Theology and the Social Consciousness: A Study of the Relations of the Social Consciousness to Theology (2nd ed.)King, Henry Churchill
Religion
Theology and the Social Consciousness: A Study of the Relations of the Social Consciousness to Theology (2nd ed.)
King, Henry Churchill
Christian sociology; Theology, Doctrinal -- History -- 20th century
3. _Requires the Ideal Conditions of the Richest Life in
Religion._--And if religion is to be justified in its supreme claims
by the social consciousness, it must be felt to offer, besides, the
ideal conditions of the richest life. As a personal relation to God,
religion need not shrink from this test. Our great needs are character
and happiness. Psychology seems to me to point to two great means and
to two accompanying conditions of both character and happiness. The
means are association and work; the corresponding conditions are
reverence for personality, and objectivity--the mood of both love and
work. The great essentials, therefore, to the richest life are (1)
association in which personality is respected, and (2) work in which
one can lose himself. Now, when would these conditions become ideal?
On the one hand, as to association, when the association is with him
who is of the highest character and of the infinitely richest life,
and relation to whom is fundamental to every other personal relation;
when, secondly, God is made concrete and real to us in an adequate
personal revelation of his character, and of his love toward us; and
when, third, the association is individualized for each one, who
throws himself open to God, in God's spiritual presence in us,
constantly and intimately, and yet _unobtrusively_, coöperating with
us. And, on the other hand, as to work, when the work is God-given
work, to which one is set apart, and in which he may lose himself with
joy. These are the ideal conditions of the richest life. Just these
ideal conditions Jesus declared actualities. For the fulfilment of
just these, in the case of his disciples, he prayed in his double
petition,--"Keep them," "Sanctify them," "Keep them in thy name," that
is, through the divine association. "Sanctify them"--set them apart
unto their God-given work. "As thou hast sent me into the world, even
so have I also sent them into the world." Such a conception of
religion can fairly claim to meet, broadly and deeply, the most
exacting demands of the social consciousness for emphasis upon the
personal relation in religion.
II. THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS THUS KEEPS THE TRULY MYSTICAL
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