realised ? Is it devoid of reality, having a place in the
domain of Poetry alone ? Or does the certain march of
history show us that mankind under the action of these
contrasts, long since set forth on their appointed course
to this goal ? So that when we are enabled to elevate
ourselves above the troubled and misty atmosphere which
surrounds the present, we clearly discern the path
leading to that issue. This proposition it is now our
task to analyse.
For its fulfilment, it will be necessary that we should
bring the process of development of the human race
once more clearly before us. The intellect of man
generated universally and instinctively the ' Human
Idea/ Making the ego the starting point, he invested
the powers of nature, according as their relation to
himself was pernicious or beneficial, with a higher
power which exceeding his own he deemed a divinity.
His views of nature determined his conceptions of the
250 LECTURE XII.
Deity. Man in his earliest stage perceived conflict in
nature, the contrasts of production and dissolution, of
growth and decay, of existence and non-existence, of
life and death ; these again being upheld in their
counter-action by a third yet incomprehensible power.
In ancient heathenism, God and nature were held to be
identical; and thence ensued the conception of two
conflicting divinities, of a third and mediating Divine
power, as also the supposed connection with every form
in nature, of a special divinity. Modern heathenism is
the second step, which having a similar origin yet
conceives nature to be a unity. In its system, nature
is a uniform whole in which all specialities neutralise
or resolve each other. In this the Divinity is a unity,
but identical with nature, indwelling nature and having
its whole existence within nature. While in ancient
heathenism the ego was the starting-point, in modern
heathenism the ego is a part of the whole, and only as
such member, claiming to render his existence valid ; so
in both the individual has no other relation to society
than that founded on his individuality, (or ego] and can
develop justice and morality, only in their relation to his
individuality and its relation to them. So the content-
ment of the individual ego in the fluctuating conditions of
this existence, becomes, albeit mutable and most variable,
the highest object. Egotism is then the sole principle
of justice and morality. This human idea first en-
countered the Religious Idea in Mosaism. The Re-
ligious Idea assumes the Deity to have been made known
to us by revelation. It recognises the world as pro-
ceeding from Him, to be the work of God, the aggregate
of all specialities, and man to be the speciality endowed
with a spirit created in the image of God. God is
THE FUTURE OF RELIGION. 251
therefore supermundane, holy, perfect, eternal. The
world is sustained by God indirectly by the laws of
nature. With man God is in direct connection, since
He conducts man's destiny to perfectibility, judges his
actions, purifies and pardons him, and has bestowed on
him the Religious Idea. Thence it becomes evident
that to approximate ever more to God, to assimilate
with Him, is man's destination, and that justice and
morality have their immutable basis in God Himself.
Man's appointed task therefore, is to render himself
holy as God is holy. This sanctification manifests
itself in love to God, to his fellow-man, and in the
continual exercise of the moral consciousness by the
human being. Thence is deducible that all men are
equal, having equal rights, and that all are destined to
possess individual freedom. Equal rights, all possibly
equal possessions, and personal freedom in accordance
with these two conditions, must form the ground-work
of all human society.
These then my hearers, are the two Ideas which
have come in the world of man, into violent collision.
But how did this conflict arise? Not as a naked
abstract dogma, but incorporated with the very life of
the peoples of the earth. So that Mosaism should be
for ever combined with a national code was indispensable,
in order that it should under that form, imbue the
Jewish people with the Religious Idea. Without its
limits, the Human Idea, ancient heathenism, exercised
entire sway over all the races of men, gave tangible
existence to polytheism, idolatry and slavery intro-
duced the authority of certain races, and an unstable
and varying civil and state-government, as the basis of
human societv.
