RELIGION AND THE OTHER SCIENCES 271 



that the development of the consciousness of God in the history of 

 religion is always dependent upon the existing conditions of the two 

 united sides, the theoretical perception of the truth and the moral 

 standard of life. In the second place the result arises that the judg- 

 ment of the value of all appearances in the history of religion depends 

 as to whether and how far these appearances agree with the idea of 

 the true and the good, and correspond with the demands of reason 

 and conscience. That science which is engaged w r ith the idea of the 

 good we name Ethics; that which is engaged with the last principles 

 of the perception of truth, using the expression of Aristotle, we 

 may name Metaphysics, or following Plato Dialectic. Recognizing 

 then in the idea of God the synthesis of the idea of the true and the 

 good, the philosophy of religion is closely related with both, Ethics 

 and Metaphysics. 



At present the relation of religion to morality is an object of much 

 controversy. There are many who hold that morality without religion 

 is not only possible but also very desirable; since they are of the 

 opinion that moral strength is weakened, the will is without freedom, 

 and its motives corrupted on account of religious conceptions. On 

 the other hand, the Church, considering the experience of history, 

 finds that religion has ever proved itself to be the strongest and most 

 necessary aid to morality. In this contest the philosophy of religion 

 occupies the position of a judge who is called upon to adjust the rela- 

 tive rights of the parties. The philosophy of religion brings to light 

 the historical fact that from the very beginnings of human civilization, 

 social life and morality were closely connected with religious con- 

 ceptions and usages, and indeed always so interchangeable in their 

 influence that the position of social civilization on the one side cor- 

 responded with the position of religious civilization on the other, 

 just as the water-level in two communicating pipes. Therefore it 

 follows that it is unjust and not historical to blame religion on ac- 

 count of the defects of a national and temporal morality; for these 

 defects of morality, with the corresponding errors of religion, find a 

 common ground in a low stage of development of the entire civiliza- 

 tion of the people of the time and age. Further, it becomes the task 

 of the philosophy of religion to examine whether this correspondence 

 of religion and morality, recognized in history, is also found in the 

 very nature of morality and religion. This question in the main is 

 answered without doubt in the affirmative, for it is clear that the 

 religious feeling of dependence upon one all-ruling power is well 

 adapted not only to make keen the moral consciousness of obligation 

 and to deepen the feeling of responsibility, but also to endow moral 

 courage with power and to strengthen the hope of the solution of 

 moral purposes. The clearer religious faith comprehends the rela- 

 tion of man to God, so much the more will that faith prove itself as 



