science have, in modern times, come into
direct conflict with religion. Traditional religion has grown up on a
view of the universe which has been [p.58] utterly discarded by modern
knowledge. 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. Fortunately, this naive view of the universe is a
theology and not a religion; but doubtless even the religion of the soul
suffers when its _knowing_ aspect is perpetually contradicted by
scientific knowledge. There is such a close connection between "head"
and "heart"--even closer than between body and mind--that the use of
discarded theories of the universe and of life cannot but prove
injurious to the deepest source of life.

The mental conceptions of religion have, in the course of the ages,
undergone many transformations, and there is no reason why another
transformation should gradually not come about in the present. In Hebrew
and Greek times we discover a polytheism, after a long course of
development, emerging into henotheism, and finally, here and there, into
monotheism. The old conceptions of gods and spirits present in trees and
wells, mountains and air, are overcome. They are not so much destroyed
as supplanted by higher conceptions. In pre-Socratic philosophy we find
the gods and [p.59] spirits relegated to a secondary place, and Nature
is conceived as a system of inner energies and strivings. In these
conceptions Man is drawn closer to Nature, and the connection of his
life is shown to be closely interwoven with the life of Nature. But the
empirical aspect of this teaching was pushed into the background through
the teachings of Socrates and Plato. The "myth" regained some of its
pristine power in a new kind of way; and "God transcendent of the world
and immanent in the world" came prominently forward as a doctrine of the
universe and of life. This is the kernel of the Christian theology,
constructed through the blending of Hebrew and Greek philosophies. Such
a conception remained very largely the philosophy as well as the
theology of the Christian Church until the seventeenth century. During
this long interval hardly any progress was made in the investigation of
Nature,