elements.

And this is not all. In the present age the current of human activity is
strong. Man is beginning to accomplish things in the material world, and
is becoming anxious to accomplish more. His railways cover the lands,
his ships sail the seas, and his aeroplanes fly through the air. He has
acquired a taste for this world, a zest for the conquest and the
utilising for his own pleasure and benefit of the world of nature. And
when this occurs, the overworld sinks into the background--he is
satisfied with the present, and feels no need, except under special
circumstances, of a higher world. The sense world at present makes a
strong appeal--and the stronger it becomes, the less he listens to the
call of an overworld.

The sciences, history, and the special phases of human activity have
drawn attention from a higher, invisible world, and have cast doubts
upon its very existence.

As a result of this, "Religion (in the traditional form), despite all it
has effected, is for the man of to-day a question rather than an answer.
It is itself too much of a problem to interpret to us the meaning of our
life, and make us feel that it is worth the living."

In these words Eucken states his conviction that Christianity in its
orthodox forms cannot solve the problem of the present. This, however,
is not all he has to say concerning religion. He is, in truth, a great
believer in religion, and as will be seen, he believes that later it
will again step forth in a changed form as "the fact of facts" to wield
a power perhaps greater than ever before.