Thoughts on Life and Religion: An Aftermath from the Writings of The Right Honourable Professor Max MüllerMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Thoughts on Life and Religion: An Aftermath from the Writings of The Right Honourable Professor Max Müller
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Life; Philosophy; Religion; Theology
set to vibrate, have never been altogether drowned in the strange
and wild music of religious sects and sciences. The greatest
prophets of the world have been those who at sundry times and in
divers manners have proclaimed again and again in the simplest words
the simple creed of the fathers, faith in the unseen, reverence for
the incomprehensible, awe of the infinite, or, simpler still, love
of God, and oneness with the All-Father.
_Life._
I have endeavoured to make clear two things, which constitute the
foundation of all religion; first, that the world is rational, that
it is the result of thought, and that in this sense only is it the
creation of a being which possesses reason, or is reason itself (the
_Logos_); and secondly, that mind or thought cannot be the outcome
of matter, but on the contrary is the _prius_ of all things.
_Silesian Horseherd._
Religion is not philosophy; but there never has been a religion,
and there never can be, which is not based on philosophy, and does
not presuppose the philosophical notions of the people. The highest
aim towards which all philosophy strives, is and will always remain
the idea of God, and it was this idea which Christianity grasped in
the Platonic sense, and presented to us most clearly in its highest
form, in the Fourth Gospel.
_Silesian Horseherd._
There has been no entirely new religion since the beginning of the
world. The elements and roots of religion were there, as far back
as we can trace the history of man; and the history of religion
shows us throughout a succession of new combinations of the same
radical elements. An intuition of God, a sense of human weakness
and dependence, a belief in a Divine government of the world, a
distinction between good and evil, and a hope of a better life,
these are some of the radical elements of all religions. Though
sometimes hidden, they rise again and again to the surface. Though
frequently distorted, they tend again and again to their perfect
form. Unless they had formed part of the original dowry of the human
soul, religion would have remained an impossibility, and the tongues
of angels would have been to human ears but as sounding brass, or as
tinkling cymbals.
_Chips._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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