THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
is, in salvation, the mediator for the world and the community. The statement is to be explained by Christ’s words when he bases his rulership of the world on the fact that God alone knows him. He who is known and revealed by God alone stands for this very reason nearer to God than to the world; hence, in spite of his existence in the world, he is raised above it and has power over it. To God the Father, the Son of God, and the world he rules Paul adds a fourth quantity: the community which has been created in Christ from eternity. Hellenic philosophy always recognizes the morally cultured man as merely a part of the kosmos; Christianity, however, looks upon the man who is reconciled to God in Christ, who also works for the kingdom of God, as of greater value than the world. This view is a corollary of the knowledge that God is the Father of Jesus Christ and our Father. Although only a part of the universe is known to him, the Christian believes that the unity of the world is guaranteed by general laws and by a supreme law above all these. The use of this Biblical train of thought has always been checked in dogmatic theology by a Neoplatonic rationalism which holds medieval scholasticism higher than all the results of Scriptural exegesis. The scholastics before and after 6. Dogmatic the Reformation have always ap- Conception. proached the conception of God by looking away from the determination, limitation, and order of the world, and predicate as God the undetermined and unlimited Being. By attributing to this abstraction power and goodness, qualities which do not pertain to it, this God who is a negation of the world is looked upon as the creator of the world. A variant of this conception is the more recent one of the absolute, which, without relation to anything, therefore without relation to the world, has the quality of being in, by, and for itself. As the world is not made the basis of this absolute (cf. Rom. i. 19, 20), it does not express the concept of an almighty God. Indeed, the thinker who suppresses the world in order to look upon God as the absolute, must begin by suppressing himself, since as a thinking being he is a part of the world. The right understanding of the doctrine of God, however, is the recognition that Christ is the ground of our knowledge of God and of his relation to the world. He must therefore be conceived as Paul conceived him, as the aim of the world for which it was created. The religious explanation of the world assumes that all things redound to the benefit of those who are chosen and loved by God. The 7- Religious theological amplification of this thought Conception. does not have to deal with the investigation of each particular event; for the decrees and ways of God are usually unsearchable (Rom. xi. 33). The theological conception is that the whole world, the entire circle of the inter-
action of the forces of nature and man’s free will, are under the control of God, who directs all this for the salvation and bliss of his children among mankind, so that all experiences of ill also serve God’s purposes. In theological ethics, the world is used to signify earthly goods, in so far as they are temptations to sin. :Therefore, the Church catholic teaches that Christian perfection is to be sought by withdrawal from all the relations of life in common. This end could only be attained in the life of the hermit, not even in that of the cloister, since any community offers occasion for vexation and anger. Hence the rules given by Paul (Gal. vi. 14; Rom. xii. 2) can be understood to mean only that each individual Christian is peculiarly tempted by certain special worldly relations, and Christianity, therefore, requires that its followers should avoid those things which possess this quality for them. In general, however, the use of all worldly goods is permitted to the Christian since they give him an opportunity to prove the mastery of the world by the self-control he exhibits. (L. Dimstett; A. Rirscatt. Revised by J. WEIss.) Bisriocrapuy: For the Biblical side reference is to be made to the works named in and under BrsiicaL THEOLOGY, and to the commentaries on the passages cited. For the modern philosophic conceptions consult: L. Frobenius, Die Weltanschauung der Naturvélker, Weimar, 1898; W. Lutoslawski, Ueber die Grundvoraussetzungen und Consequenzen der individualistischen Weltanschauung, Helsingfors, 1898; W. Bender, Die Entstehung der Weltanschauungen im griechischen Altertum, Stuttgart, 1899; G. Mohr, Christliche Weltanschauung auf biblischen Grunde, Ulm, 1899; P. Paulsen, Die Gewisshett der christlichen Weltanschauung im modernen Geistleben, Stuttgart, 1900; R. Steiner, Welt- und Lebensanschauungen im 19. Jahrhundert, 2 vols., Berlin, 1900-01; K. A. von Hase, Die psychologische Begriindung der religidsen Weltanschauung wm XIX. Jahrhundert, ib. 1901; O. Hellberg, Die Welt unserer Begriffe, Halle, 1901; G. Meisel-Hess, In der modernen Weltanschauung, Leipsic, 1901; R. Eucken, Die Lebensanschauungen der grossen Denker, 4th ed., ib. 1902; A. Riischer, Géttliche Notwendigkeits-W eltanschauung, Teleologie, mechanische Naturansicht und Gottesidee, Zurich, 1902; A. Kalthoff, Religiise Weltanschauung, Leipsic, 1903; J. Baumann, Dichterische und wissenschaftliche Weltansicht, Gotha, 1904; idem, Welt- wnd Lebensansicht in thren realwissenschaftlichen und philosophischen Grundztigen, ib. 1906; R. Otto, Naturalistische und religidse Weltansicht, Tiibingen, 1904; L. Ragaz, Du_ sollst. Grundziige einer sittlichen Weltanschauung, 2d ed., Freiburg, 1904; H. Winckler, Die Weltanschauung des alten Orients, Leipsic, 1904; H. Gomperz, Weltanschauungslehre, vol. i., Methodologie, ib. 1905; J. Reiner, Aus der modernen Weltanschauung, Hanover, 1905; H. Bavinck, Christliche Weltanschauung, Heidelberg, 1907; J. Behrens, Die natiirliche Welteinheit. Bausteine zu einer idealistischen Weltanschauung, Wismar, 1907; LL. Busse, Die Weltanschauungen der grossen Philosophen der Neuzett, 3d ed., Leipsic, 1907; E. Dennert, Die Weltanschauung des modernen Naturforschers, Stuttgart, 1907; C. Wenzig, Die Weltanschauungen der Gegenwart im Gegensatz und Ausgleich. Einfiithrung in der Grundprobleme und Grundbegriffe der Philosophie, Leipsic, 1907; S. Arrhenius, The Life of the Universe, London, 1909; A. Heussner, Die philosophischen Weltanschauungen und ihre Hauptvertreter, Gottingen, 1910; P. W. Van Peyma, The Why of the Will: the Unity of the Universe, Boston, 1910; B. Kern, Weltanschauungen und Welterkenntnis, Berlin, 1911.