Were I
to parody Kant, I should say that a "Critique of pure
Saintliness" must be our theme.
If, in turning to this theme, we could descend upon our subject
from above like Catholic theologians, with our fixed definitions
of man and man's perfection and our positive dogmas about God, we
should have an easy time of it. Man's perfection would be the
fulfillment of his end; and his end would be union with his
Maker. That union could be pursued by him along three paths,
active, purgative, and contemplative, respectively; and progress
along either path would be a simple matter to measure by the
application of a limited number of theological and moral
conceptions and definitions. The absolute significance and value
of any bit of religious experience we might hear of would thus be
given almost mathematically into our hands.
If convenience were everything, we ought now to grieve at finding
ourselves cut off from so admirably convenient a method as this.
But we did cut ourselves off from it deliberately in those
remarks which you remember we made, in our first lecture, about
the empirical method; and it must be <321> confessed that after
that act of renunciation we can never hope for clean-cut and
scholastic results.
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