252 LECTURE XII.
After the Religious Idea on the one hand had over-
come heathenism in the Jewish race by means of
Prophetism, and had by its severance of the Life and
the Idea, become fitted to enter the general world of
man; after heathenism on the other hand, had in the
natural course of its suicidal development attained the
point of dissolution; the Religious Idea ensured its own
integrity by the means it employed, Talmudism and its
code of material laws in Judaism; and its introduction into
the world of man in Christianity and Mahoraedanism; by
setting forth its abstract elements only, by acquiring
independent existence as the Idea severed from the Life,
by rejecting the ' Here ' and making the ' Hereafter '
its centre of gravity, did it alone gather sufficient force
firmly to take root in the general world, where it was
modified by combination with elements of the Human
Idea. There it not only developed dogma and the
Church, but likewise permitted the action of heathenism
to continue and to produce the feudal system in society,
while addressing itself exclusively to the world beyond,
in the individual. But after the intellectual develop-
ment of mankind had recovered somewhat of energy
and strength, and had opened out for itself new paths,
then uprose the Religious Idea, prepared for a fresh
conflict. In Christianity it first shook the sway of the
Church, then re-asserted the validity of the claim of
reason as opposed to dogma, and produced a new phase
in society based 011 the principle of universal human rights,
in a constitutional state-government. In Judaism, the
Religious Idea rose against the binding Talmudic formula
that trammelled all individual freedom of the spirit and
of the intellect, it sought to re-establish the validity of
the Idea and to restore it to its place, invested with
THE FUTURE OF RELIGION. 253
all its original and natural purity. This, my hearers,
is the historical juncture at which we have arrived;
this is the present. What are the conclusions as to
the future, which may be drawn from this process of
development ? The first question is ; will the Religious
or the Human Idea, as we have above portrayed it,
obtain empire over mankind? For notwithstanding
the victorious issue of the Religious Idea, it may be
advanced that the Religious Idea is only an educational
means for the human race, by which to train them to
self-dependence in the human idea ; and that conse-
quently all useless matter will at the right time disap-
pear. To this the prominent objection is; 1st, that the
human idea always produces with itself its own abne-
gation. Every explanation of birth and existence is
abrogated by its antagonistic principle; every presump-
tion of an original cause pre-supposes something that
has preceded it, which proves the first to be but
secondary and derivative. But in the Religious Idea
there is complete congruity; for every created thing
finds its origin in God the Creator. All specialities
have their resolution in the absolute Being of God, all
special powers their source in the universal power of
of God. Secondly, we thence perceive that the Human
Idea ever produces its own resolution into its various
successive phases ; that each of these phases too abro-
gates that which it followed, till it reaches its ultimate
stage, the virtual disavoAval of its own system. Such
was its course in the religions of antiquity; in the
philosophemes of the Greeks; in the later philo-
sophemes of Des Cartes and Spinoza, as in that of
Hegelism. It is a circle that ever terminates in
itself, the serpent that holds its own tail in its mouth.
254 LECTURE XII.
The valid results of this intellectual activity, are the
development of the powers of thought and the ever
strengthening and deepening self -consciousness of the
reason logic. But beyond this there is no result. We
see that the Religious Idea on the contrary, is ever
consistent, ever the same ; that it outlives in their rise
and fall, all the successive phases of the Human Idea,
and that it displays in truth the greatest vigour, at
junctures when the Human Idea is in process of resolu-
tion. On which side will be the victory, which will
obtain dominion over mankind, cannot be a matter of
uncertainty. The end will assuredly be that the
Human Idea will eventually resolve itself into the
Religious Idea, not as a lifeless, soulless acceptance, but
as a living conscious amalgamation. This is a work yet
to be achieved.
The second question hence follows : In what manner
will the Religious Idea manifest itself to mankind in
its completeness, in its entire integrity ? The Religious
Idea arose in Mosaism on a Jewish-national basis, in
Talmudism on a Jewish-individual basis, on a heathen
basis in Christianity and Mahomedanism ; Prophetism
even, in proclaiming the Religious Idea to be destined
one day to become the common property of all mankind,
did not abandon the national ground. Under no one
of these specific aspects can the Religious Idea belong to
the universality of the human race. Yet has it been
evident that Judaism throughout all its phases, has
preserved the Religious Idea intact; that Talmudism
also is but a web spun around that idea with a view to
its protection ; that Judaism will, after this Religious
Idea shall have cast off the cocoon of individuality,
deliver it over to all mankind ; and in Judaism should
THE FUTURE OF RELIGION. 255
we seek it, in the uniformity which it will one day
assume as the possession of all mankind. Let us in
order to remove all doubt from our minds, remark : 1st.
