RELIGION AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1611, 30 November 1912, Page 9

RELIGION AND MODERN THOUGHT.

EUCKEN, BERGSON, AND WARD. SOME INTERESTING OPINIONS. "Future ages may find in Eucken tho greatest force in. the revulsion, of' tho twentieth contury from the extreme materialistic position," says Dr. A. J. Jones. Tho distinguished Professor Rudolf Eucken, cf Jena, has just gone bo deliver a. course of'lectures at Harvard University, and the "Harvard Theological Reviow" publishes a remarkable article from his pen in which lie points out "AVliat is driving men back to Teligion to-day." "Ho is but a' superficial observer of the times wlio can tliink that the movement of life to-day is altogether against, religion, and that only the denial of religion lias the spirit of the ago with it," writes Professor Eucken. ■ "For, certain as it is that blatant denial still holds the. public ear aad is moro and more permeating the masses, yet in tho work of tho intellect, and likowise in the depths of men's souls, tho case is different. Here, with' ever greater vigour, is springing up the feeling that religion is indispensable, the yearning. for religion. "What is understood by religion is often anything, but clear, and often very different from the. traditional forms of religion; but the'demand is unmistakable for more depth of life and for the establishment of profounder inner connections than our visible existence affords. In tho spiritual life of the present day, molecular transformations arc taking place; inconspicuous at first, but constantly increasing, which will eventually burst upon our view, and which will necessarily provoke essential changes in the entire condition of life. To-day this movement is still an undercurrent, and on the surfaco the tide flows in the opposite direction. But more and more thoi undercurrent is rising to ■ the surface, and. unless every indication fails, it will soon come into control. ■ •

Civilisation Does Not-Satisfy. ".The most fundamental reason for this tendency may be' indicated' by a singly sentence: .- ' "It is caused by the increasing dissatisfaction with modern civilisation, -or at least villi those aspects of civilisation wliich now occupy the surface of life. "All the splendour of the external successes of civilisation cannot hide the fact that it does not satisfy the whole mail with his inner needs, and that the amelioration of the world around us which it has accomplished does not compensate for the inner emptiness of its excessive. concentration of effort on the visible world, its secularisation of life. "We moderns have'set ourselves at' work with all our might, have acquired technical perfection, have .combined iso-. lated achievements into great systems.. By th'e increased efficiency of our labour .we have increasingly, subdued the world, and at the same time have imposed upon human society a far more rational form. But, -while we' have given every, care and effort to the means and conditions of life, we have exposed ourselves to the risk of losing life itself, and while. performing astounding external feats, inwardly we have become smaller and smaller. Ourwork has separated itself from our souls, and it now reacts overmasteringly upon them, threatening to. absorb them utterly. Our own creations have become our mas-. ters and oppressors. Moreover, as -the division of labour increases, work constantly becomes more specialised and engages an ever, smaller part, of each' individual soul; tile whole man comes less and less to activity, and we lose any superior .unity of our nature. Thus.more and more we become mere ' parts of a civilisation-machine; "In" contrast to the enormously expanded space and time which nature-has opened to modern research, the whole hu"man circle'is shrinking; into tiny littleness. Rightly did William James emphasise. the fact that for;'one" hundred and" fifty years progress seeiiis to have meant nothing but a continual magnifying of the .material world and a steady, diminuv tion uf the importance of man. . <

Are We Nobler; Men? , "If only wo were quite sure tliafc pll our;pains and caro ami haste were bringing about progress for the whole of hu-. man life! ' But that, again, .we'are'not. lYue, we are constantly advancing in exact science, as we are in the technical mastery of our environment; we are compelling the elements into pur service; we are freeing our'existence .'from pain and enriching it with pleasure. But are we by all that winning a closer connection with the depths of reality? Ae we growing in spiritual power.as-in ethical sentiment? Are we becoming greater and nobler men? -As life gains m\-pleasure, do our . inner coiitentnifoit and true happiness increase in due proportion? In truth, we are growing only in our relations to the wo rid outside, not in the. essence of our being; and hence the question is not to l>e'evaded,- whether the -unspeakable toil of modern civilisation is worth while. We work' and work, and know not* to what end; for in giving up eternity we have also lost every inner bond of-the ages and all power of comprehensive view. Without a guiding star we drift 011 the waves of the time. "Men crave more lovo and more solidarity in the human race than modern civilisation affords, and that, too, is driving men to religion. Christianity not only liad made love the kernel of religion, but also,, starting from a Kingdom of God, it had established an inner human, solidarity and created an organisation on a spiritual foundation. ■ "The same .principles which govern' individual conduct are extended to social groups and entire nations; self-interest is the single rule of action, the moral 6olidarity of mankind is relaxed and dissolved. The. danger is imminent that the end may. be.a.war of all against all. Undoubtedly the resulting rivalry and strife has effected ntach'that is great; it'has given life a thorough shaking up, and banished all idle repose. "And on this new foundation cohesive forces are by no means lacking. Such a force in particular is Work, which with its growth to great combinations perfects organisation, assigns to each single element a definite part, and binds them all firmly together. But such gearing together of performances by no means amounts to harmony of sentiment; if it. did, the antinomies of the social question, and our economic conflicts would bo impossible.

