ed 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 [p.223]
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 [p.224] 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 br