Perhaps it was not possible
to understand the new doctrine in any other way; before men can conceive
the idea of their divinity, they must have become conscious of their
souls.
This complete misunderstanding and externalising of religion which took
place in the first millenary, and which can never now be retrieved, is
fundamentally pagan, antique. The record of the salvation of the world,
achieved by a hero once and for all time, the historification of the
divine spark which is daily re-born in the soul, entirely corresponds to
the Greek myths of gods and demi-gods which before their new, symbolical
interpretation, were taken quite literally. I am not now concerned with
the problem of how far the antique heroes and Eastern mysteries directly
influenced the conception of the figure of Christ; I only wish to
emphasise the profound contrast between true religion which springs up
in the soul of the individual, and historical tradition. If there is
such a thing as religion, it must exist equally for all men, for those
who accidentally received a report of a certain historical event, as
well as for those who remained in ignorance of the fact.
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