constitutes the fundamental Life superior to the world, and has been present throughout the whole of the Christian era; and it is this Substance which has raised men beyond the merely human situation; it is the Substance that has enabled men to overcome the world, and afterwards to see the world from the standpoint of the Divine.  In this work of differentiation we are dependent in a very large measure upon the results of knowledge.  Such results do not grant us the Substance of Christianity, because this is something which has to be lived into in order to be possessed.  The transformation which occurs on account of a change in the Existential-form may indeed prove helpful to the spiritual nucleus itself, because it represents a truth of the intellect-a truth which does not conflict with any [p.185] knowledge outside its own sphere.  There are many dangers to be discovered in this process of interpreting the spiritual nucleus.  A mode of interpretation whose meaning has very largely passed away is bound to prove injurious, because it comes into sharp conflict with a newer and more comprehensive meaning, and consequently Christianity fails to win the support of those who are acquainted with the new Existential-form.  And even the individual who retains the old clothing, and looks upon it as being something of the same nature as the spiritual nucleus, is in danger of basing a portion of his religion on a foundation of sand.  But, on the other hand, he who is aware of the flaws of the old Existential-form without having assimilated the Spiritual Substance which lies beneath it, is in danger of drifting from religion altogether.  The only way of serving best and carrying farther the development of the Christian religion is to grasp and experience deeply the fact that the Spiritual Substance is something entirely different from its form of existence.  Its form of existence is an attempt to account for the Substance; it consists of intellectual concepts.  And as with everything else in this world so with religion; mere intellectual concepts change, and cannot be more than receptacles used by the human mind to enshrine the things which are presented as meanings and values within the soul.

[p.186] Eucken pays great attention to the necessity of this process of differentiation between the two elements in Christianity.  There is a need to-day of a new form of existence for Christianity; but the satisfaction of this need will not grant us the spiritual nucleus itself.  The spiritual nucleus is something to be gained not by means of knowledge, but by means of love.  Eucken goes so far as to state that the idea of love and love of one’s enemy as presented in Christianity forms a new element for the redemption of the individual and of the race.  To grasp this idea and to penetrate into its nature is to solve all the problems of life and death.  This is the Eternal element in the Christian religion.  It is found, it is true, in other religions; but why should we