Zusatzmaterial I Box 38, 39, 46

3 2. In order to {give} paint for you {an im} a preliminary image of what I mean when I speak of conflicts between religion and cul- ture I want to give a short survey over cultural activities which have come into conflict with religion. Most conspicuous in the last 400 years in the West and in the last 10 50 years in this country is the conflict between science and religion. {I shall} {deal with it first}. _ {Most} Most noticeable in our daily life is the conflict with technology, the conflict between the horizontal line of technical culture and the vertical line of religious expe- rience. – Most embracing of all is the everlasting conflict be- tween the political and the religious sphere, in the West called church and state. – The {most} main point of conflict between them is {the} at the same time the most fundamental one, the education, the introduction of the new generations into the culture. Who shall do it? and how should it be done. – Introducing into the culture means introducing into the social relations from family to friendship to the {soci} relation

4 of {the} classes and authorities {and democratic attitudes and their} {the religious criticism}. This is the most existential of the conflicts.  – Finally the most revealing possibility: the relation of the arts to religion. The question of {a} religious style and religious subject matter. {Only some of them can be discussed.} II. The concepts of religion and culture. 1. The question: Are these conflicts essential, belonging to the nature of man? Or are they existential, following from the distortion of human nature. Are they consequences of error and will to power? {or are they} Can they be overcome, not by seperation, but by reunion? This is what I believe, and therefore I want to speak of the ultimate unity and the possible reunion of religion and culture. But we must be realistic and {and that all} remember that everything in history remains fragmentary. [...] {Fragmentary reunions of religion and}

5 {culture are possible and have been real.} Only fragmentary re- unions of religion and culture can be hoped for. But it is worth- while, [...] (and it is certainly a task of the philosopher of religion) to fight for it. 2. Both, {can f} religion and culture are functions of man's spirit; and since the human spirit is a dimension of life universal they are rooted in functions which are common to life in all its dimensions. Life in all its di- mensions from the {anor} anorganic to the organic, to the psychological, to the spirit {create drive} drives toward self-creation {it-} {self} and selftranscendence {itself}. Life always and everywhere creates itself and transcends itself,  {And it does something else,} in the life of the spirit the first is called culture, the second religion. {it} And {it} {life} life is driven towards something else, namely towards self- integration or {towards} centeredness {in a centered being}. In the dimension of the spirit {selfintegration} is the drive toward selfintegration in the drive towards a totally centered self; and for this we have the word morality. Morality is neither a part of

11 special realm {the logic, experiment, aesthetics, l}| which must be known and applied in every cultural crea- tivity. But these rules are only the one element, the other is the {creative} new which is the aim of every creative act. Nothing new can be created without the conscious appli- cation of the rules; but the application of the rules does not make the creative act. This comes out of a {depth} dimension which is deeper than consciousness. – And out of the creative depth the third element also comes, the style, the over- all form which characterizes a period, a group, a creative individual. In the style a period expresses its {interpr} encounter with reality, its concern with life and its answer to the meaning of life, in short, its religious dimension. De- ciphring a style of a culture means diciphring its inner heart, its relation to the ultimate ].

10 group in education and law, in social relations and politics. 6. This is what culture does. And now something about the cultural creativity must be said. It has three elements first the given material e.g. a tree, {a story, a religion} a person, a group,  an event; second the form, e.g. scientific{al}, artistic, ethical, political; third the style, {[...] achaic} e.g. naturalistic, idealistic, expressionistic, archaic, classical, etc. – The three are always present, but the relation of the creative act to {eac} each of them is different. The subject-matter can be chosen freely, everything between heaven and earth. Nothing ugly, nothing grotesk, nothing perverted is excluded. – The form {is} {the can act of} makes a cultural object into what it is, a poem, a scientific essay, a mashine, a {partic} law, a con- stitution. The form {has to be} is subjected to the rules of the

9 {On the b} 5). On the basis of language {culture} the other {cultural} func- tions of receiving reality arise, the cognitive function which leads to science and philosophy, and the {artistic fun} aesthetic function which leads to art and litterature. {They will be in the center of our attention}  In them the mind receives and transforms reality within itself. But there is another {group} side in every culture, the reactive side in which the mind {transform} transfoms the encountered rea- lity outside of itself. The basic function in this respect is the technical one. It is as old as language. In the Christian pa- radise-myth God asks man both, to cultivate the garden and [...] to give names to the animals. Man is that being which alone is able to use a tool as {t} a tool; man is {both}, fabricating man {and speaking man} and this is the other source of his dignity and greatness. – On the basis of the technical act, {and} in interdependence with language, the practical culture develops, the transforming of the individual and of the social

