An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy

arisen; the sensuous, and even partially the intellectual, domains have been relegated to a secondary place: other values, higher in their nature and mor

Freedom has now taken a new meaning. Hitherto it meant little more than the consciousness of the individual moving along the line of least resistance. The effort to move in such a direction is generally pleasurable; and when it tends to become painful the individual gives up the effort. The highest norms were not present with a categorical affirmation of their reality and value. But when they are present, the will is turned from the direction of ordinary life and its ease to the conception of the meaning and value of the highest norms. Something, appearing as of intrinsic value, now makes itself felt, and stirs the whole nature. Thus, a new movement begins; the passive attitude of the soul gives way to an autonomous attitude and movement. The will, consequently, is conscious of a deeper need than any hitherto experienced, and therefore calls into being some deeper elements of its own in order to reach its goal. The whole nat

seem, without a doubt, "to ring true." The man has found a shelter in the midst of all the chaos and welter of the natural process, and his deepest reason has not failed to come to the assistance of his spiritual need. He now becomes conscious of security and even of victory in the enterprise before the battle has really begun on an arena outside his own nature; a conviction is being brought into being within his deepest soul that the best an

even partially designated and determined. We are forced to this conclusion if they are to be objects of communion and union: and we are forced further to gather the Many into the One. That was what was done on all lower planes. Why stop short here, because infinitely much happens when the Many find their points of union and meaning in the One?[52] We have said that infinitely much happens when the Many find their meaning in the One. A need of the nature has arisen which demands this, and it has arisen at its highest

interpreted from this highest standpoint. This is the essence of "characteristic" or specific religion. On the level of "universal" religion, God was seen from the standpoint of the world; in "characteristic" religion the world is seen from the standpoint of God. The appearance of the world is consequently different from each standpoint. All must now be viewed and valued from the standpoint of "characteristic" religion, from the standpoint of the One-the Godhead; and if humanity is ever to be brought to this standpoint, the nature and the meaning of the One have to be presented to it. And it is this, as Eucken shows, which has been partially accomplished by the religions of the world. Their founders were personaliti

world and of knowledge. He cannot remain here for any great length of time; he has to return to the world, but he is never again the same being after having scaled the "mount of transfiguration." "Religion holds as certain and conclusive that this new inner foundation is the greatest thing of all and the wonder of wonders, because it carries within itself the power and certainty of the overcoming of the old world and the creation of a new one; it is on account of this that religion longs for the conviction of the whole man, and brands the denial of this as pettiness and unbelief. The world may therefore remain to the external view as it appeared before-a kingdom of opposition and darkness; its hindrances within and without may seem to nullify everything else; they may contract and even seemingly destroy man and his spiritual potencies; all his acts m

le intrinsic truth which he knows to be far above all mere anthropomorphism. Eucken shows that it is not merely a human greatness that has been transferred to the Divine, but that the whole meaning here is a return to the source of a Divine Life and its mutual communication with man; and therefore the whole process is not an argument of man concerning the Divine, because the Divine has to be apprehended through the Divine within us. "All opposition to the idea of the Divine personality is ultimately explained by the fact that an energetic Life-process is wanting-a Life-process which entertains the question not so much from without as from within. Whenever such a Life-process is found, there is simultaneously found, often in overt contradiction to the formal doctrinal statement, an element of such a personal character of God."[56] But this immanent aspect of the idea of God is accompanied by a transcendent aspect. We have noticed already that the very nature of the Ought included a transcendent and objective aspect.[57] The same fact becomes evident in religious experience. The two poles-immanence and transcendence-are complementary. The former shows that something of the Divine nature has been implanted within human nature; the latter shows that more is in existence than we have already possessed. Spiritual norms n

dawn on any lower level; it is not on the lower levels a portion of spiritual experience. It seems as if an element of immortality is only to be gained at a certain height of the spiritual life. On all levels below, men seek for proofs in the analogies of Nature, in the supposed return of the spirits of the dead, and in the craving found in their own lives. All these proofs have one thing in common: they are all of a lower order of value than the meaning which the content of experience gives to immortality on its highest level. For at this highest level the proof is not something happening outside the man; it is the deepest part of his own being which now actually possesses a taste of life eternal. It seems, then, that there is no answer to the problem outside ourselves, because it is not something t

o a secondary place. They all belong to a point which the man has passed; they are milestones to which he can never return. "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet." As Eucken points out, "This is no other than the sign of spiritual power and of a Divine message and greatness." The movement from signs and miracles is a movement from the outward to the inward, from percept to spirituality; and the essence of religion, as a reality in itself and as an experience of the soul, is to be found by taking such a step. The centre of gravity of life has now been shifted from the outward to the inward. To accomplish this means nothing less than a struggle for the governing centre of life. Unless we succeed in this struggle, the inner life will reach no indep