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
Then there must be more freedom, movement, and individuality within the
Church. What the Church holds as a final result of the experience of
life cannot be expected as the confession of all, especially of the
young. "How can every man and every child feel what such a mightily
contrasted nature as Luther's with all its convulsive experiences felt?"
Then the Church must not so much teach this or that doctrine as point to
the Spiritual Life, set forth the conditions of its development, and be
the representative of the higher world. Thus, and thus only, Eucken
thinks that the Church can fulfil its proper function, and avoid being a
danger to religion.
Eucken's _appreciation of Christianity_ is sincere. Viewing it from the
standpoint of the Spiritual Life, he finds that it fulfils the
conditions that religion should fulfil. It is based on freedom, and on
the presence of the Divine in humanity, even to the extent of a complete
union between them. The ideal of the Christian life is a personal life
of pure inwardness, and of an ethical character. He speaks of the "flow
of inner life by means of which Christianity far surpasses all other
religions," and of the "unfathomable depth and immeasurable hope which
are contained in the Christian faith."
In Christianity the life of Christ has a value transcending all time,
and is a standard by which to judge all other lives. There is, too, in
Christianity a complete transformation or break, which must take place
before any progress or development can take place.
"There is no need of a breach with Christianity; it can be to us what a
historical religion pre-eminently is meant to be--a sure pathway to
truth, an awakener of immediate and intimate life, a vivid
representation and realisation of an Eternal Order which all the changes
of time cannot possess or destroy."
At the same time, there are changes necessary in the form of
Christianity, if it is to answer to the demands of the age, and be the
Absolute Religion. It must be shorn of temporary accretions, and must
cast aside the ideas of any one particular age which have now been
superseded. No longer can it retain the primitive view of nature and the
world which formerly obtained, no longer must it take up a somewhat
negative and passive attitude, but, realising that religion is a matter
of the whole life, must energetically work itself out through all
departments of life. It must remedy wrong, not merely endure it. It must
proceed from a narrow and subjective point of view to a cosmic one,
without at the same time losing sight of the fact that religion is an
inward and personal matter. It must take account to the full of the
value of man as man, and of the possibilities latent in him, and take
account of his own activity in his salvation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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