If, finally, we view his attitude towards the Religious Life-systems of our generation, we find words of warning and of encouragement. His whole work culminates in religion. But he teaches us that we have to learn from the sides of knowledge already presented in this chapter. And it may be said that the Christian Church (or any other Church) has yet to learn this lesson. It still seeks to find its revelation in what was, and in modes which come constantly into direct conflict with the results of the various Life-systems already referred to. It wants the fruits of religion without tilling the ground and nurturing its plants. Its insistence on placing the basis of religion in myth and miracle dooms it to a greater disaster in the future than even in the past. Eucken sees no hope for a "revival" of religion in the soul until an inverted order of conceiving reality takes place. The religious synthesis from the intellectual side is to be obtained by passing through the grades of reality explicit in the various Life-systems, and by abstaining from the imposition of barriers which forbid anyone roaming and "ruminating" within these. If one condition is obeyed, this is the most fruitful way to construct a new religious metaphysic which will supplant traditional theology. That condition is that the various Life-systems form a kind of scale which extends from Matter up to the Godhead. The new religious metaphysic will then mean a real philosophy of values.
Does this constitute an impossible task for the Christian Church? It will remain impossible so long as we look upon the essence of Christianity as something which descends upon us apart from the exertion of our own spiritual potencies. It is a consolation to know that the highest reality may be experienced without having to undergo a training in the methods and implications of science, history, or metaphysics. But the experience here cannot possibly mean so much as the experience which passes through and beyond the implications of knowledge to the Divine. Such an experience as the latter must be richer in content. And even apart from this, it produces something of value on the intellectual side—something which grants religion a security in the eyes of the world. When the Church tends in this direction, its faith will come into comradeship with the various branches of human knowledge as these reveal themselves on level above level. Christianity has nothing to fear, but everything to gain, from the development of all the branches of human knowledge. Its source being Spiritual and Eternal, why should opposition be presented to any development of the lower realities in science, Biblical criticism, history, and philosophy? This lesson is not yet learned, and Eucken pleads for its acknowledgment. "If we consider how much is involved in such a change in the position of the spiritual life, and if we also present before ourselves what transformations civilisation, culture, history, and natural science carry within themselves, we see clearly the critical situation in which religion is placed, because these surface-changes are not of the essence of religion. Through the mighty expansion and the fissures which these changes bring about, the old immediacy and intimacy of the soul have become lost, and religion has now receded into the distance, and is in danger of vanishing more and more. The derangement of things which such changes cause occurs not only in connection with their own facts and material and against their old forms, but the effect proceeds into the very character and feelings of man and into his religion. And yet, when we examine the matter more closely, we find that such changes cause not so much a breach with Christianity as with its traditional form, and that they seek to bring about a fundamental renewal of Christianity. For when we penetrate beyond the motives and dispositions of men to their spiritual basis, all the changes are unable to contradict what is essential to Christianity, but they even promise to assist this essential element in its new, freer, and more energetic development. But we have to bear in mind that all this will not descend upon us like a shower of rain, but will have to be brought forth through immense labour and toil. It becomes necessary to replace that which must pass away, and to reconsolidate the essentials which are threatened. All this cannot come about save through an energetic concentration and deepening of the spiritual life, save through a struggle against the superficiality of Time regardless of all consequences, and save through a vivification and integration of all that points in the right direction."[81]
This passage illustrates well Eucken's whole attitude regarding Christianity. It is evident that much remains to be done within and without the Church. Within, radical changes are to take place; but always in the light and with the preservation of the spiritual substance. Without, the indifference of a vast portion of the civilised nations of the world has to be reckoned with. It is an immense problem, often enough to dishearten good men and women. How can men be moved from their inertia and their resentment against the deeper demands which spiritual life makes upon every human being? That is the problem of problems and the task of tasks to-day. No clear solution of it is yet perceptible. But in the meantime, those who care for Divine things and who have experienced some of their power within their own souls must hold fast to all they possess, and labour unceasingly to increase the spiritual value of their possession. Probably catastrophes have to happen in order to bring the world home to religion and God.
Rudolf Eucken's gospel is a proclamation of the necessity of religion and the possibility of its possession. This, according to him, is the final goal of all knowledge and life. If religion is not this, it is the most tragic deception conceivable. "Religion is either merely a sanctioned product of human wishes and pictorial ideas brought about by tradition and the historical ordinance—and, if so, no art, power, or cunning can prevent the destruction of such a bungling work by the advance of the mental and spiritual movement of the world; or religion is founded upon a superhuman fact—and, if so, the hardest assaults cannot shatter it, but rather, it must finally prove of service in all the troubles and toils of man; it must reach the point of its true strength and develop purer and purer its Eternal Truth."[82]
The fact that the influence of Rudolf Eucken's personality and teaching is spreading with such rapidity and power from west to east and from north to south is a proof that an increasing number of men and women are aspiring after a religion of spiritual life such as was presented by the Founder of our Christianity. All the Life-systems of our day must converge towards such a conception of religion.
CHAPTER XIII
EUCKENS PERSONALITY AND INFLUENCE
In this chapter an attempt will be made to present in a brief form some of the most important aspects of Eucken's personality and influence. His training and the relation of his teaching to the German philosophical systems of the present have already been touched upon in some of the earlier chapters. But no account of Eucken's teaching is complete without a knowledge of his personality.