In the form with which historical Christianity has
clothed the Religious Idea, that Idea demands faith,
is opposed to reason, disallows inquiry. 2ndly.' In
historical Christianity, one portion only of man's nature
can unite itself with the Religious Idea. Therefore is
the regenerated man of Christianity ever in a state of
conflict with Christianity itself. If we consider all
Christian sects and parties in the aggregate, we perceive
that the Religious Idea itself, is still combatted in
Christianity. 3rdly. The Religious Idea within Chris-
tianity is still in a condition of inconsistency and self-
conflict. It has therefore before it in Christianity,
the task of self-evolution. 4thly and lastly. In Islamism,
are extant the very first conceptions of the Religious
Idea, which immediately and consistently lapsed into
the purely heathen conception of Fate, or necessity. So
that Islamism presents no development of the Religious
Idea ; it presents only a phase of self-annihilation.
The Religious Idea in Judaism assumes a wholly
opposite direction. 1st. It appeals, not to one side of
man, but to the entire human being ; it appeals, not to
the belief, but to reason, to actual knowledge. The
Religious Idea in Judaism insists on comprehension and
acceptance by means of reason ; seeks by means of nature,
to demonstrate itself to the understanding, seeing it
contains no element susceptible of denial by the power
of reason. The Religious Idea is in Judaism objective
in that which pertains to the intellect, subjective in
that which belongs to the heart of man. 2ndly. The
Religious Idea has never been controverted by Judaism
256 LECTURE XII.
itself; is not and has never been inconsistent with
itself, or in conflict with itself. The central point of
of the present struggle in Judaism is not the Religious
Idea and its purport, but the binding nature of the
ceremonial law on the Jews ; the conflict therefore
refers to that and that only, by which the Religious
Idea is individualised in Judaism, and which yet
separates Judaism from the rest of human society.
Srdly and lastly. Judaism has never declared itself to be
in its specific forms, the religion of all mankind; but
has ever asserted itself to be the religion of all man-
kind in and by the Religious Idea. Judaism has ever
expressly said, 'My specific character, my law, my
forms are destined for the sons of Israel only, as bearers
of the Religious Idea ; my purport, my significance,
the Religious Idea itself, are for the whole race of man.'
Talmudism itself admits that he even who no longer
observes one law, but who utters as his confession
of faith the words, " Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God, the Eternal is one," may be considered still to be
a Jew. With small variation may we say, ' He is to be
considered a Jew, who confesses his belief in the One,
only, supermundane God ; not as a Jew in race but as
a Jew in kind, as professing the Religious Idea as it
is contained in Judaism.' Thus Judaism has claimed, not
in its special character but truly in and by the Re-
ligious Idea, to be the destined portion of all mankind ;
while historical Christianity claims to win all men to
itself in its individual form, notwithstanding its self-
inconsistency and the discrepancies which it contains.
Judaism therefore, my hearers, asserts itself to be
only the bearer of the Religious Idea. It does not
say, 'Ye children of other creeds, ye Christians,
THE FUTURE OF RELIGION'. 25
ye Mussulmans, ye must avow yourselves of my faith
ye must become Jews.' It says on the contrary,
' The other religions that were born of me, that have
modified my purport, must freely develop themselves,
must resolve these their own modifications, and must
by an individual process of self-enlargement, reach the
final goal of that free development, the Religious Idea.
