Paganism - Christianity - Judaism: A Confession of Faith

11. The Christian–Pagan Amalgamation

11 THE CHRISTIAN-PAGAN AMALGAMATION The Christianity of the Future THE READER WILL HAVE OBSERVED THAT MY CRITICAL WAY OF OPPOSing Christianity did not go in the direction of history, starting with its "founder." On the contrary, it was the youngest layers of Christianity , those of the Middle Ages, which were mainly exposed to my rejection (in the Ninth Pan of this book); then, proceeding to the origins, I have pointed out that not everything Paul said must be rejected as being Christian, nor does everything Jesus said have to be rejected as being Paulinian. By thus reversing the historical processtrying to ascend from the river to the purer source-I have achieved, in more than one sense, what some theologians call "cleansing Christianity of Jewish dross." But the final word has not yet been said. I caught the Christian stream at its middle section, where, having run through the clever discussions of scholasticism, it passes by the cities of the sixteenth century with their religious concerns and their decisive attemptthough following the wrong direction-of reestablishing the first Christian wave in its purity. But there is another Christianity, that of today. There is the delta of the river, where the broad, vast waterwithout falls-lazily carries along the soil of its banks and of its bed, hardly distinguishable from the land around with its few trees; for, although it takes pieces of earth with it and broadens thus step by step, we might also say that the dry land sucks up the liquid and mixes with it as in the process of boiling. Doing away with allegories: Christianity, having entered the CHRISTIAN-PAGAN AMALGAMATION 231 world opposing paganism, discovered-and not by accident, but following lawful reactions-within itself stronger and stronger affinities to paganism, and ended up by forming with the latter a mixture of ideas and feelings, amixture which is now being used everywhere in Europe and America, in private and in public. This Christianpagan amalgamation-the final link in Christian development-dominates today's world in such exclusiveness as no Weltansehauung has ever formed. Perhaps it is this exclusiveness and omnipotence of its rule which makes it invisible and unnoticeable, so rarely observed, and hardly ever challenging an analysis. For only friction directs our attention to forces. Yet counter-forces are at work, not only within Judaism but also within Christianity itself. For here is something miraculous: A false construction, like that of the Christian "grace of generalization," can, if nurtured with the greatest energy, complicate the path to individual grace for centuries, but it cannot bar it forever. With every newborn soul, the idea of truth is born anew. Even after having been corrupted a hundred thousand times by means of doctrines, the next time it grows into a counter-force, although it may be a feeble one. Thus we have many such counter-forces in Christianity at the very instances where living religiosity is at work. Examples are individualism within Protestantism, and neo-Thomism within Catholicism. Particular mention should be made of Thomas Aquinas, for it is he who made the remarkable statement, "gratia natura non tollit, sed perfieit," meaning, "grace does not eliminate nature but perfects it." This statement leads to many wholesome possibilities. Here might be the right place for me to point out the many values of Christianity in order to appease those who feel offended by the above presentation of mine and the concluding criticism contained in the present chapter. And yet this might obscure matters, since I would rather write a one-sided book than one which gives everybody something to hang on to. I never called Christianity a lost cause. Around its basic construction -and this I believe indeed to be "lost"-so much human kindness has blossomed forth in the last centuries, so much has grown out of the life blood of Christianized nations-some of it in connection with basic Jewish thoughts-that the entire complex cannot fade away. And yet the Christian-pagan epoch of mixture, which we have now reached, is not far away from death. But three .components fight 232 PAGANISM-CHRISTIANITY-JUDAISM hopelessness: common humanity; national vitality, which will not go back again to pagan self-deification, and which will therefore strive towards a new future; and the Jewish religious heritage offered to all nations, which has never been entirely possessed, but neither has it ever been completely rejected, as...