But the Idea of God as a Being of Infinite Power, Wisdom, Love,—in one Word, the Absolute,—does not satisfy. It seems cold; we call it abstract. We are not beings of Reason alone; so are not satisfied with mere Ideas. We have Imagination, Feelings, limited Affections, Understanding, Flesh and Blood. Therefore we want a Conception of God which shall answer to this complex nature of ours. Man may be said to live in the World of Eternity, or abstract truth; that of Time, or historical events; that of Space, or of concrete things. Some men want, therefore, not only an Idea for the first, but a Conception for the second, and a Form for the third. Accordingly the feelings, Fear, Reverence, Devotion, Love, naturally personify God, humanize the deity, and represent the Infinite under the limitations of a finite and imperfect being, whom we “can know all about.” He has the thoughts, feelings, passions, limitations of a man; is subject to time and space; sees, remembers, has a form. This is anthropomorphism. It is well in its place. Some rude men seem to require it. They must paint to themselves a deity with a form—the Ancient of days; a venerable monarch seated on a throne, surrounded by troops of followers. But it must be remembered all this is poetry; this personal and anthropomorphitic Conception is a phantom of the brain that has no existence independent of ourselves. A poet personifies a mountain or the moon; addresses it as if it wore the form of man, could see and feel, had human thoughts, sentiments, hopes, and pleasures, and expectations. What the poet's fancy does for the mountain, the feelings of reverence and devotion do for the Idea of God. They clothe it with a human personality, because that is the highest which is known to us. Men would comprehend the deity; they can only apprehend him. A Beaver, or a Reindeer, if possessed of religious faculties, would also conceive of the deity with the limitations of its own personality, as a Beaver or a Reindeer—whose faculties as such were perfect; but the Conception, like our own, must be only subjective, for even Man is no measure of God.[1]
- ↑ See Xenophanes as cited above by Eusebius, P. E. XIII. 13. See Karsten,
Théodicée, Pt. I. § 7, p. 506, ed. Erdmann, 1840, and his Epist. ad Bierlingium, in his Epp. ad div. Ed. Kortholt, Vol. IV. p. 21 (cited by Strauss, ubi sup.).
