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Lecture XIX







OTHER CHARACTERISTICS







We have wound our way back; after our excursion through mysticism



and philosophy; to where we were before:  the uses of religion;



its uses to the individual who has it; and the uses of the



individual himself to the world; are the best arguments that



truth is in it。  We return to the empirical philosophy:  the true



is what works well; even though the qualification 〃on the whole〃



may always have to be added。  In this lecture we must revert to



description again; and finish our picture of the religious



consciousness by a word about some of its other characteristic



elements。  Then; in a final lecture; we shall be free to make a



general review and draw our independent conclusions。







The first point I will speak of is the part which the aesthetic



life plays in determining one's choice of a religion。  Men; I



said awhile ago; involuntarily intellectualize their religious



experience。  They need formulas; just as they need fellowship in



worship。  I spoke; therefore; too contemptuously of the pragmatic



uselessness of the famous scholastic list of attributes of the



deity; for they have one use which I neglected to consider。  The



eloquent passage in which Newman enumerates them'301' puts us on



the track of it。  Intoning them as he would intone a cathedral



service; he shows how high is their aesthetic value。  It enriches



our bare piety to carry these exalted and mysterious verbal



additions just as it enriches a church to have an organ and old



brasses; marbles and frescoes and stained windows。  Epithets lend



an atmosphere and overtones to our devotion。  They are like a





hymn of praise and service of glory; and may sound the more



sublime for being incomprehensible。  Minds like Newman's'302'



grow as jealous of their credit as heathen priests are of that of



the jewelry and ornaments that blaze upon their idols。







'301' Idea of a University; Discourse III。  Section 7。







'302' Newman's imagination so innately craved an ecclesiastical



system that he can write:  〃From the age of fifteen; dogma has



been the fundamental principle of my religion:  I know no other



religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of



religion。〃  And again speaking of himself about the age of



thirty; he writes:  〃I loved to act as feeling myself in my



Bishop's sight; as if it were the sight of God。〃  Apologia; 1897;



pp。 48; 50。















Among the buildings…out of religion which the mind spontaneously



indulges in; the aesthetic motive must never be forgotten。  I



promised to say nothing of ecclesiastical systems in these



lectures。  I may be allowed; however; to put in a word at this



point on the way in which their satisfaction of certain aesthetic



needs contributes to their hold on human nature。  Although some



persons aim most at intellectual purity and simplification; for



others RICHNESS is the supreme imaginative requirement。'303' When



one's mind is strongly of this type; an individual religion will



hardly serve the purpose。 The inner need is rather of something



institutional and complex; majestic in the hierarchic



interrelatedness of its parts; with authority descending from



stage to stage; and at every stage objects for adjectives of



mystery and splendor; derived in the last resort from the Godhead



who is the fountain and culmination of the system。  One feels



then as if in presence of some vast incrusted work of jewelry or



architecture; one hears the multitudinous liturgical appeal; one



gets the honorific vibration coming from every quarter。  Compared



with such a noble complexity; in which ascending and descending



movements seem in no way to jar upon stability; in which no



single item; however humble; is insignificant; because so many



august institutions hold it in its place; how flat does



evangelical Protestantism appear; how bare the atmosphere of



those isolated religious lives whose boast it is that 〃man in the



bush with God may meet。〃'304' What a pulverization and leveling



of what a gloriously piled…up structure!  To an imagination used



to the perspectives of dignity and glory; the naked gospel scheme



seems to offer an almshouse for a palace。







'303' The intellectual difference is quite on a par in practical



importance with the analogous difference in character。  We saw;



under the head of Saintliness; how some characters resent



confusion and must live in purity; consistency; simplicity



(above; p。 275 ff。)。  For others; on the contrary;



superabundance; over…pressure; stimulation; lots of superficial



relations; are indispensable。  There are men who would suffer a



very syncope if you should pay all their debts; bring it about



that their engagements had been kept; their letters answered



their perplexities relieved; and their duties fulfilled; down to



one which lay on a clean table under their eyes with nothing to



interfere with its immediate performance。  A day stripped so



staringly bare would be for them appalling。  So with ease;



elegance; tributes of affection; social recognitionssome of us



require amounts of these things which to others would appear a



mass of lying and sophistication。







'304' In Newman's Lectures on Justification Lecture VIII。 



Section 6; there is a splendid passage expressive of this



aesthetic way of feeling the Christian scheme。  It is



unfortunately too long to quote。















It is much like the patriotic sentiment of those brought up in



ancient empires。  How many emotions must be frustrated of their



object; when one gives up the titles of dignity; the crimson



lights and blare of brass; the gold embroidery; the plumed



troops; the fear and trembling; and puts up with a president in a



black coat who shakes hands with you; and comes; it may be; from



a 〃home〃 upon a veldt or prairie with one sitting…room and a



Bible on its centre…table。  It pauperizes the monarchical



imagination!







