Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 129

Chap.

§ 42.

I]

which, after

all,

is

THE SPIRITUAL SCIENCES

105

The

the real object of these sciences.

dangerous self-deception is, that in all these departments detail and preliminary studies greatly flourish, while fo: the greater part the real study of these sciFor instance, uncommon energy is spent ences lies fallow. in the study of the expressions and phenomena of religious life in different ages and among different peoples, by which to formulate them with utmost accuracy, while religion result r

itself,

his

'

which

way

the same

is

the real object in hand,

is

neglected.

the manifestations of the moral

life of

In

nations

and localities, but cerpower which determines the norm of moral life, and knowledge of the means of causing moral life to flourish, are more and more lost, an atrophy, which apare studie.l in their several periods

tainty about the

—

to the study of psychology, of history, of and which can only be understood from a false

as well

plies

law,

etc.,

desire

to materialize

the psychical, as

if

matter could be This desire,

treated on an equal footing with the psychic. in itself,

is

readily understood, since an outwardly compul-

sory certainty in this domain would be to

many

still

more desirable

people than in the domain of the natural sciences

;

and it is even measurably just, since the empiric data, which with the spiritual sciences also are at our service, were formerly all too grossly neglected. But, as soon as it tries to exalt itself into a method, it meets an inexorable obstacle in the nature and character of the psychic on the one hand, because the psychical image assumes no form for us except in its subjective individualization and, ;

;

on the other hand, because the psychic can never be grasped in any other way than by our own psychic sense.

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