These are the principal elements in the manifestation of Christ in a human form. This teacher gathered friends around Him. Inasmuch as His doctrines were revolutionary Christ was accused and condemned, and so He sealed the truth of His teaching by His death. Even unbelief goes this length in the view it takes of His history; it is exactly similar to that of Socrates, only in different surroundings. Socrates, too, made men conscious of the inwardness of their nature. His δαιμόνιον is nothing else than this inner life. He, too, taught that Man must not stop short with obedience to ordinary authority, but form convictions for himself, and act in accordance with these convictions. These two individualities are similar, and their fates are also similar. The inwardness of Socrates was in direct opposition to the religious belief of his nation, and to the form of government, and consequently he was condemned; he, too, died for the truth.
Christ lived merely amongst a different people, and His teaching has so far a different complexion. But the Kingdom of God and the idea of purity of heart contain an infinitely greater depth of truth than the inwardness of Socrates. This is the outward history of Christ, which is for unbelief just what the history of Socrates is for us.
With the death of Christ, however, there begins the conversion of consciousness. The death of Christ is the central point round which all else turns, and in the conception formed of it lies the difference between the outward way of conceiving of it and Faith, i.e., regarding it with the spirit, taking our start from the spirit of truth, from the Holy Spirit. According to the comparison above referred to, Christ is a man just like Socrates, a teacher who lived virtuously, and made men conscious of what is essentially true, of what must constitute the basis of human consciousness. According to the higher way of regarding the matter, however, the divine nature was revealed in Christ. This consciousness is reflected in those passages which state that the Son knows the Father, &c.,
