Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/117

 B.

THE RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE.

In the doctrine of God we have God before us as object, simply by Himself. The relation of God to man, it is true, has a place in it as well; and while, according to the prevailing ideas of earlier times, this relation did not appear to form an essential part of the doctrine, modern theology, on the other hand, treats more of religion than of God. All that is required of man is that he should be religious; this is the main point, and it is even regarded as a matter of indifference whether a man knows anything of God or not; or it is held that religion is something entirely subjective, and that man has really no knowledge of the nature of God. In the Middle Ages, on the contrary, it was the essential Being of God that was principally considered and defined. We have to recognise the truth which is involved in the modern view, namely, that God is not to be considered apart from the subjective spirit; this, however, not on the ground that God is an Unknown, but because God is essentially Spirit, exists as Spirit which knows. We have here thus a relation of Spirit to Spirit. This relation of Spirit with Spirit lies at the foundation of religion.

If, accordingly, we should consider ourselves as exempted from the necessity of beginning with the proof of the existence of God, it would still remain for us to prove that religion exists, and that it is necessary; for philosophy cannot assume its object as given.

It might, indeed, be said that such proof is needless, and it might be asserted in support of this that all peoples are religious. But this is only of the nature of an assumption, and the expression “all” at once involves us in certain difficulties. For there are peoples of whom it can scarcely be said that they have a religion; their Highest, which they worship in a way, is the sun, the