Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 337

Chap.

THE CONCEPTION OF THEOLOGY

I]

313

Nemesis, and Avitli fatal necessity tends more and more to It did not come to religion from the sphere of Naturalism. its connecting point in human nature. sought but thouo-ht, but taken as an integral part of the individual, Man, not as himself as a subject with presented organism of humanity, bearing a religious charand certain emotions and perceptions, emotions, by virtue of the acter; from these perceptions and "social instinct" (Sociale Trieb), which is peculiar to man as an organic being, sprang a certain desire after religious

communion (Verein); and

since

man

inclines to take

up

his

emotions and perceptions into his consciousness, there was gradually born of this selfsame subjective mysticism a world of religious representations. Only with these ethical premises at his disposal, does Schleiermacher come to the phenomenon of the Christian Church, which, both by way of comparison and in principle, seems to satisfy the highest aspirations these premises inspire. istic interpretation

Church

to

he concedes that

Faithful to his naturalit is

the vocation of the

remain the leader of this ethic-social process in

humanity. This requires elucidation of insight. And so he arrives at an interpretation of theology which is nothing but an aggregate of disparate sciences, which find their bond of union ad hoc in the phenomenon of the Church. We readily grant that Schleiermacher did not mean this

His purpose was to save the ideal life But we maintain, that this whole interof humanity. pretation sprang from the naturalistic root, and is chargeable with the naturalistic tendency, which became more strongly Of the three data which he deals evident in his followers.

naturalistically.

with,

— human

God and thought,— he

nature,

takes

human

All that he teaches of God, form of expression to the data of

nature alone to be autonomic.

not merely bound in its our nature, but the content also is the mere reflection of subjective perceptions man is and remains the subject, that and speaks, and in his presence God obtains is, thinks is

;

no autonomic position.

The

reality even of the existence

appears to the very end to be dependent upon the The reality which vindicates itself in tlie subject man.

of

God

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