Then will my special form become superfluous, then
can I divest myself of my garb, for then will the
whole of man be united in the knowledge and acknow-
ledgment of the One only, supermundane, holy God,
whose work the universe is, who gave unto man a soul
created in His own image; who therefore stands in
direct relation to man as Providence, Judge, Pardoner,
Revealer ; who will consecrate man unto Himself in love
and moral consciousness, by means of a human society
founded on the eternal principles of equality of right,
all possible equality of possession, and personal free-
dom. Thus will the world arrive, not at the specific
Judaism of the Jews as it has been ; but at the Re-
ligious Idea such as Judaism through all its phases has
ever borne within itself unchanged, unpolluted ; though
brought into the world of man by Christianity and
Moslemism, in an imperfect form. In this manner all
will we perceive be fulfilled, that we have seen to be
indicated in history. The question as to the necessity
for the continued existence of Judaism after the pro-
mulgation of Christianity and Moslemism, has been
satisfactorily solved. It has become clear to us that
Judaism has in the present and in the future, an all-
important mission, even that which she has ever had, to
fulfil. When Christianity in its process of self-develop-
ment shall have finally rejected its specific Christ 5 \n
258 LECTURE XII.
elements and shall seek a fitting basis for the Religious
Idea, Judaism will be there to bestow on it that posses-
sion. For that which in Christianity is the work of
free development only, of the victory of reason over
dogma, will be found in Judaism alone, to be the firm
foundation, the sole material for the historical super-
structure. Reason will there solemnise her union with
Histoiy, the acquisitions of reason will become identical
with the facts of history, the result identical with the
true basis of all human development. Here then the
destination of Judaism to receive and to bear the
Religious Idea for all mankind, meets our view in its
historical completeness. It existed and was fulfilled as
confronting Heathenism; it existed and exists confront-
ing Christianity and Moslemism. The struggle which
the Jews have had to maintain, first with their heathen
neighbours, then Avith the Greek-Syrians and Romans,
and finally during the last fifteen consecutive centuries
in Christendom, has been maintained on behalf of the
Religious Idea, its purport and scope. It has been the
sublime conflict of the Religious Idea with its antago-
nisms. The inflexible pertinacity with which the Jews
have remained stedfast to their faith is not obstinacy ;
it is more, it is the most meritorious fidelity, an in-
ward necessity : for man cannot renounce the complete
Religious Idea, in order to apply himself to, and accept
it in, its modifications. Judaism and its professors the
Jews, must continue to exist till the conflict within
Christianity itself shall be decided, and till the victory
over the antagonisms to itself within Christianity, shall
have been achieved by the Religious Idea in its en-
tireness and purity.
But, my respected hearers, after having thus treated
THE FUTURE OF RELIGION. 259
of a union of mankind in the Religious Idea, we must
not overlook another essential point. If truly in the
great battle-field of life and in the struggling cause of
human development, something more than a set of
doctrinal precepts be at stake, if that stake be, to in-
troduce into man's being by their means, the great
truths of morality and justice, as his only safe and firm
possessions; surely something more than the mere
abstract and theoretical acceptance of these great pre-
cepts must be designed. Here then let us not fail
once more to place before us that truth, which we have
everywhere sought to elucidate, ' the unity of the
Idea and the Life,' a unity established by Mosaism,
but apparently impaired by Prophetism and wholly
dissolved by Christianity. The goal of mankind's
destiny cannot assuredly only be to produce the ac-
cordance of all men in a set of doctrinal precepts.
No ! the goal of mankind's destiny must be, to establish
the unity of the Idea and the Life, aud in that very
unity to prepare and produce the unity of the whole
race of man. And this, my respected hearers, is
manifestly a work far more difficult of achievement
than a union in the Idea. When the prophet predicted
that mankind collectively would one day acknowledge
the One only God, and that an age of universal peace,
of universal justice would commence, that prophecy
could be but imperfectly and partially understood. For
be it admitted that differences of religion have given
rise to discord, deeds of violence and war, that belief
and its exclusions have furnished the pretext, and have
been the cloak or the reason for enduring enmity
and countless horrors, and that of these, the union
of mankind in one faith could alone prevent the
s 2
260 LECTURE XII.
recurrence ; still there remain too many other ele-
ments of strife among mankind, and human passions
too frequently obtain the mastery even over that known
to be good, to admit a mere recognition of the principle
of universal peace, being of power to ensure the exer-
cise of universal justice and universal love. The
essential reason of the powerlessness of that recognition,
is to be found in the severance of the Idea and the
Life. How far soever mankind may have progressed in
ideal religious cognition, in life they still remain for
the most part bound by the trammels of heathenism.
