Preliminary Considerations 7 



tent of their feelings and sensations, and hence the/orw 

 of their activities, is purely self-determined from with- 

 in 1 . The need of external stimulus is due to the limita- 

 tion of finite personality, and is not inherent in person- 

 alty per se. Personality is an ideal, and like all ideals 

 pertains in its unconditioned form only to the Infinite*. 

 In the present work we shall attempt to extend Lotze's 

 conception of self-conditioned personal activity, and to 

 show that it involves a triunity of functioning, that is 

 present even in human beings, and that supplies the 

 ground of reciprocity which is essential to a personal 

 being. In this way we shall be able more or less to avoid 

 Lotze's divorce between thought and experience, for we 

 shall see that the triune self can think itself as its own 

 other, and indeed that this self-thought is in itself a 

 necessary part of its experience. From such a concep- 

 tion, the step to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not 

 a long one. 



It is desirable then that we start with the definition 

 of immanence and a discussion of its problems, for since 

 we assume a God, on other grounds, the definition of 

 transcendence will largely formulate itself, by implica- 

 tion, as we proceed. 



The moment we conceive of God as immanent in His 

 creation two main classes of problems appear and de- 

 mand solution problems of His Activity, and problems 

 of Relativity. 



We may call these the conative and the epistemo- 

 logical problems, since Action involves Will, and Re- 

 lativity involves degrees of reality and hence God's 

 knowledge of process. 



Let us take action first. 



God created the universe and indwells it. What do 



1 Cf . the discussion on the freedom of emotion, injra, ch. iii. pp. 

 100-103. 

 1 Microcosmus, Bk IX. pp. 683 seqq. 



