: An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy by Jones W Tudor William Tudor - Eucken Rudolf 1846-1926 Philosophy

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All this is not a matter of speculation, but of fact. And it is in the recognition of this fact that Eucken's philosophy of religion constitutes a new kind of idealistic movement--a movement tending more and more in the direction of Christianity. But he differs here again from the absolute idealists and the pragmatists. The former base their Absolute upon the demands of logic, whilst Eucken bases all upon the demands and potencies of life; the pragmatists emphasise the primary place of the will in the development of the inner life, but they have certainly ignored the presence of over-individual norms, as the goal of volition, whilst Eucken holds to the necessity of both. With the absolutists the relation of the Absolute with the will is not clearly perceived, and consequently the Absolute becomes merely an object of thought and contemplation; and in all this the individual does not become aware of a burning desire to move in the direction of the goal. The pragmatist leaves the individual at the mercy of the momentary content of consciousness; this content is quite as likely to be trivial as to be great; and hence there is no absolute standard present to determine the nature and value of this content of the moment, and consequently no more than a life of effortless drifting can issue out of all this.

This blend of absolutism and pragmatism is richer in its content than either of the two. Each has missed something of importance, and it is here supplied by Eucken.

"Universal" and "Characteristic" religion do not constitute two different religions, but two grades of the one religion. In "Universal" religion Eucken deals very largely with the intellectual grounds of religion. He is aware that it is necessary for us to carry our whole potencies into religion. Intellect is one of these, and we cannot afford to construct our religion on what comes into perpetual conflict with intellectual conceptions. Eucken has shown that intellectual conclusions, if they are carried far enough and include the whole of their own meaning, lead us into religion. We have already noticed how the presence of norms and standards were necessitated by the very theory of knowledge itself. It is a great gain for man to know that this is so--that in so far as knowledge testifies anything in regard to religion and spiritual life it affirms more than it negates. It is of enormous advantage to be assured that knowledge is on our side in the quest for something that is deeper than itself.

CHARACTERISTIC RELIGION

Such a spiritual process, after something of its nature has been realised, finds necessities laid upon it on all hands. Once we have stepped into the very centre of spiritual norms and ideals they begin to reveal with a wonderful rapidity and impressiveness their own intrinsic content and value. "Universal" religion has enabled us to realise that we are dealing with "grounds" which are a demand of the deepest nature, and with convictions which seem, without a doubt, "to ring true." The man has found a shelter in the midst of all the chaos and welter of the natural process, and his deepest reason has not failed to come to the assistance of his spiritual need. He now becomes conscious of security and even of victory in the enterprise before the battle has really begun on an arena outside his own nature; a conviction is being brought into being within his deepest soul that the best and strongest elements in the universe are on his side. Although hindrances and entanglements of all kinds increase in number, the increase in spiritual certainty, and faith in the final issue of his life, have grown at a greater ratio. Such a man has settled his destiny; he has come to the great spiritual affirmation of life--an affirmation which has to be repeated so often, and which each time distils something of a higher order within the soul.

But the fact that this conception of the One, conceived as Absolute Spiritual Life, has produced so many effects of the highest kind is a proof of its existence. Qualities come into being which can never come with such power in any other way. The spiritual experiences, revealed at such a level, have something to say on this matter. These experiences, although aware of the meaning of universal concepts, have become aware of something higher still: Knowledge has given place to Love; a region has been reached beyond all the contradictions of the world and beyond all the dialectics of knowledge. It is a region which includes the good of all without injuring the good of any; and all the meaning of the world and of life is interpreted from this highest standpoint. This is the essence of "characteristic "or specific religion. On the level of "universal" religion, God was seen from the standpoint of the world; in "characteristic" religion the world is seen from the standpoint of God. The appearance of the world is consequently different from each standpoint. All must now be viewed and valued from the standpoint of "characteristic" religion, from the standpoint of the One--the Godhead; and if humanity is ever to be brought to this standpoint, the nature and the meaning of the One have to be presented to it. And it is this, as Eucken shows, which has been partially accomplished by the religions of the world. Their founders were personalities who had scaled the heights towards the "holy of holies" of the One; they descended into the plains to reveal what they had seen and heard and experienced on the heights. They had been able to commune with the Alone, and their natures had been completely transformed. In passing thus from the stage of "universal" religion to the higher stage of "characteristic," men have discovered a further security and spiritual evolution of their whole being. Their views of man and the world have become changed; they now long to make mankind the possessor of the "vision splendid" which has meant all for them. Communion with the One as Infinite Love has revealed to them a peace and a power which are far beyond all the lower unities.

