We are, in truth, faced by the great antagonism between the Churches and modern thought, modern feeling and aspiration, in philosophy, art, science, ethical and political ideals and, in a word, modern culture as a whole; and also by the question how this antagonism can be got rid of. To say that the modern man has been led astray by pride and that he must repent in sackcloth and ashes is no solution, for it has been recommended fruitlessly for centuries by orthodox theologians. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the old régime and ecclesiastical religion were alike restored without effecting any real improvement. New revolutions supervened in ideas and in politics until finally another revolution was wrought by the world war. And, whatever might be the result of attempts at restoration now, they would assuredly not mend matters.
Let us examine the various elements and factors in religion. Among them are views upon the transcendental, views upon God and immortality, the teachings of theology and of metaphysics, worship, the sense of the relationship of man to God and the Universe, ecclesiastical organization and authority—the priesthood and its hierarchy or theocracy—and morality or the relationship of man to man alongside of his relationship to God and the Universe. The concept of religion is identified with the concept of faith, of childlike faith, and this faith is placed in opposition to reasoned critical scientific knowledge, theology versus metaphysical philosophy. As against determinist science and scientific philosophy, religion offers the believer a non-determinist faith in the miraculous. Religion identifies itself with mysticism, with belief in the possibility of direct communication of human souls with God and with the transcendental world; and this mystic communion is set above mundane morality. What do we mean when we say that we need religion and build our hopes upon it? Do we wish to return to the creeds and the doctrines of the Church? If so, of which Church? Is there to be a complete return, a philosophical Canossa? Even though war and revolution have strengthened the religious spirit, has morality, personal and social morality, also been strengthened? In most countries, complaints may be heard of the demoralization caused by the war, not merely among people whom the war made rich but of widespread laxity, slothfulness and dishonesty, and of the decline of morals in the young. If morals are a weighty element in religion-as they certainly are it is not so easy to assert that religion has been fostered by the war.
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