Page 42 - Eclipse of God

Religion and Reality 15

sciousness of itself ” in “an irresistible urge.” In this process, in
which the use of universal reason “mobilizes the passions for
its own purposes,” as Hegel puts it, “individuals are sacrificed
and surrendered.” The basic theme of all religions, which even
so- called atheistic philosophies could only vary, the dramatic
conflict between limited and unlimited being, is extinguished,
because it is replaced by the exclusive rule of a universal spirit
wrestling with and for itself, using everything as a means and
consuming everything. Hegel, who wanted to preserve religion
by renewing its form, by amending “revealed” (offenbarte) reli-
gion and transforming it into “manifest” (offenbare) religion,
has denuded it of reality for the era now closing. “There is no
longer anything mysterious about God,” he says of this stage
of development which he regards as the highest. Nothing
mysterious indeed, except that what is here and now called
God can no longer be for man that God which he encounters,
both deeply mysterious and manifest, in his despairs and in his
raptures.

5

Nietzsche’s saying that God is dead, that we have slain Him,
dramatically sums up the end situation of the era. But even
more eloquent than this proclamation, which recapitulates a
1
proposition of Hegel with a change of accent and meaning,
are the attempts to fill the horizon that has been declared
empty. I shall mention here only two of the most important
of these attempts.

1 The connection has recently been pointed out by Heidegger. Hegel, in his essay
“Faith and Knowledge,” written in 1802, sought to express the essence of the feeling
“on which the religion of the modern era rests” in the words, “God himself is dead.”
He refers in explanation to Pascal’s phrase, “the lost God.” But these three expressions
actually mark three very different stages on one road.