8 4. Culture is the selfcreation of life in the dimen- sion of spirit. In every cultural act the {mind encoun-} human spirit {ters reality and} transforms a given material either by receiving it or by reacting to it. The first and funda- mental act of receiving the encountered world is {the} language.  Every language is the result of a particular encounter be- tween mind and world. It is not a convential use of words for the sake of communication. [...] Communication is an element in it; the {elem} other element is {designation} denotation. {And} In {this} it mind and reality are united in a particular way; in every language a view {of life and} of reality and life is hidden. Before prophets have spoken and philosophers have thought the {human} creation of language {has} was a reve- lation of the meaning of life. Therefore a language desintegrates if life loses its meaning; {and becomes a technic} and languages are distorted if life is distorted (as under dictatorships or the rule of the gadget)

7 a person establishes itself as a person. This is the {deepest} meaning of morality. On it the dimension of the spirit [...] {est reacted,} and with it the dignity and greatness of man is {rooted} {based} based. Therefore the moral act {is} {a} has unconditional{ly} {demanded,} validits {whatever} {its content may be} The moral imperative is absolute, al- though its contents are relative, conditioned by traditions, con- ventions, {and new insights} particular situations and changing insights. The uncondi- tional seriousness of the moral act is the religious {4.}  {dimension in it} element in it, the changing ethical con- tents are given by man's cultural creativity. This shows that the func- tions of the spirit are within eachother and are dependent on eachother. Without {the} morality {act} culture {would be} is nothing than an unserious play and religion {is a} {combination of emo-} {tions, and phantasies and} is nothing than unserious emotional ele- vation. And the person, the bearer of both, loses {at} his center and desintegrates.

12 7. Again and again we have touched at the con- cept of religion. Now we must turn directly to it. We spoke of the selftranscende of life. Life drives towards the sublime in all its dimensions. {In the} It drives to more refined, to richer and more powerful forms. In the life of the spirit it drives towards the ultimately sublime, to the absolutely rich and absolutely powerful form, which we call the holy. The holy is the ## ultimately sublime towards which all life strifes and which is experienced in {t} man's {sip} spiritual life. – But as the integration of life in all dimension is {threatened by} a countered by desintegra- tion, and as the selfcreation of life is {t} countered by destinc- tion, so the {selftranscen} selfsublimation of life is countered by profanisation.

13 8. Man would not strive towards the ultimately sublime, the holy if he had not experienced it before, in some way. You cannot {trie to reach} ask for something of which you know nothing. Nobody can ask for the divine who has not been already grasped by it. The movement to- wards the ultimate presupposes some presence of the ul- timate in us. The experience both, of the presence of the {ultima} holy and our striving towards it, is what we call religion. In a short abbreviation I call religion the state of being ultimately concerned about that which is ultimate. (If somebody is uneasy about the term ulti- mate concern I can also say that religion is the {act} {in whic} state of mind in which {we} something imposes it- self {to} on us as {ult} unconditionally serious. Therefore one can say: He who takes his doubt about everything, inclu-

14 ding God, unconditionally seriously, is neither irreligious nor atheistic; in the absolute character of his seriousness he {w}witnesses to the divine which he denies. 9. This largest and basic concept of religion de- viates from the ordinary one which is derived from the historical religions with priests, monks, temples, devotional die- ties, myths, doctrines, {as} festivals etc. And one {rightly} {s}says that religion in this ordinary, {and} narrower sense is a piece of culture and has no right to protest against the whole of a culture. This, therefore, is the place {she} on which the conflicts between religion and culture have arisen. All conflicts between culture and religion are conflicts between {reli} {culture and} religion in the nar- rower sense and culture. There is no conflict between {religion and} culture and religion in the larger and basic sense; for if this sense is meant, religion is the dimension of

16 in a way which justifies such ultimate concern? Or are they concerned about something which is less than ultimate? Is the concrete religion distorted by idolatry, as to a certain degree all religions are? – On the other hand, one cannot trie to abolish the concrete religion. Only within their womb the religious principle can develop and come to birth. Otherwise the {principle} larger concept would be an abstract principle for a philosophy of religion, but not experienced re- {ligion} ality. In {the} meditation, prayer and community the ultimate concern is nourished, otherwise it drives out and the sublime is replaced by the profane.

15 the sublime, the holy within all culture; {It is} as well as in morality. The way in which we trie to solve the conflicts between religion, is the distinction between the larger concept of religion, religion as the state of being ultimately concerned, and the narrower concept of religion, religion as a set of obliging symbols and activities. 10. But the two concepts do not lie besides each- other: The larger concept of religion (as ultimate concern) is {a} the constitutive element in all {reli} historical re- ligions: In Christianity as well as in Buddhism. the total being with all its strength {and} is asked for. (The Bibli- cal{l} commandment as the love of God). – Since this unconditional concern is the core of all religions, it is also their judgement: It raises the question about them: Do they express the ultimate relation