Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/584

558 of the church in that he fights against its doctrines and institutions; the peculiar relationship of theology to philosophy, and the content of philosophy down to our own day, afford the best proof of the strength of ecclesiastical influence. For practical purposes, the mass of indifferents simply comply with the demands of the church. On the supremely important occasions of birth, marriage, and death, even the indifferent is compelled to reflect upon the meaning of life, and there the church stands ready to help him.

Whilst those hostile to the church are fond of assuring us that the church to-day influences none but women and children, herein we see confirmation of the fact that the church influences adults as well. Not one of us can escape the impressions and influences emanating from the church, influences that have affected him during childhood, that have affected him as a member of society. We know that the influences operative during childhood are largely decisive for the rest of life.

As early as the third century, the church was a finished structure, and thenceforward exercised its educative and formative influence on society in virtue of the recognition accorded to it as supreme authority. For Russia in particular we have to remember that the Byzantine church was taken over as a ready-made theocratic organisation, and that as such it exercised its influence upon the Russian state and upon Russian society.

HE profoundest theme, nay, the one theme of the history of the universe and of mankind, the theme to which all others are subordinated, is the conflict between faith and unfaith." Goethe's saying has been confirmed anew by our own philosophico-historical analysis. The content of history is the peculiar struggle of the critical understanding with myth, the struggle between critical and scientific thought on the one hand and mythology on the other.

During the eighteenth century this struggle reached a turning-point in the thought of Hume and Kant, but it still continues, and the crowning task of the present is to create the religion and the religious organisation of society that will be in conformity with the demands of the critical understanding. To