Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 176

152

§ 48.

two kinds

of

TWO

people,

i.e.

KINDS OF PEOPLE

with those who part company

because of a difference which does

within the circle of our of

it.

And the

[Div. II

human

not find

its

origin

consciousness, but outside

Christian religion places before us just this

fact. For it speaks of a regeneration "being begotten anew" (avayevv-qcn'^^^ followed by an enlightening (^turicr/xo?), which changes man in his very being; and that indeed by a change or transformation which is effected by a supernatural cause. The explanation of this fact belongs properly to Dogmatics. But since this fact exerts an absolutely dominating influence upon our view of science, it Avould be a culpable blindfolding of self if we passed it by in silence. This " regeneration " breaks humanity in two, and repeals the unity of the human conIf this fact of "being begotten anew," coming sciousness. in from without, establishes a radical change in the being of man, be it only potentially, and if this change exercises at the same time an influence upon his consciousness, then as far as it has or has not undergone this transformation, there is an abyss in the universal human consciousness across which no bridge can be laid. It is with this as with wild fruit trees, part of which you graft, while the rest you leave alone. From the moment of that grafting, if successful and the trees are properly pruned, the growth of the two kinds of trees is entirely different, and this difference is not merely relative and a matter of degree, but specific. It is not a better and tenderer growth in one tree producing a richer fruit, while the other tree thrives less prosperously, and consequently bears poorer fruit; but it is a difference in kind. However luxuriantly and abundantl}^ the ungrafted tree may leaf and blossom, it will neve?' bear the fruit which grows on the grafted tree. But however backward the grafted tree may be at first in its growth, the blossom which unfolds on its branches is fruit blossom. No tree grafts itself. The wild tree cannot change from its own kind into the kind of the grafted tree, unless a power which resides outside of the sphere of botany enters in and effects the renewal of the wild tree. This is no relative transition. A tree is not one-

supremely important (^TraXtyyevea-ca'),

of a

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