Page 65 - Eclipse of God

38 Chapter 3

image of Him, nothing comprehensible as object. It knows only
the presence of the Present One. Symbols of Him, whether
images or ideas, always exist first when and insofar as Thou
becomes He, and that means It. But the ground of human
existence in which it gathers and becomes whole is also the
deep abyss out of which images arise. Symbols of God come
into being, some which allow themselves to be fixed in last-
ing visibility even in earthly material and some which tolerate
no other sanctuary than that of the soul. Symbols supplement
one another, they merge, they are set before the community
of believers in plastic or theological forms. And God, so we
may surmise, does not despise all these similarly and neces-
sarily untrue images, but rather suffers that one look at Him
through them. Yet they always quickly desire to be more than
they are, more than signs and pointers toward Him. It finally
happens ever again that they swell themselves up and obstruct
the way to Him, and He removes Himself from them. Then
comes round the hour of the philosopher, who rejects both the
image and the God which it symbolizes and opposes to it the
pure idea, which he even at times understands as the negation
of all metaphysical ideas. This critical “atheism” (Atheoi is the
name which the Greeks gave to those who denied the tradi-
tional gods) is the prayer which is spoken in the third person
in the form of speech about an idea. It is the prayer of the phi-
losopher to the again unknown God. It is well suited to arouse
religious men and to impel them to set forth right across the
God- deprived reality to a new meeting. On their way they de-
stroy the images which manifestly no longer do justice to God.
The spirit moves them which moved the philosopher.