the unnatural man.


163

With the dissolution of Christianity a great part of antiquity has
become incomprehensible to us, for instance, the entire religious basis
of life. On this account an imitation of antiquity is a false tendency .
the betrayers or the betrayed are the philologists who still think of
such a thing. We live in a period when many different conceptions of
life are to be found: hence the present age is instructive to an unusual
degree; and hence also the reason why it is so ill, since it suffers
from the evils of all its tendencies at once. The man of the future .
the European man.


164

The German Reformation widened the gap between us and antiquity: was it
necessary for it to do so? It once again introduced the old contrast of
"Paganism" and "Christianity"; and it was at the same time a protest
against the decorative culture of the Renaissance--it was a victory
gained over the same culture as had formerly been conquered by early
Christianity.

In regard to "worldly things," Christianity preserved the grosser views
of the ancients. All the nobler elements in marriage, slavery, and the
State are unchristian. It _required_ the distorting characteristics of
worldliness to prove itself.