It is of value, in the midst of all the complexities of life, of the partial interpretations of the various branches of knowledge, to have passed through the several stages below the One. Some must guard the highest citadel of religion and keep open the avenues to Infinity, Eternity, and Immortality. And the greater the number who are able to do this, the better for the world and for the individual. But a taste of this Infinite Love can be obtained without all this. Just as some of us are able to walk without a knowledge of the bodily mechanism and to eat and digest without a knowledge of the history of our bread, so the deeper spiritual potencies inherent in man are able to find a vast amount of satisfaction by resting upon and trusting in a Love Absolute, Eternal, and Infinite. Here, man is in a region of infinite calm beyond the distractions of the world and of knowledge. He cannot remain here for any great length of time; he has to return to the world, but he is never again the same being after having scaled the "mount of transfiguration." "Religion holds as certain and conclusive that this new inner foundation is the greatest thing of all and the wonder of wonders, because it carries within itself the power and certainty of the overcoming of the old world and the creation of a new one; it is on account of this that religion longs for the conviction of the whole man, and brands the denial of this as pettiness and unbelief. The world may therefore remain to the external view as it appeared before--a kingdom of opposition and darkness; its hindrances within and without may seem to nullify everything else; they may contract and even seemingly destroy man and his spiritual potencies; all his acts may seem fruitless and vain, and his whole existence may seem to sink into nothingness and worthlessness. Yet, through the entrance of the new life and a new world, everything is transformed from within, and the clearness of the light appears all the more by contrast with all the depth of the darkness. Indeed, in the midst of all the mysteries of existence, hope and conviction and certainty will consolidate our experience, so that ultimately evil itself must serve the development of the good." Or in the words of Luther: "This is the spiritual power which reigns and rules in the midst of enemies, and is powerful in the midst of all oppression. And this is nothing other than that strength is perfected in weakness, and that in all things I can gain life eternal, so that cross and crown are compelled to serve and to contribute towards my salvation."

THE HISTORICAL RELIGIONS

We have noticed in the two preceding chapters how Eucken distinguished the two stages of religion--the "Universal" and the "Characteristic" --and how he showed the necessity of both stages. As man cannot escape from the conclusions of his intellect, it becomes necessary for him to come to an understanding with those conclusions; and although such conclusions do not form a complete account of life in its deepest aspects, still they are indispensable for him in order to know that he is on the path towards a further development of his spiritual nature. Hence the grounds of religion have to be emphasised by the conclusions of the intellect. But though intellectual conclusions, as we have already seen, warrant us in holding fast to the presence and reality of a life of the spirit and to the possibility of an evolution of such a life, all this does not mean that such an evolution is actually reached through the affirmations of the intellect. The road of spiritual development is marked out, but we have to travel over that road ourselves. Something more than an intellectual acknowledgment of the existence of such a road is necessary before the actual movement takes place. When the actual movement does take place, when the intellectual conclusions come in contact with a will arising from our deepest needs, the matter becomes personal--it becomes something that has to be affirmed by the blending of intellect with the deeper spiritual potencies. The vision at this higher stage constitutes not only the certainty of a path for man--a path which leads to higher regions--but brings forth hidden energies in order to start him on the enterprise. The whole vision is now seen to be possible of realisation only through personal decisions of the whole nature in the direction of the over-personal values which present themselves. These over-personal values increase as the soul passes along the upward path and as it grants a self-subsistence and unconditional significance to these values. There follows here an increase of spiritual reflection; the content of the vision is loosened from sense and time; its self-subsistence becomes more and more real and more and more and more different from all that was experienced on any level below; knowledge steps into the background, and love and appreciation now guide the whole movement of the soul. As we have already seen, when this happens, the idea of God as Infinite Love presents itself, and the soul's main task is to climb to the summits "where on the glimmering limits far withdrawn God made Himself an awful rose of dawn." Religion is at such a level more than an intellectual insistence upon its grounds; the soul looks now rather to its summits. Hence the two stages of Universal and Characteristic religion become necessary. And it is not always true that the Universal mode ceases once the Characteristic mode is partially realised. The soul has to descend from the heights into the ordinary world below. And as it now sees the world with new eyes, it sees much more to be condemned than was previously possible for it to see. There comes the constant need of certifying the validity of its experience on the heights, and of getting others who have never attempted the experiment to do so. The man possessed of something of the vision within his own soul proclaims his "gospel," and conceives of all kinds of ways and means by which humanity can be drawn towards the same goal.

The truth concerning these founders of religion seems to lie in the fact that they realised a depth of life beyond the world, the intellect, and the span of ordinary life. It is this fact that needs to be brought prominently forward in our day. And such a fact becomes an experimental proof of the presence and efficacy of the Divine within the soul and points to an upward direction the total-movement of the world. If such a fact does not succeed in holding for itself a primary place, other subsidiary facts will colour and weaken its true spiritual content and value. This is the road on which speculative and superstitious ideas have found an entrance into the historical religions. When such is the case, the spiritual reality is gradually weakened, is lowered to the level of intellectualistic dogma, until it ultimately becomes, though in the guise of religion, the worst enemy which spiritual religion has to encounter. All hard and fixed dogmatic settings of religion usurp the supremacy of the spiritual life itself.

Eucken shows this in connection with religious institutions--institutions which were meant by their founders to be essential but still subservient to the needs and aspirations of spiritual life. Thus, genuine religion is measured by a doctrinal standard or by a sacrament. These may possess an incalculable value in religion, when used as means and not as ends; but they may, and often do, issue in its degradation to a stage which is hardly a spiritual one. Every historical religion possesses some absolute truth, but does not possess the whole truth; and also each historical religion possesses some elements which have to pass away. But this matter will be dealt with in a later chapter.

The main service of the historical religions is to bring home to us the fact that in the course of human history a spiritual life above the world has again and again dawned on mankind through the experiences and works of great personalities. To realise intensely such a fact is to realise the fact that all this can happen again in a more concentrated form than is actually presented in the slow and toilsome effects of the results of the collective life of the community.

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