Inner Human Bonds. "Among the monstrous confusions of the present time the demand for stable connections grows insistent, connections which shall tako conoern both for the common weal and for the individual. If, however, this demand plants itself wholly 011 tho basis of the visible world and de-. nies everything invisible, it must inevitably assume tho form of a harsh oppression and compulsion, for it can prodube its effects not through conviction but solely through force. In the social-de-mocratic movement of the present such a danger already 6hows itself in full distinctness. But while, the modem man struggles with all his soul against such a compulsion, a solution of the entanglement is to 1)0 sought in no other direction than that of a recovery of inner human bonds and of reoourso to an inner world, common to all, of convictions, faith, ideals. We need to upbuild humanity from within, and this cannot bo done without a profound deepening of life, and this in turn is not possible without religion. "Soul, eternity,- love—these are not brought to us quickly and painlessly by tho world about us; they require an inner elevation, they demand a new world. * "By no readjustment within the liu--man circle can greatness bo given to man, if human nature is not capable of elevation from within, if man is a mere natural being. "Just because our lifo is ever growing more intense and more laborious, wo must unconditionally demand that it bo given an aim and a meaning. Therefore, in ail deeper sfluls to-dav is stirring a demand for an inner uplift of human nature, for a now idealism. And this demand will necessarily have to seek an alliance with religion. No mutter how many opponents religion may still encounter, nevertheless, stronger than' all < pponents, stronger even than all intellectual difficulties, is the necessity of the {spiritual' self-prcßWvation -. of '.humanity tind- of mo.n. Out of tho vory resistance fa tho tuenaoo of cjiniMlaUon. will procofid ele-_.

