must therefore include a "world-denial and a
world-renewal." There is not enough for man's deeper nature either in
the physical world or in the ordinary life of the hour. The natural
world knows of no complete self-subsistence, for everything is connected
with its environment, and it is in this connection with its environment
that life below man largely obtains its existence. But in man we
discover a transition stage from the sensuous to the non-sensuous, and
it is in the latter that the meaning of the former can be obtained. The
history of civilisation and culture is a history of this all-important
fact. The meaning of man is, therefore, not to be found in his
relationship to the physical world, but in his own consciousness.
Although we may not be aware of it, consciousness is the power which, in
the long and slow progress of the ages, has overcome the sensuous and
made it subservient to the [p.32] meaning and value which its own
content of experience has presented. The necessity and proof of religion
are not then discovered in anything in the external world, but in the
realisation of the fact that we are meant to be citizens of a world
higher in its nature, the birthright of which is to be found within our
own nature. The conquest of nature and the growth of culture are proofs
to man of his superiority to the world of sense impressions. This denial
of the sufficiency of the world of sense in the evolution of the human
soul, on the one hand, and the affirmation of the potentiality of a
higher world of spirit on the other hand, constitute the nucleus of the
Christian religion. Its superiority consists in giving their rights to
both worlds, and also in showing that they do not possess the same
value. This essential nature of Christianity will be demonstrated later.

We must return, then, to consciousness itself and see what may be
discovered within it concerning the meaning of religion. The great
thinkers of the ages have all been agreed as to the impossibility of
finding sufficient proofs and meanings of religion either from Nature or
from some supernatural source flowing in a miraculous manner towards our
earth. The growth and interpretation of natural science in modern times
have rendered it impossible to find proofs of religion in any external
mode. Yet the problems of man's [p.33] Whence and Whither raise
themselves with energy and even tragedy in our own day. These, as Eucken
points out, are "problems concerning ou