easier to deal with them than our theological reformers of to-day with their attempt to transform Christianity into a pure religion of reason.

"Why," asks Lang, "is it that in the Reformation the Catholic heaven with its saints fell and gave way to a far more colourless, much more unpoetical heaven?" The answer is again found in an advance of knowledge. But why is it, we ask, on the other hand, that this Catholic heaven amongst such enlightened nations as the French and Italians did not fall? Did Germany carry out the Reformation because it was ahead of all other nations in scientific knowledge, or has it in course of time been able to surpass the other nations in knowledge, because it had, from quite other reasons, broken down the ban of the hierarchy and of absolute unity of faith? When, finally, it is asked why the Protestant world is more and more turning away from orthodoxy, and when the answer is found in the influence of scientific discoveries, we must remark, on the other hand, that these discoveries come into the sharpest conflict just with what the reforming theologians propose to retain from the inventory of Christianity, while they are much more indifferent as regards other doctrines, as, e.g., that of the vicarious sacrifice of the Son of God. It is a narrow strip of land surrounded by the waves, upon which the reformed theology tries to maintain itself against the waves of invading Materialism, and nowhere is speculative imagination more necessary than just here, if a few dogmas must still be maintained. Lang himself, immediately after the criticism he directs against us, claims the fatherhood of God for his religious needs. But his God is nothing but "the ground of all existence, eternally complete within itself, and exempt from all the changes of the processes of the universe." He works no miracles, he has no human sympathies, he does not trouble himself in detail with the weal or woe of his creatures, he nowhere interferes with the course of natural laws; his existence rests merely upon this, that, in opposition to

Materialism, there is postulated, besides the mere totality of all that exists, also a special ground of it, and then from this ground of all existence is made a 'father.' Why? Because the soul cannot but imagine to itself a being that loves us personally, and that stretches out its strong arms to us when we are in need. Can we ask a stronger testimony of the imaginative element in religion? Homer did not always maintain his value, but he regained it when a generation arose that knew how to prize him, and the gods of Greece came to life again with him. When Schiller said of them, "Ah! that which gains immortal life in song, to mortal life must perish!" he knew very well that it is the essential element, the spiritual core of the Greek theology, which bas exercised its influence upon us, as it did upon Sokrates and Plato.

CHAPTER III.

THEORETICAL MATERIALISM IN ITS RELATION TO ETHICAL MATERIALISM AND TO RELIGION.

THE Materialism of antiquity was, in its ripest form, directed immediately and openly against religion, the complete annihilation of which Lucretius considered to be the most important business of man. The Materialism of the last centuries frequently betrays the same tendency, but it only rarely shows itself openly, and, when it does so, is usually directed rather against Christianity than against religion as such. The thought of a gradual purification of popular belief from all superstitious elements has taken such deep root, that most of the adversaries of superstition involuntarily exhibit this tendency, even where their proper principle goes much further. Since Voltaire pursued the Church and the Church's creed with implacable hate, although anxious to retain belief in God, the shock of the storm has ever been directed, above all, against orthodoxy, against the literalism of traditional dogmas; while the foundation of all belief, the feeling of dependence upon superterrestrial powers, is but seldom attacked, and is often. expressly recognised. The philosophical modifications and interpretations, the artifices of translation and transference, which succeed in educing out of the 'ground of all existence' a loving Father, play a great part in the development of young clerics, a somewhat smaller one in the maintenance of a certain connexion between the

popular faith and the ideas of the educated, and hardly any at all in the attacks made upon religion by Materialists and other apostles of unbelief. The way in which scientific theology reconciles itself with dogmas is often strikingly ignored; the freer middle stand-points, the spiritualised conception of ecclesiastical traditions, are overlooked, and Christianity is pitilessly made responsible for all the crudities of the vulgar creed, and all the excrescences of extreme opinions. But for all this, a Christianity purified from all superstition,' a 'pure theology,' or even a 'religion without dogmas,' is very frequently admitted as an indispensable element in the life of humanity.

The effects of this kind of polemic are easily seen. The great mass of more or less enlightened theologians do not feel themselves at all hit by these attacks, and look down with disdain upon the 'want of science' in such opponents. Believers are hurt by the mockery against what to them is sacred, and turn away from all criticism, even in cases where, but for such attacks, they might themselves, perhaps, have been disposed to exercise it. The only conquests are of minds that are hesitating and have long been strangers to belief, who are impressed by the confidence of the new apostles; while all those are strengthened and still more embittered against believers, who already belonged to the party of Materialism and of radical enlightenment. The result is an exacerbation of the oppositions that distract the life of our people, an aggravation of the difficulty of the peaceful solution of the problem of the future.

Very different must be the effect of a polemic which should seriously and decidedly dispute the very continuance of religion. Our own age, it is true, still offers material enough for the Lucretian Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum,' and it would be well worth while for once to examine more closely the relation between the fruits of the tree and its roots. If able and pious theo

logians, like Richard Rothe,13 can entertain the thought that the Church must gradually be absorbed in the State, it would be well for the freethinkers, on their side too, to subject to a strict criticism the dualism of political life and of religious community, instead of blindly transferring the old forms into an entirely different content. We have recently seen a fraction amongst the Free Congregations,' not only throwing overboard every remnant of the old articles of faith, but even finding a special sign of progress in the rejecting of the solemn and ceremonial performance of certain acts which have reference to the relation of the individual to the religious community. Baptism,' for example, which hitherto has been combined with a solemn exhortation to the parents as to the training up of the child, and with a recommendation of the child to the goodwill of all the members of the congregation, was given up, because it contained an unnecessary interference of the clergyman, and, therefore, a remnant of priestly authority. Ronge, Baltzer, and other former leaders of the movement, who adhere to definite although very general doctrines, and correspondingly simple forms of worship, are frequently treated by men of this school as arrogant priests, and are almost ranked with the infallible Pope.14 At the same time, congregations continue to be formed, preachers are appointed, and edification is found, as far as it may be found, in the monotonous repetition of negation. Frequently, indeed, the limit between congregation and association becomes vague, partly, it is true, through the fault of the state, which still opposes great hindrances to the freedom of associations, while it allows the formation of religious communities with an infinitesimal minimum of religion. Sometimes men have appeared as preachers in such con

13 Comp. Stille Stunden, Aphorismen aus Richard Rothes handschriftl. Nachlass, Wittenberg, 1872, S. 273 ff., 319 ff.

14 Comp. the essay Die neue Bilderstürmerei, in the paper Neue religiöse Reform, Darmstadt, 1874, Nos. 29-31, by Johannes Ronge.