sifications consists of _the Religions of Law and the Religions of Redemption_. The Religions of Law maintain that the kernel of religion lies in "the announcement and advocacy of a moral order which governs the world from on high." G.o.d has revealed His will to man; [p.175] if man obeys, rich rewards await him in a future life; if he disobeys, painful punishment is sure to follow. Man himself has to select one of the two alternatives, and he believes himself able to choose. The Religions of Redemption consider such a view false and superficial. Now, there is no doubt that the Religions of Law are stages which are of value when men are incapable of grasping the difficulties and complexities of religion. The whole of religion on this level of Law is a replica of the relations which obtain on a smaller scale between a sovereign and his subjects, or between a master and his slave. Authority is something purely external. The two Religions of Redemption--the Indian and the Christian--seek the meaning of religion in a very different manner. They both agree that human capability, which seems so evident to the Religions of Law, is the most difficult and important of all questions. They agree further that the essence of religion does not consist in guiding life for the sake of something that life is to partic.i.p.ate in or to avoid in the future; they agree that a change must happen within the soul in this world, and that this change only comes about through the aid of a supernatural power. But these two religions differ fundamentally in their different ways of looking at the world. To the Indian religions, the existence of the world is an evil; the world is itself a kingdom of illusions. "All in it is transient [p.176] and unreal; nothing in it has duration; happiness and love are merely momentary, and men are as two pieces of wood floating on the face of an infinite ocean which pa.s.s by one another, never to meet again. Fruitless agitation and painful deception have fallen upon him who mistakes such a transient semblance for a reality and who hangs his heart upon it.
Therefore it behoves man to free himself from such an unholy arena. This emanc.i.p.ation will take place when the semblance is seen through as semblance, and when the soul has gained an insight right into the foundation of things. Then the world loses its power over man; the whole kingdom of deception with its evanescent values goes to the bottom, all the excited affections caused by the world are extinguished, and life becomes a still and holy calm; it reaches the depth of a dreamless sleep, enters, through its immersion into an eternal essence, beyond the shadows; it pa.s.ses, according to Buddhism in its most definite interpretation, into a state of entire unconsciousness."[62]
How different a spirit from all this breathes in Christianity! In Christianity the world is good as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Something of the revelation of the Divine may be discovered within it, but this is only a segment of a greater whole which comes to realisation within the soul. Here, the world is not cast away, despite all its limitations, but [p.177] is perceived as the only sphere where spiritual experience may exercise itself and draw out its own hidden potencies. Tribulation is to be found in the world; but a standpoint _above_ the world, gained by cutting a path right through the world, is possible. When such a standpoint is reached, the world is seen as it ought to be seen and used as it ought to be used. But this aspect of the meaning of the world in the Christian religion will be dealt with later.
It is sufficient to state here that Eucken considers Christianity superior to all other religions by virtue of the fact that it overcomes the world, not by fleeing from it, but by transforming it. It views the physical world as a stage upon which the life of the spirit has to realise all its possibilities; the world and all that is within it take a secondary place: the primary place is now accorded to the world of ideals and values as these merge into love and the conception of the G.o.dhead.
The question of the finality of the Christian religion in its purely historical sense has been discussed by Eucken in his _Truth of Religion, Christianity and the New Idealism_, and _Konnen wir noch Christen sein_?
In these three works he arrives at the conclusion that no one religion has a claim to the name "absolute religion," because even Christianity itself cannot be more than a partial, though the highest, manifestation of the Divine. And what Christianity has been and is in [p.178] itself as a force in the history of the Western world cannot be the same as what it was in the personal experience of its Founder. It is not something which descended once and for all into the world, and so remains its permanent inheritance. It is the most priceless inheritance we possess; but such an inheritance has to be discovered again and again. All this cannot come about without calling up to-day the same spiritual energies as were needful for the tasks that were present when Christianity started to conquer the world. Its aspects of "world-denial and world-renewal" render Christianity the very religion we need. "It is the religion of religions," but a statement of this fact does not mean the realisation of the fact. The same energy and aspiration are needful to-day as in the days of yore. Christianity, whenever it has lived on its highest levels, has struggled for two tremendous facts at least: the insufficiency of the world and the regeneration of the world in the light of the Divine. It is not a repet.i.tion of what the Founder said concerning religion. What the Founder said cost him enormous labour to discover and to possess. We shall gain so much and no more of the same spiritual substance as we put the same kind of energy in motion. In order that we may unravel the complexities of our day, a spirit similar to his spirit must become ours. When such a spirit ceases to exist, Christianity will become merely a [p.179] name; its power will have disappeared, and men can delude themselves into believing that they possess it when in fact they are the possessors of but little of its spirit and of much of its form. But the possession of the same spirit as that of Jesus const.i.tutes the further development of Christianity, and this further development is nothing other than what we have already seen--the experience and efficacy of an eternal order of things in the midst of all the changes of time. Thus we are thrown back once more, not upon our bare individual selves, but upon the presence of the Divine within the spiritual life itself. Christianity is therefore not something that has been completed in the past, but the highest mode of conceiving and of experiencing Life in the present; it becomes an inward, personal and spiritual experience; and its duration and expansion depend upon the increase and depth of such a spiritual inwardness.
