IDEALISM AND SOCIAL LIFE 517 



the most universal, the most concrete, the most coherent, and the most 

 independent embodiment of rehgious idealism, and we therefore take it 

 into consideration before all other phenomena. But rehgious idealism is 

 not always thus incorporated, and, at any rate, it manifests itself as a 

 social power even in circles which are professedly outside, not only the 

 Church, but also every form of reUgion. And so strongly does it thus 

 manifest itself that it is able to produce a great effect on political move- 

 ments and on party organisation. Even in its non-religious and indeed 

 non-ecclesiastical form idealism, or, rather, the sum of idealistic endeavours, 

 constitutes a social force which continues to cause enthusiasm, to purify, 

 to heal, and to sanctify, even when the religion of the Church is but an 

 exterior appearance, and the Church itself corrupted. . . . 



" The Christian spirit acts as a vital power, as an idealistic force, out- 

 side the ecclesiastical forms in which it is expressed, and must, therefore, 

 still contribute to the ennobling of humanity, even should the various 

 historical forms of the Christian community be doomed to destruction 

 and disappearance. Even in its positively religious form, idealism does 

 not manifest itself only as an ecclesiastical discipline ; the ' invisible ' 

 Church must not be forgotten alongside of the visible one. Positive 

 rehgion lives and works as a fertile and luminous force not only within 

 the organised communities aflSliated to religious belief — in. the Church in the 

 narrow sense of the word — but within every form of human organisation." ^ 



WMle fully admitting, with Schaeffle, that rehgious ideahsm 

 manifests itself as a social power even in circles which are pro- 

 fessedly outside every form of rehgion— as it did in Robespierre 

 and the apostles of the " Rehgion of Virtue," and as it does 

 in the modem movement which seeks to detach ethics from all 

 connection with rehgion — nevertheless, if it is to manifest itself 

 integrally, if it is to reahse aU the potentiahties contained within 

 it, rehgious ideahsm must assume a concrete form in the shape 

 of a social institution. That form of rehgious ideahsm which 

 is best integrated in a coherent organisation permeating society 

 with its influence, will have the best chance of socialising the 

 conmnmity. Indeed, we may say that rehgious ideahsm can 

 only hope to be a social force in proportion as it is embodied ia 

 a coherent organisation ; a vague rehgious ideahsm, possessed 

 of no social organisation, and appealing only to the individual, 



1 A. SchaefBe, Bau und Ld)en des sozialen Korpers, ii. 394. Tubingen, 

 1896. 



