Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 419

Chap.

II]

UNIVERSALITY OF THIS PEINCIPIUM

§ 72.

395

addition to that of the natural principium, of another princip-

ium

knowledge, and that wherever the Christian religion

of

has withdrawn, as in West-Asia and North-Africa, all life has sunk back again to a much lower level.

human

We

see

that in this broad life-circle, which has extended itself across

ages and among many people, there has arisen a special world of thought modified universal conceptions have begun and in this genuinely human circle the human to prevail In this consciousness has assumed an entirely peculiar form. way have originated that univei^sal life and that universal thought, which have certainly clashed with "the other circle, that rejected the special principium, but which have pos-

many

;

;

sessed, nevertheless, entirely sufficient consistency to invite

and to render possible

scientific construction

upon the foun-

dation of that principle which, in this circle,

is

It will not do, therefore, to represent this special

as an idiosyncrasy of a

decline of all difference

is

few enthusiasts.

universal.

principium

The melancholy

mystic fanaticism shows what the profound

between the

parasite, that springs

imagination, and the cedar, that has struck

its

from fanatic roots in the

This special principium is as universally human as the natural principium, with this difference only, that it is not given to each individual, but The lifeis organically grafted upon the tree of humanity. fertile soil of this real principle.

circle,

of the

indeed, which finds

new

its

centrum in Christ as the bearer branch of our race that

life-principle, is not a

but this body of Christ is the real trunk of our human race, and Avhat is not incorporated into this body, falls away from that trunk as a useless branch. He is, and re-

is set

apart

;

mains, the second

Adam.

Moreover, the peoples and nations that have stood or still stand outside of this life-circle, involuntarily bear witness to the insufficiency of the natural principium in its present

When

is announced working of the special principium. He says: "I will raise them up a prophet from among their and I will put my words in his brethren, like unto thee mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall com-

working.

by God

in Deut. xviii. inspiration

as the peculiar

;

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