^Yhile in theory heathen egotism is recognised to be
bad and is rejected as wrong, it yet remains the basis of
of human society, the life principle of the individual.
Heathen egotism had built up the social edifice of in-
equality of justice, complete inequality of possession,
and of the total separation between governors and
governed, between the freeman and the slave. Under
the action of those principles, the individual must have
been wholly filled with, and influenced by, egotism ; the
individual man must have sought before all things, and
with all his power, to secure to himself all possible
rights, the largest possible possessions, the greatest
possible power and dominion ; and thus must the actual
condition of inequality and servitude have been in-
creased and embittered to an incalculable and fearful
extent. Thus in truth was developed that inexplicable
confusion of human relations, which transforms life in
our sight into an enigma. True it is that even then,
the Religious Idea in Mosaism had declared the true
foundations of human society to be, equality of right,
all possible equality of possession, and personal freedom
for the individual, and had rendered imperative as moral
THE FUTURE OP RELIGION. 261
laws, the exercise of justice and compassion; but that
the heathenism that had shown itself in the Jewish race,
had from the very commencement counteracted the
entire realisation of these principles, even in the race
itself. Further, though the later Jewish polity
adopted as many as possible of these principles, and at
any rate adhered firmly to equality of right in all its
phases; yet later the Jewish race came under the
dominion of other peoples, and were fettered by it.
Finally Talmudism, in consequence of its comprehension
of Mosaic law according to the letter, permitted but a
very limited realisation of the Mosaic principles under
the new conditions called for by the altered position of
the Hebrew race. Christianity meantime adopted per-
sonal freedom and equality as abstract principles only,
and denied them all direct influence and action upon
society.
The old Heathen rule that had, as in India and
Egypt, in part established castes, and with them the
respective authority of the different classes and orders
among each other, in part the dominion of races, as in
Greece and Rome, resolved itself at last into the un-
divided sway of the Roman Emperors. With the
Middle Ages arose the second form of Heathen rule
the Feudal system ; which divided society into noble
and serf, and made the one possessor, the other the
possession, the one a freeman, the other a serf.
At their side stood the Church, independent of both
in its organ the Priesthood. Then when corporations
and municipalities developed themselves in the midst of
both these classes, when replete Avith vigour, and aided
by the force of other circumstances, they grew into
a powerful third estate, the Feudal system succeeded in
262
LECTURE XII.
introducing within all these several members of the body-
politic, strong lines of demarcation. It also reproduced
the old heathen institutions of castes, by the subdivi-
sion and arrangement of the nobles into classes of
nobility ; of the burghers into guilds and corporations ;
and by renewing the vitality of a priesthood in a hier-
archical chief or head. Thus, nowhere, in such a
condition of things, could the realisation of the re-
ligious idea be thought of. For heathen egotism must
have everywhere generated struggles and conflicts among
the several classes between each other, and also between
the individuals of which each class was composed.
These constant collisions reduced human society to a
state well-nigh of barbarism, in which force and fraud
were held in check (and often but imperfectly in check,)
by the power of the state alone. The Feudal system
of government at length resolved itself into the despotic
rule of the sovereign, without however the Feudal sub-
divisions in human society being thereby superseded.
Notwithstanding this, when a more developed stage of
human reason rose into activity, and the general mind
began to perceive the contrast presented by the idea
and actual life, the principle indwelling the religious
idea of the equality and universal rights of men, could
not fail ever more powerfully to impress mankind and
to call forth a strong reaction in material life. This
reaction was further stimulated by that dire oppression
of the masses generated by the feudal system. The
long-prepared storm burst upon society towards the
end of the last century, in the thunders of the French
revolution. The objects to be attained were declared to
be three-fold : 1st. The general acknowledgment of
the universal rights of men ; 2nd. the actual re-edifi-
THE FUTURE OF RELIGION. 263
cation of society on this foundation; and, 3rd. the
regulation of all the consequences which heathen rule
had left and still produced, in the existing relations
of men. In these three several and naturally con-
secutive processes, difficulties of no ordinary kind were