The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 2 (of 2)Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Religion
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 2 (of 2)
Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Catherine, of Genoa, Saint, 1447-1510
Indeed the name for the Departed is Rephaim, “the limp, the powerless
ones.” Stade well says: “According to the ancient Israelitish
conception the entire human being, body and soul, outlasts death,
whilst losing all that makes life worth living. That which persists
in Sheol for all eternity is the form of man, emptied of all content.
Antique thought ignores as yet that there exists no such thing as a
form without substance. The conception has as little in common with
the conviction of the Immortality of the Soul, which found its chief
support in Greek ideas, as with the expectation of the Resurrection,
which grew out of the Jewish Messianic hope, or with the Christian
anticipation of Eternal Life, which is also based upon religious
motives.”[199]
Yet, with respect to this objection from the lateness of the doctrine,
we must not forget that fully consistent Monotheism and Monogamy are
also late, but not, on that account, less true or less precious; and
indeed that, as a universal rule, the human mind has acquired at all
adequate convictions as to most certain and precious truths but slowly
and haltingly. This process is manifest even in Astronomy, Geology,
Botany, Human Anatomy. It could not fail to be, not less but more
the case in a matter like this which, if it concerns us most deeply,
is yet both too close to us to be readily appreciated in its true
proportions, and too little a matter of mathematical demonstration
or of direct experience not to take much time to develop, and not to
demand an ever-renewed acquisition and purification, being, as it is,
the postulate and completion of man’s ethical and spiritual faiths, at
their deepest and fullest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account