CHAPTER XI [p.180]
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 G.o.dhead. 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 const.i.tuted 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 compa.s.s 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 const.i.tutes 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 const.i.tutes 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.similated 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 const.i.tuent of its greatness--the emanc.i.p.ation 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 const.i.tuting 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 const.i.tutes 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 a.s.sert this with entire a.s.surance? 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 pa.s.sed through; and once it is pa.s.sed 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.dhead 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d. "Here we find a human life of the most homely and simple kind, pa.s.sed 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 G.o.dhead. 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.n.a.lysis, 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]
CHAPTER XII [p.206]
PRESENT-DAY ASPECTS OF PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
In this chapter some of the most important problems of the present day will be touched upon in the light of Eucken"s Philosophy of Religion.
Reference has already been made to Eucken"s account of the limitations of various Life-systems, of their struggle with one another, and of the necessity for a religious synthesis which will include their most important results within itself.[71] The answer as to the possibility and necessity of such a synthesis const.i.tutes the kernel of Eucken"s Philosophy of Religion. He has succeeded in a remarkable manner in a.s.sessing the results of science, philosophy, sociology, art, and religion. In them all he has discovered the presence of a reality which is non-sensuous in its nature, and, which reveals itself [p.207] in judgments of value that carry within themselves their own _necessity_ and _self-subsistence_. This is his conclusion in regard to the work of the spirit of man on whatever plane of knowledge or experience that spirit works. Man"s spirit has to carry all its knowledge and experience into its own conative spiritual potencies. We thus see that everything becomes an aid to the unfolding of an ever greater degree of reality within the spirit of man. It is then within the _spirit_ of man that everything finds its interpretation and value. Whatever interpretation is given to anything apart from the union of the _whole_ potency and cognition of man"s spirit is only a partial interpretation. And it is in the failure to recognise this truth that so many Life-systems have set themselves against the higher aspects of philosophy and religion. The most important question has not been asked: What is the relation and value of all results in connection with the deepest potency and necessity of man"s spirit? Are these results capable of enriching that spirit of man when he becomes conscious of them? These are the questions which Eucken continually asks and answers in his great works; and it is this fact which makes his teaching so valuable and superior to all the Life-systems of our day. It is difficult to think of any aspect of experience which Eucken has left out of account. He has not, indeed, interpreted [p.208] in detail all the Life-systems in vogue, and no human being is capable of achieving such a task; but he has clearly perceived the flaws which lie in them all. And this discovery of his has revealed a flaw common to them all. That flaw consists in ignoring the presence of a spiritual life as the great workshop where every form of reality finds its truest meaning. This flaw is so serious in that several Life-systems have thus over-estimated the importance of their results by neglecting to take into account the potentialities and necessities of man"s spirit. Let us, then, try to trace this defect in connection with some of the most important Life-systems in vogue to-day.
When the various systems of _Idealism_ are estimated, they seem to present aspects of reality with vast portions of human potencies and experiences left out of account. _Absolute Idealism_ is based upon the demands and implications of logic. Its doctrines would have taken a very different colouring had it considered that the necessities of Logic have to be adjusted to the necessities of Life. Such systems are of little value to the soul, because the needs of the soul were not taken into account when they were formulated. This fact was the main cause of the late Professor James"s rebellion against all forms of Absolute Idealism.
He felt that they bore no relationship to human life and its needs, and consequently could not exercise any important [p.209] influence on life; they could not move the will, for no possibility of reaching the Absolute was offered to man. All the conclusions were in the realm of an _intellectual universal_ and not in the realm of _spirit_. They must be unreal in the highest sense on account of this very failure. They have presented their half-G.o.ds as realities outside Nature, human nature, the pressing ideals of life, and even G.o.d Himself.
Eucken shows that any true Life-system has to start with Life itself.