The strength of these aesthetic sentiments makes it rigorously



impossible; it seems to me; that Protestantism; however superior



in spiritual profundity it may be to Catholicism; should at the



present day succeed in making many converts from the more



venerable ecclesiasticism。  The latter offers a so much richer



pasturage and shade to the fancy; has so many cells with so many



different kinds of honey; is so indulgent in its multiform



appeals to human nature; that Protestantism will always show to



Catholic eyes the almshouse physiognomy。  The bitter negativity



of it is to the Catholic mind incomprehensible。  To intellectual



Catholics many of the antiquated beliefs and practices to which



the Church gives countenance are; if taken literally; as childish



as they are to Protestants。  But they are childish in the



pleasing sense of 〃childlike〃innocent and amiable; and worthy



to be smiled on in consideration of the undeveloped condition of



the dear people's intellects。  To the Protestant; on the



contrary; they are childish in the sense of being idiotic



falsehoods。  He must stamp out their delicate and lovable



redundancy; leaving the Catholic to shudder at his literalness。 



He appears to the latter as morose as if he were some hard…eyed;



numb; monotonous kind of reptile。  The two will never understand



each othertheir centres of emotional energy are too different。 



Rigorous truth and human nature's intricacies are always in need



of a mutual interpreter。'305' So much for the aesthetic



diversities in the religious consciousness。







'305' Compare the informality of Protestantism; where the 〃meek



lover of the good;〃 alone with his God; visits the sick; etc。;



for their own sakes; with the elaborate 〃business〃 that goes on



in Catholic devotion; and carries with it the social excitement



of all more complex businesses。  An essentially worldly…minded



Catholic woman can become a visitor of the sick on purely



coquettish principles; with her confessor and director; her



〃merit〃 storing up; her patron saints; her privileged relation to



the Almighty; drawing his attention as a professional devote; her



definite 〃exercises;〃 and her definitely recognized social pose



in the organization。















In most books on religion; three things are represented as its



most essential elements。  These are Sacrifice; Confession; and



Prayer。  I must say a word in turn of each of these elements;



though briefly。  First of Sacrifice。







Sacrifices to gods are omnipresent in primeval worship; but; as



cults have grown refined; burnt offerings and the blood of



he…goats have been superseded by sacrifices more spiritual in



their nature。  Judaism; Islam; and Buddhism get along without



ritual sacrifice; so does Christianity; save in so far as the



notion is preserved in transfigured form in the mystery of



Christ's atonement。  These religions substitute offerings of the



heart; renunciations of the inner self; for all those vain



oblations。  In the ascetic practices which Islam; Buddhism; and



the older Christianity encourage we see how indestructible is the



idea that sacrifice of some sort is a religious exercise。  In



lecturing on asceticism I spoke of its significance as symbolic



of the sacrifices which life; whenever it is taken strenuously;



calls for。'306'  But; as I said my say about those; and as these



lectures expressly avoid earlier religious usages and questions



of derivation; I will pass from the subject of Sacrifice



altogether and turn to that of Confession。







'306' Above; p。 354 ff。















In regard to Confession I will also be most brief; saying my word



about it psychologically; not historically。  Not nearly as



widespread as sacrifice; it corresponds to a more inward and



moral stage of sentiment。  It is part of the general system of



purgation and cleansing which one feels one's self in need of; in



order to be in right relations to one's deity。  For him who



confesses; shams are over and realities have begun; he has



exteriorized his rottenness。  If he has not actually got rid of



it; he at least no longer smears it over with a hypocritical show



of virtuehe lives at least upon a basis of veracity。  The



complete decay of the practice of confession in Anglo…Saxon



communities is a little hard to account for。  Reactio

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