mere indefinite conception of a Deity, but he thinks of God as real and
personal. Instead of adopting a changed attitude towards the world of
nature, he comes to demand a new world. He is now a denizen of the
spiritual world, and there results "a life of pure inwardness," which
draws its power and inspiration from the infinite resources of the
Universal Spiritual Life in which he finds his being. This type of
religion Eucken calls _Characteristic Religion_.

The historical religions would seem to represent, to some extent, the
attempts of humankind to arrive at a religion of this kind. A further
distinction arises between the historical forms of religion, of which
one at most, if any, can express the final truth, and the Absolute form
of religion, which if not yet conceived, must ultimately express the
truth in the matter of religion.

Eucken is never more brilliant than he is in the examination he makes of
the historical forms of religion, for the purpose of formulating the
Absolute and final form; some account of this must be given in the next
chapter.




CHAPTER VIII

RELIGION: HISTORICAL AND ABSOLUTE


In examining the various historical forms of religion, Eucken, as we
should expect, is governed by the conclusions he has arrived at