There may be interpretations needful which have no implications for Life, and these have a right of their own; but when such interpretations are carried further, when the subject who _knows_ such interpretations and who _uses_ them is taken into account, then the interpretations found on this level are something quite different from what they were when the whole spirit of man was not taken into account. Eucken consequently comes to the conclusion that philosophy has not completely fulfilled its vocation until it has become a philosophy of _Life_--until the truest meaning of every object is discovered in its relation to all the necessities of the spirit. And it is here that his teaching comes into conflict with so much that goes by the name of Idealism. How can any system be more than a half-truth when its final meaning is presented with but little attention to the highest aspect we know in the world --to human life in its struggles and conquests, [p.210] in its living and loving, and its forward movement towards some distant goal? The special value of Eucken"s teaching lies, then, in the fact that it interprets what happens, can happen, and ought to happen within life itself. No system which leaves out the soul with its possibilities is complete. This has been done too often in the past, and is being done to-day. Is it, then, a wonder that philosophy has given so very little help to Life in its complex problems without and its sharp opposites and contradictions within? Life is more and needs more than a philosophy of words, devoid of power, can offer it. Life, when at its best, believes in the all-power of its own spiritual potency; it has faith in the possibility of ascent from height to height, as well as in the possibility of an incessant progress not only of individuals but of the whole of mankind.[72] A System stands or falls according as it is able to conceive of Life in such a manner. And Eucken has done this as probably no other living philosopher has done it.
If we turn to _Immanent Idealism_, we discover the same failure. It emphasises the presence within consciousness of what is idealistic and n.o.ble, but it leaves out the objective and imperative character of what is present. It also forgets that the possession of ideals as ideas is only the initial stage of such ideals becoming a very portion [p.211] of the deepest substance of soul itself. We may deceive ourselves even with the contemplation of the best ideals; they can never become truly ours until the will is set in motion and the whole nature is stirred to its depths in order to press forward to what it perceives as having infinite value. Something has inevitably to happen within the depth of the soul before its real creation can advance. Eucken here, again, has perceived this truth and presents it everywhere with great power. His Philosophy is an _Activism_ of the most powerful type. He is aware that to _know_ and to _be_ are so far apart. But his Activism is not a mere movement of the individual"s will, brought forth by anything that has grown within it as a private inheritance. The Activism is started and kept going on its course by the over-personal norms and values already referred to. It is the union of norm and will that const.i.tutes the full action. Life"s greater meaning and value is, therefore, not a ready-made possession; it is rather something already possessed, and a vision of something _more_ in the distance to be possessed.[73] The presence of the Divine within the soul is not the same prior to the search and after the search. This is [p.212] one of the most distinctive features of Eucken"s teaching, and const.i.tutes a necessary supplement to certain presentations of Immanent Idealism prevalent in various forms to-day.
When we pa.s.s to _Materialism_ in its various forms, we find Eucken conscious of its poverty and its caricature of life. It is caused by excessive absorption in the sensuous object with all its manifold relations. But it is possible to believe in all that it states; for it can never really say anything concerning the deeper meaning of spiritual life if for no other reason than that it cannot penetrate into life"s deeper experiences. It is a stage in human thought which is pa.s.sing away. What will become of it after Professor Haeckel"s pa.s.sing is difficult to imagine. One thing at least is certain: as a complete system of the universe or of life it is doomed.[74] A mechanical interpretation of the universe is legitimate: we may have to adopt more of such interpretations in the future. But there is no need for any alarm from the sides of philosophy and religion. Their citadel is not built upon a _thing_, but upon a _thought_; and the gap between the two increases in the degree in which our knowledge of Nature and Man increases. Eucken has many great things to say on this subject in his larger works. Doubtless he would agree with some of the [p.213]
advocates of _Naturalism_ in regard to the meaning of the physical universe, but such agreement would not be an admission that _all_ had been said that could be said concerning the need and the possibility of a _Metaphysic of Life_.
The one word _More_ const.i.tutes all the difference. This _More_, with Eucken, is the beginning of a new order of existence and of value where the physical order ends. His work consists in interpreting this _More_, and we have already seen whither the _More_ leads us: it leads us into spiritual norms and their values, and these in their turn led us into Infinite Love in the G.o.dhead. The failure to see the value of all this is due to the inattention of the advocates of Naturalism in regard to the non-sensuous structure of mind: the _Thing and its relations_ monopolise them so completely that they are blind to every reality non-sensuous in its nature, although they possess some amount of such reality in their very knowledge and adoration of the _Thing_. Our troubles will continue to acc.u.mulate, and the prospect of the future will grow extremely dark, if the grip which physical things have on the world to-day be not relaxed. The very physical powers which we have helped to create, and which hitherto have proved of service to men, will mean our destruction unless something of the _More_ which is beyond them be found as a possession and an activity within the governing centre of life. This is Eucken"s [p.214] plea over against the various forms of the Naturalism and Materalism of our day. These are not enough for man.
But man is so slow in recognising this fact. The appeal of Spiritual Idealism is considered to be something which is vague and useless. Our deepest reality and the source of all true energy have been robbed of their efficacy by our absorption in sc.r.a.ping together physical elements of chaff and dust. How often does Eucken show our dire poverty in the midst of all this external plenty! The all-sufficiency of all forms of Naturalism condemns itself through its failure to pa.s.s beyond itself.