Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 171

CuAP.

§ 47.

II]

RELIGION

147

aims only at utility or eudemonism, it misses all religious Even with Kant this is the all-important point character. at

which

religion,

however barren and

The

his ethical world.

abstract, enters into

and recognizes must be subordi-

ethical subject feels

a higher ethical will, to

which

his will

From which point of view, it follows of necessity phenomena is either reasoned out of

nated.

that the whole world of

existence as a mere semblance, the ethical.

But

case the central

in whatever

power

or, as real, is

way

it is

subordinated to

interpreted, in any

of the ethical world-order

to be supreme, transcending all things else,

and

is

made

to it the

subject not only subordinates himself, but also the object.

With

a

somewhat higher

religious development, however,

this will not only not suffice, but there can be

no rest until,

surpassing the thelematic, this subordination of subject and object to this central power has also been found for one's

The object of religion is not only placed outside of this object-subject, but the subject as well as the object, and the relation of both, must find their ground and

consciousness.

explanation in this central power. The psyche addresses itself not merely to the general in the special, and to the

permanent in the transient, but to the cause {alria}, the beginning (ap^v}, the constitution (o-ycrracrt?), and end (re'Xo?) of both. This extra-cosmic and hyper-cosmic character, however, of every central power, which in the higher sense shall be the object of religion,

is the very reason that neither observation nor demonstration are of the least avail in establishing the tie between our subject and this central power, and that your reasoning understanding is as unable

to foster as to exterminate religion.

This is different, of course, with Theology, which as a science concerns itself with the matter of religion; but the nature of this science, its method and its certainty, sustain the closest relation to the character of this central power, which is the impelling motive in all higher religion. As a physiological and physicocratic study can be for years made

human life, without ever touching uj)on the study of the psyche, a lifetime can be spent in all sorts of the expressions of

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