The principles of the moral empire
We have still too many gods and no God. Conscience and utility are two gods. So are the inner and the outer world, pride and love, individualism and collectivism. To mention a few more, nations are gods, and classes are gods.
It is natural for us to reduce all these dualistic and pluralistic gods to one God. This natural reduction, however, is only possible by means of synthetic creation.
A new God fashioned from the substance of all existing gods is the thing which we now badly want. The sense of the dignity of one s own moral person is in need of being so heightened as to stand above all things else.
No matter where the source of the world s light may be, so long as the light comes from without ourselves that source must be regarded as derivative, as only a reflection from some original source.
The divine spark in the form of a metaphysical pride, which consists of boundless self-respect and self -responsibility, as well as an infinite faith in our own power or creative possibility, is the light that illuminates the world.
The organisation, on the one hand, and specialisation, on the other, must both be emphasised in view of the need for personal worth. Moral and theological reform, each of them pregnant with social reform, these are the things which this volume intends to convey. I wish to express my indebtedness to Dr W. Tudor Jones and Mr J. T. Walley, M.A., for their kindness in reading the proofs.
Contents:
INTRODUCTION . 9
CHAPTER II
THE Two FACTORS IN PRACTICAL
JUDGMENT: CONSCIENCE AND
UTILITY 21
CHAPTER III
THE Two DIMENSIONS OF LIFE: THE
INNER AND THE OUTER WORLD. 51
CHAPTER IV
THE Two FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES OF
LIFE: PRIDE AND LOVE . . 91
CHAPTER V
THE WHOLE: F
WORTH AND THE SOCIAL ORDER. 174
THE PART AND THE WHOLE: PERSONAL
CHAPTER VI
THE NECESSITY OF A NEW RELIGION :
CONCLUSION .... 232
INDEX . . 245