In the context of the quest as mapped out by Hegel the religious mind views “the world as ruled by Divine Providence, and therefore correspondent with what it ought to be. But this harmony between the 'is' and the 'ought to be' is not rigidly stationary. Good, the final end of the world, has being, only while it constantly produces itself. And the world of spirit and the world of nature continue to have this distinction, that the latter moves only in a recurring cycle, while the former certainly also makes progress.” He describes this as a unification: “Thus the truth of the Good is laid down as the unity of the theoretical and practical idea in the doctrine that the Good is radically and really achieved, that the objective world is in itself and for itself the Idea, just as it at the same time eternally lays itself down as End, and by action brings about its actuality. This life which has returned to itself from the bias and finitude of cognition, and which by the activity of the notion has become identical with it, is the Speculative or Absolute Idea.” (Logic summary)
William James said: “Were one asked to characterize the
life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say
that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our
supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto. This belief and
this adjustment are the religious attitude in the soul.”
For a
wonderful set of contemporary presentations for the religious mind see G.K. Chesterton, Huston Smith, Carl Jung and C.S. Lewis.
Perhaps
the best-known work that established the contemporary view is William James Varieties of
the Religious Experience.
For a
Sociology of Religion perspective see Peter Berger.
See also: Faith
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