United States or Hong Kong ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The world is beginning to get tired of the mechanism and shallowness of our age, and is once more on the point of turning to the spiritual fountains of life. Where can it find a better guide to lead it to the waters of life than in Rudolf Eucken?
And this is nothing other than that strength is perfected in weakness, and that in all things I can gain life eternal, so that cross and crown are compelled to serve and to contribute towards my salvation." Eucken shows how this idea of God comes from the Life-process itself.
But Eucken has no patience with such theories. For him the oppositions and contradictions of life are too real and persistent. The antagonisms "stir us with disgust and indignation." Evil cannot be considered trivial, and must not be glossed over; it is in the world, and the more deeply we appreciate the fact the better it will be for the human soul.
Faith is for Eucken "a conviction of an axiomatic character, which refuses to be analysed into reasons, and which, indeed, precedes all reasons ... the recognition of the inner presence of an infinite energy." If faith concerns itself with, and proceeds from the whole of life, it will then take account of the work of thought, and will not set itself in opposition to reason.
We wage it from the lofty point of view and with the conviction that Germany, as a result of her achievements and in proportion to them, is justified in asking, and must obtain, wider room on earth for development and for working out the possibilities that are in her." From the Manifesto of Professors Haeckel and Eucken, September, 1914.
And Eucken has done this as probably no other living philosopher has done it. If we turn to Immanent Idealism, we discover the same failure. It emphasises the presence within consciousness of what is idealistic and noble, but it leaves out the objective and imperative character of what is present.
Closely bound up with the Christian doctrine of redemption is that of mediation. Eucken believes that the Christian conception of mediation resulted from the feeling of worthlessness and impotence of man, and the aspirations which yet burned within him after union with the Divine.
Religious leaders have often had to be dragged to see the truth of this statement, and, as Eucken points out, many are still far from realising the seriousness of the cleft between knowledge and religion. The theology of the Middle Ages has not yet disappeared, although fortunately there are some signs of a great reconstruction going on in our midst.
A communion with the Godhead now takes place, and man finds himself in possession of experiences brought about without the intervention of the world. Thus "Universal" religion culminates in a "Characteristic" or personal religion. And to this culmination, as it is presented by Eucken, we now turn. On the level of "Universal" religion great changes have taken place in life.
Professor Windelband, in his History of Philosophy and elsewhere, describes Eucken as the creator of a new Metaphysic a metaphysic not of the Schools but of Life. This aspect will be discussed at fuller length in later pages, so that it may be passed over for the present. Eucken believes in the reality and necessity of his message.
Word Of The Day