Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 168

;

144

FAITH

§ 46.

faith

is

tbe element in our

[])iv. II.

mind by which we obtain

cer-

tainty, not only in the spiritual, but equally in the material sciences.

From which

it

follows that the lesser degree of

certainty in the spiritual sciences

is

not explained by saying

we have to deal with faith, which it is not necessary to do in the material sciences but rather from the fact that in the spiritual sciences /«tYA seems to operate differently in different persons. To obviate this difficulty the effort is now made to approach the spiritual sciences as much as possible from the visible world (physical and physicocratic psychology, etc.), but the knowledge of the psychical, which is the real object of these sciences, is not advanced thereby a single step. The cause of this unlike operation of faith in the domain of the spiritual sciences is On the one hand, the effect worked upon this twofold. faith by the disposition of the subject ; and on the other hand, the fact that in spiritual science faith operates not merely formally, but also presents a content. that in the spiritual sciences

The

first

cause finds

its

explanation in the fact that in

the spiritual sciences the unifying power of the object does not control the subjective differentiation.

sciences the subject possible from

is

his psychical centre to the

accounts for the fact that here side only,

which

is

In the material

obliged tp incline himself as far as

all

object,

and

this

subjects present that

almost one and the same with

all.

As

soon, however, as in aesthetic observation, as the subject re-

sumes

his active role, the subjective inequality

ence return at once, as

is

and

differ-

seen in the fine arts of painting

and music. In the spiritual sciences the opposite takes place. Here the object is not physical, but psychical, and where the physical still claims considerable attention, as in the study of language, it is of a secondary order, and the psychical remains of

and and

first

importance.

As

in the street,

most people appear alike, their differences of nature and character are seen only in their home life and in their drawing-rooms, so, in viewing especially in a foreign city,

all spirits (i/ri;;^at ) show themselves one but in the psychic centrum their differences

the material world,

and the same

;

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