Rudolph Eucken : a philosophy of lifeJones, Abel J. (Abel John)
Religion
Rudolph Eucken : a philosophy of life
Jones, Abel J. (Abel John)
Eucken, Rudolf, 1846-1926
The great practical effect of religion, then, must be to create a demand
for a new and higher world in opposition to the world of nature. For
this new life religion must provide an ultimate standard. "Religion must
at all times assert its right to prove and to winnow, for it is
religion--the power which draws upon the deepest source of life--which
takes to itself the whole of man, and offers a fixed standard for all
his undertakings." Religion must provide a standard for the whole of
life, for it places all human life "under the eternity." It is not the
function of religion to set up a special province over against the other
aspects of his life--it must transform life in its entirety, and affect
all the subsidiary aspects.
But religion is not gained, any more than human freedom, once for all
time--it must be gained continually afresh, and sought ever anew. Thus
the fact of religion becomes a perpetual task, and leads to the highest
activity.
Eucken speaks of two types of religion--Universal and Characteristic
Religion. The line of division between them is not easy to draw, but the
distinction gives an opportunity for emphasising again the essential
elements of true religion.
_Universal Religion_ is a more or less vague appreciation of the
Spiritual, which results in a diffused, indefinite spiritual life. The
personality has appreciated to some extent the opposition between the
natural and the spiritual, and has chosen the spiritual. He adopts a new
attitude or mood, towards the world in consequence, and that is an
attitude of fight against the world of nature. But everything is vague;
the individual has not yet appreciated the spiritual world as his own,
and feels that he is a stranger in the higher world, rather than an
ordinary fully privileged citizen. He has not yet associated himself
closely enough with the Universal Spirit, everything is superficial,
there is hunger and thirst for the higher things in life, but these have
not yet been satiated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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