Religion and Culture (first draft) First Lecture: Fundamental Concepts and their relations. Intr. {The infinity of the subject and the necessity of restriction to fundamental concepts and selected appli- cations. The first in the first, the second in the second lecture. The necessity of revising the concepts become of their loose {t} usage in daily life as well as in learned writings.} I. The three functions of man's spiritual life 1. The life of man's spirit (a word to be saved from its loss in English .. It is more than mind and necessary to under- stand both the Western and the Eastern traditions) contains both, religion and culture. But it contains a third function, fundamen- tal for both: morality. _ In order to understand them we must be

[4] {of both} {Christianity} {religion and morals, if they make of the [...] good news a new} {law, based on the so called teachings of Jesus^g and on absurd [willfull] prescriptions or prohibitions} {beyond it.} All moral laws are changing advices, born out of revelatory wisdom, about {the} They show maps of becoming {creation of the of} a centered self in the encounter with other centered selfs. Here the only ultimate {principle} law appears, na- mely love whose inner form is {justice} reverence for the other one or justice and which transcends every law. {This is the second} {point where the religious dimension appears,} because it is the di- vine reality itself {(later more)}. Man tries to escape the responsibility of freedom and hide under the protective roof of laws. 3. This leads to a [...] third element in the un- derstanding of morality and religion. The question must be raised: How can we become a centered self, a person? Which agent is able to achieve it. If we answer: We ourselves we escape the problem. For the question in which "we", which "I". The {person} person as centered self? But this person does not yet exist, we shall become a person; then: can something that is less then a person {produce a person}?, namely you and I, create a person?

[3] II. The function of morality 1. The first act of man's spiritual life is, what in all being is selfintegration, centerednes. And this is the moral act. In every single moral act man constitutes himself as a centered self; and every act of selfintegration of a centered self is a moral act. We call such a centered self a person and call morality the selfconstitution of a person as a person. This gives morality its greatness, its dignity, its absolute seriousness {and this means} its first relation to religion \\ But where there is integration there is also desintegration and man {(Later more)} is inclined to make the moral act conditional  The religious functions represents the unconditional 2. This concept of morals has a liberating power, {both} {in the sense of the good news of the Christian message and the} {freedom from law, as} {liberation experienced in some forms of mystical experience} {piety.} - - - Morality is not the subjection to {a law} tables of laws, be they divine or human, be they sacred traditions or social conventions. {And} {the Christians should understand how they diminish the meaning}

[2] aware of the fact, that man's spiritual life is a process in unity with the whole of life and that in the whole of life the same basic processes are going on: Life integrates it- self, life creates itself, life sublimates itself. In the dimen- sion of the spirit this is morality, culture and religion. 2. My desire would be to show this in atoms and stars, in plants and animals, especially in a notion with a most developped [sic.] relation to nature. But this is impossible, and there is anyhow something new in the dimension of the human spirit: It is life in mea- nings, in language and thought, in the awareness of laws and norms, of questions and answers, of commandments and decisions, of a selfconscious self with will and emotions. {All} This life in mea- nings is not separated from {the} all other life. all dimensions of life are in man, the inorganic and organic, the {veg} biological and the psychological; they add {give the} life-power to {his} the life in meanings, spirit is the unity of power and meaning, of vital life and {the consciousness of} rational life.