The Critical Philosophy of Hermann Cohen

The Uniqueness of God and Correlation

9 The Uniqueness of God and Correlation 1. THE UNIQUENESS OF GOD If Cohen preferred the concept of the 'unique' God to that of 'one' God for the God of monotheism,1 it is not simply for reasons of terminology , but concerns the fundamental meaning ofreligion. The unity of God indicates the opposition of monotheism to polytheism: only one God and not many gods. However, this opposition is insufficient to completely cover the essential meaning of monotheism: the affirmation of the radical difference of God from nature. The unity of God is not a concept peculiar to religious monotheism ; it is also shared by Greek philosophy. In Eleatic philosophy, and in Xenophanes particularly, God had already been conceived as One, and identified with the unity of the cosmos. It was through the concept of 'unity,' then, that Xenophanes had identified being, cosmos, and God. The concept of the unity of God had subsequently led Greek philosophy to pantheism.2 But "pantheism is not religion" (RV 47; Eng. trans. 40).3 The opposition of true religion, i.e. monotheism, to pantheism cannot be seen in the same way as its opposition to polytheism. It is in the latter that the difference between religion and myth resides. This is why the concept of the unity of God is sufficient. But though necessary, this distinction is not a negative delimitation of monotheism. It does not yet include "the positive element for the new God" (RV 43; Eng. trans. 37). 171 172 THE CRITICAL PHILOSOPHYOF HERMANN COHEN However, opposition to pantheism brings out, not only the peculiarity ofJewish monotheism in respect of Greek philosophy, but also that of religion in general. For this reason, Cohen, especially in his late works on religion, was emphatically opposed to pantheism and tended to reduce to it all those religious and philosophical concepts different from the religion ofreason (such as ontological proof of the existence of God, mysticism, Hegel's philosophy of identity, etc.). The central idea of monotheism concerns the problem of being, and the definition of the idea of God basically means an exact conception of being. This is an essential feature linking the philosophy of religion to logic. If the conception of one God differentiates monotheism from polytheism, though only characterizing it negatively, and therefore unsatisfactorily, to the extent that it is also common to pantheism, the conception of the unique God expresses, negatively and positively, the essential character of monotheism, that is, of the only true (rational) religion. The uniqueness of God means, first of all, his incomparability, not only with other gods, but with any other being in nature (cf. RV51; Eng. trans. 44). Second, it means the distinction between God's being and existence (Dasein) of the world. The concept of one God does not imply such a distinction, as Xenophanes' pantheism shows. However, the uniqueness of God posits a drastic difference between God and every entity (cf. RV 5lf; Eng. trans. 44). Third, the meaning of uniqueness implies that it "is also distinguished from simplicity" (RV 52; Eng. trans. 44). Uniqueness has the lack of composition in common with simplicity, but it means more. It means that God not only is not composed in himself but does not even participate in any composition with the existing. Since pantheism is also a mixture (Mischung) of God's being and existing nature, in this meaning the uniqueness of God also differentiates monotheism from any form of pantheism, including medieval ontologism , which promoted a logical and ontological implication between being and existence in God (cf. RV5lf.; Eng. trans. 44f.). Besides, the uniqueness of God also means his superiority in respect of the limits of space and time, to which nature is subject, that is, his "permanence" (in "analogy" with the concept ofsubstance, but solely in the Kantian logical sense) and his "unchangeableness" (cf. RV52f., 69; Eng. trans. 45, 60). All these meanings converge in the identification of God with being. If the one God means that there is only one God, the unique God means that only God is, that the true being can only be attributed to God (cf. BR46; RV69; Eng. trans. 59f.).4 This is the essence of God's revelation to Moses in the burning bush: "The uniqueness oJGod from the outset The Uniqueness ofGod and Correlation 173 does not mean the absence ofdivision in him, and not even his incomparability with another being, but his absolute identity...