84. C. A. Friedrich - The Worldview of a Modern Christian

Leipzig 1897

There will always be people whose feelings, whose emotional life lags behind the knowledge that progressive science and experience impose on them. What has taken possession of the heart is not so easily refuted by rational insight. Everything that is said about the struggle between faith and knowledge can ultimately be traced back to the opposition that exists between the traditional powers that have taken root in the mind and the ideas and concepts to which reason cannot close itself off. Strong natures will not feel this struggle. They either remain faithful to the habitual ideas they have inherited from their fathers and reject all new insights, or they sail full steam ahead into the new and tear their hearts away from the traditional. Weak natures, on the other hand, waver uncertainly back and forth between the old and the new. They cannot let go of the old; they cannot reject the new. It is then they who make the reconciliation of faith and knowledge, of religion and cognition, the object of their contemplation. The Austrian archbishop who once said: "The Church knows no progress" was a strong nature. A strong nature is Ernst Haeckel, who simply puts the content of modern natural insight in the place of the old religion. A weak personality, on the other hand, is the author of the above-mentioned writing. He has the highest respect for modern knowledge. He wants this knowledge to be as fruitful as possible. But everything he says about modern views is influenced by Christian religious sentiments. He seeks to reconcile Christian feeling and modern thinking. For him, desire is the father of thought. He wants modern knowledge to be disseminated as widely as possible, and he also wants people to feel Christian. He provides the "proof" that the more modern man becomes, the more Christian he will become. For those who have already absorbed the modern insights into their feelings, into their hearts, Friedrich's "proofs" are not proofs at all. Nor does he need such evidence. For it is clear to him that it is possible to live perfectly well with the modern world view if only one has settled into it. He brings all warmth of feeling, all enthusiasm to the ideas of this world view, just as our ancestors did to Christian ideas. But the author of the book "Weltanschauung eines modernen Christen" has warmth of heart for the old ideas and coldness of mind for the modern views. He therefore tries in vain to extract the feelings that have arisen from Christian theology from the new insights. Due to the strict, sympathetic attitude that speaks from the book, it will be of interest to many who are inclined to deal with the questions that the author seeks to answer. However, many will find this new kind of pietism and sentimentalism boring. The psychologist will have to take the book into account. The author is to be seen as a type for a large number of people. They all strive for a reconciliation of two spiritual areas that cannot exist side by side in the long term, between which there can only be a truce, but no peace.