tiieis:m
316
THENIUS
view of the conditions of the world, is the intermediate I idea udiiliiptalioii to anend, which, on the one hand, ini- jilies tlie possibility of a ditt'erently conditioned world- nrdcr. but, on the otiier, asserts that tiie existiiij;- order is most (lerfect, and jirojectcd in harmony with the ideas ' (lithe good and the beautiful. Tiiis result of an empir- ical observati<in of the world, which may infinitely en- larj;e itself by tlie study of particulars in all tlie depart- ments of nature, and may advance to a steadily in- creasing; denree of certainty, compels metaphysical tliouiilit to ascend to the idea of an absolute orii;inal i reason which determines tlie end ; to whose attributes, as demonstrated in the universe, human language is once j more unable to find other designations than perfect thought and a will which recpiires the good." It will be observed that the leading idea in this definition is the existence of God in audfor /liiiisc/J'. or of his abso- lute self-conscious being. The jirevalence of this idea determined the general current of specidation to disa- gree with the Hegelian doctrine of the Absolute, accord- ing to which God is impersonal and unconscious reason, and attains to consciousness of himself only in man. The distinction between ethical and naturalistic theism is of secondary importance, but, nevertheless, deserves notice to the extent of ol)scrving that it grew out of .Sclielling's advance towartls theistic views, in which he attained to the recognition of (iod as an independent Being, and as the '• Lord of Being ;" but as he persisted in retaining the theocentric position of his early teach- ings, and "derived" the finite world out of the absolute essence of God, he really conceived fif (iod simply as a cosmical principle, as the younger Fichte observes. Other jihilosophers followed in his track, e. g. the Ko- man Catholic Baader ((j. v.) ; but the representatives of the theistic tendency belonged rather to the school of Hegel than that of Schelling, as a rule, though they •• passed beyond" the master and differed widely among themselves, as they ailhered more or less closely to his views. The principal names in this class are J. H. Fichte (h'('dinf/inif/en chK'.i sprkiddtireii Thn.vnus [Elber- feld, bSoo]) and K. 1'. Fischer {Kiicijll . d.philos. Wissen- schdflen [Frankf.-on-JIain, 1M4H; vol. iii 1855J).
The present status of philosophical theism is signifi- cantly illustrated in the works of Chr. H. Weisse. 'J'his writer regards the dialectics of Hegel as the " completed form of philosophical in(|uiry," but rejects the panthe- ism to which its apidication brought Hegel. He holds tiiat the teleological jiroof is necessary to lead to the tlieistic idea of (iod and counteract the pantheistic ten- dency of the ontological and cosmological arguments. The world was created for (iod, and finds its end in him. Fn his absolute essence (iod is absolute personality, but necessarily a trinity of persons; and in this trinity the second person, or Son, prior to the creation, and inde- pendently of it, represents the eternal reason and f)ossi- bility of the creation of the world, but irilk the creation is "infused into it," "enters into it," "gives himself to it." This second person of the trinity is, however, to be regarded as the absolute Primus of the world, and not be identified with the latter, etc. To avoi(l the contradiction of an absolute dualism in the Deity, it be- comes necessary to postulate a third ])erson in the trin- ity, who proceeds from the Father and the .Son, and is coequal with them. In harmonv with this view, the creation is not to be regarded as "the effect of a suffi- cient reason, but as the result of the sclf-reniincidtion of the second Divine Personality." This self-renunciation, though represented as the free act of (iod, comes to pass, however, because only in creation can God become the " (iod who exists as (iod," the " really Supreme Be- ing," since "it is oidy tluis that ho can be the all-em- bracing, supermundane, self-conscious Divine Spirit in whom all newly originating beings arc ])reformed, and all existing ones are combined into a higher unity of ex|)ression or idea." At the point of his remmciation, the idea of God is seen to coincide with that which is usually termed matter; the activity of the Deity be-
coming the matter of the creation. See Weisse, Philo- .111/}//. DoijiiHitik oder Philusophie d. Christcnt/nims (Leips.
IX.J.")).
A review of the progress of theistic speculation re- veals the fact that the demands of pantheism (monism) have been fully met in the princi|ial endeavors to estab- lish the theistic conception of the world on a jihilo- so])hical basis. The world is represented as having emanated from the being — the nature, essentiality, sub- stance— of the Deity, as the realizing, renunciation, viewing, completing, of himself; his self-consciousness and subjectivity, liowever, being regarded as existing independentlj' of the world. But no similar justice has been done to the claims of deism; for the leading and fiuulamcntal demand of the deistic conception of the world is tlie idea of God as the Absolute Spirit who is ('t('r)i(d/// roDiplite in /»'w.«r-//" through bis absolute power and goodness, as contrasted with the world, which is bound fiy coiidilioiis and constantly engaged in the proc- ess of becoming and developing. This idea is contra- dicted by every view which makes the world to be in any way a part of the essence of (iod himself, since such a view transfers the becoming and developing condition of the world into the nature of Goii. The ubsolii/e is necessarily complete and perfect.