mentol foroes—which are the" strongest thing in tho world. . The Old That Ages Not. "Thus, though it be through a course of hard lights and radical upheavals (as history indirectly tends to prove), religion will surely come to now ascendency. But tho return to religion by no means signifies a return to tho old forms of religion. Through modern culturo too much in tho condition of life has been changed for lis to resume theso forms unchanged. Religion will win back men's souls so much the 600ner, the more energetically it harks back to its original sources, the more sharply, it separates the temporal and the eternal in their own spheres, and so brings the eternal to now effectiveness and sets it in close and fruitful relation to the real needs of tho present. The superiority of tho eternal consists not in that it persists unchanged within 't/me, but in that it can enter all times without losing itself in.them, and from them'all can elicit that' particular portion of truth which their endeavour holds. "Tho old that ages, ho must let go, who would hold fast the old that ages not."(Runeberg.) "Without religion genuine optimism is impossible." THE OPTIMISM OF BERGSON. MAKING ALL THINGS NEW. Tho influence of Bergson on tho thoughtful men of the North of England is growing, and the Rev. Herbert Brook, M.A., referred to this fact in his sermon 011 a recent Sunday, night at Oak Street Congregational Church, Accrington. Mr. Brook said that in Accrington they had organised a. ministers' fraternal in which tho Nonconformist ministor met in friendly relations with the Anglican clergyman, and at a recent meeting they had carefully examined tlio influence of Bergsonism upon the doctrines of Christianity, and the social and industrial problems of the day. It was a remarkable fact that Bergson, one of the keenest, most brilliant, and most influential of the philo-. sopliers-of modern Europe, should reject the statement of the writer of Ecclesiastes that. there is no new thing under the sun, and should enthusiastically support Christ's statement as to tho possibility of making'all things new. Bergson believes that at every moment of time the universe in which'we live is being mado afresh. Every .moment witnesses a new creative act or an infinite series of new creative aetions. Rushing through ... all things, plants, animals, and man, there .is a mighty current called the vital impulse. It was not yet possiblo, unfortunately, to say with certainty that Bergson accepted the Christian conception of God. In his book, "Creative Evolution," ho had, indeed, said that "God thus defined"—that is, defined as a centre from which flew wonders shoot out like rockets in a firework display—"has nothing of the already made; He is unceasing life, action, freedom." In other words, wherever this vital- impulse rushes it creates new life, new hopes, new men, possibly new worlds. Tho transcendent value of this part of. Bergson's teaching lay in the further fac.t that all men and women also have tho power to make all things new. The vital impulse that rises in tho being of God—if we may anticipate Bergson's doctrine of God in his forthcoming book— this vital impulse rushes through the transient channels of your life In a single word, each one of us, if we will, can be continually shooting, out our 'tiny rockets of vital impulse into the sphere of our homes, our towns, our council chambers, our wills, our churches. And when these rockets burst, as they ; always are bursting,. they fill the sky with sparkling showers of new creative life. . If all this is true, it follows that God, ;Christ 4 and man, working together, can produce a new kind of social order—entirely free from want, injustice, and oppression. A large number of Christian men even do not seem to think so.. They are sodden with' the pessimism of Ecclesiastes. rather than elated and electrified by' the Gospel of Christ wi the teaching of Henri Bergson. They say:_ The slum lias, always existed, in the city—it will alwhy^e'xist.'':-'Tho'abnormally. rich 'man, at one end of the scale,- and the pauper at the other, always- have existed—they always will exist;' the fight between emplover and employed always has existed— -•it always will exist. Such pessimistic language could be heard in the .loom-gates of the cotton liiills of .Lancashire' and in the drawing-rooms of cotton lords. But no fully-developed- Christian- could • -adopt such a'creed. No true follower of Bergson could descend to such a profound abyss of pessimism. God is making all things new. Christ is making all things new. And, if they will, men. and women can make all things new. PHILOSOPHY AS GOOD TIDINGS. ' A POWERFUL PLEA FOR HOPEFUL FAITH. In a review in'"Mind" of Dr. James Ward's Gifford Lectures, entitled "The ■Realm of Ends or Pluralism and Theism," Professor A. E. v Taylor, of St. Andrew's University, Scotland, writes:— The first thing which strikes one about the work as a whole is that in it philosophy honestly appears as a gospel, or good tidings, which brings us hope that reason is -on .the side of those who affirm, not of those who politely,, or otherwise, deny or ignore the ideals which are the spiritual meat and drink, of /"men of good will." Dr. Ward presents us with'a most powerful plea for hopeful' faith in a genuine God and a genuine'life to come; nay more, he finds room in the world for prayer as an actual intercourse with God, and even for something, as he himself notes, not far.removed from the Christian doctrines of purgatory, angels, . and intercession. Many, of us, who are still far from being old,' are . old enough to realise what a cfiange this means in the temper and whole outlook on life of official philosophy. It means that, unless Dr. Ward can bo put to silence, tho "polite atheism" of the. Spinozistic doctrines which we were taught in our e<}ger youth on the alleged authority of Hegel, as the last word of a triumphant Philosophy which had seen through everything and found mutability and corruption everywhere but in its heartless "Absolute," havo gone the way of the Naturalism to which his earlier Gifford lectures gave the coup de grace. We are free again to believe, free ,to' trust what we have felt all along to be our instinctive convictions just in our worthiest and most earnest moments, and freo also humbly to. admit pur human incapability to solve all the questions which the world puts to us. A younger genera-, tion, which lias' never known what 'it is to be in bondage to tho "Absolute" as 'oonceived by Neo-Hegelian philosophy, will perhaps hardly.be able to understand, how much the deliverance means to those who had to fight their way out of Egypt.' And this is not all. The deliverance which Dr. Ward offers us involves no such desperate' feats as the salvation promised us by Professor James and his followers on tho condition of making jettison of logic and stifling the demands of the intellect for a faith which shall bo reasonable as well as living. We are not called on to explain away truth into practical utility, or to establish a license for every one to believe or disbelieve just what he pleases. The faith to which Dr. Ward seeks to lead us is-simply a natural extension of the practical reason itself, and in sheer logical acumen, in my judgment at least, lie has the better of his antagonists-in. every pass of- arms. • Ho gives us a philosophy armed with which wo need not be ashamed to render account to the,critic of the faith .that is in us, and on the strength of which we may coll on others not merely to respect our own "G-laubensfreiheit" but to make our belief their own.