The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Religion, A Dialogue, Etc. - Arthur Schopenhauer
The fundamental characteristics of the Jewish religion are realism and
optimism, views of the world which are closely allied; they form, in
fact, the conditions of theism. For theism looks upon the material world
as absolutely real, and regards life as a pleasant gift bestowed upon
us. On the other hand, the fundamental characteristics of the Brahman
and Buddhist religions are idealism and pessimism, which look upon the
existence of the world as in the nature of a dream, and life as the
result of our sins. In the doctrines of the Zendavesta, from which, as
is well known, Judaism sprang, the pessimistic element is represented by
Ahriman. In Judaism, Ahriman has as Satan only a subordinate position;
but, like Ahriman, he is the lord of snakes, scorpions, and vermin. But
the Jewish system forthwith employs Satan to correct its fundamental
error of optimism, and in the _Fall_ introduces the element of
pessimism, a doctrine demanded by the most obvious facts of the world.
There is no truer idea in Judaism than this, although it transfers to
the course of existence what must be represented as its foundation and
antecedent.
The New Testament, on the other hand, must be in some way traceable to
an Indian source: its ethical system, its ascetic view of morality, its
pessimism, and its Avatar, are all thoroughly Indian. It is its morality
which places it in a position of such emphatic and essential antagonism
to the Old Testament, so that the story of the Fall is the only possible
point of connection between the two. For when the Indian doctrine was
imported into the land of promise, two very different things had to be
combined: on the one hand the consciousness of the corruption and misery
of the world, its need of deliverance and salvation through an Avatar,
together with a morality based on self-denial and repentance; on the
other hand the Jewish doctrine of Monotheism, with its corollary that
"all things are very good" [Greek: panta kala lian]. And the task
succeeded as far as it could, as far, that is, as it was possible to
combine two such heterogeneous and antagonistic creeds.
As ivy clings for the support and stay it wants to a rough-hewn post,
everywhere conforming to its irregularities and showing their outline,
but at the same time covering them with life and grace, and changing the
former aspect into one that is pleasing to the eye; so the Christian
faith, sprung from the wisdom of India, overspreads the old trunk of
rude Judaism, a tree of alien growth; the original form must in part
remain, but it suffers a complete change and becomes full of life and
truth, so that it appears to be the same tree, but is really another.
Judaism had presented the Creator as separated from the world, which he
produced out of nothing. Christianity identifies this Creator with the
Saviour, and through him, with humanity: he stands as their
representative; they are redeemed in him, just as they fell in Adam, and
have lain ever since in the bonds of iniquity, corruption, suffering and
death. Such is the view taken by Christianity in common with Buddhism;
the world can no longer be looked at in the light of Jewish optimism,
which found "all things very good": nay, in the Christian scheme, the
devil is named as its Prince or Ruler ([Greek: ho archon tou
kosmoutoutou.] John 12, 33). The world is no longer an end, but a means:
and the realm of everlasting joy lies beyond it and the grave.
Resignation in this world and direction of all our hopes to a better,
form the spirit of Christianity. The way to this end is opened by the
Atonement, that is the Redemption from this world and its ways. And in
the moral system, instead of the law of vengeance, there is the command
to love your enemy; instead of the promise of innumerable posterity, the
assurance of eternal life; instead of visiting the sins of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth generations, the Holy Spirit
governs and overshadows all.
We see, then, that the doctrines of the Old Testament are rectified and
their meaning changed by those of the New, so that, in the most
important and essential matters, an agreement is brought about between
them and the old religions of India. Everything which is true in
Christianity may also be found in Brahmanism and Buddhism. But in
Hinduism and Buddhism you will look in vain for any parallel to the
Jewish doctrines of "a nothing quickened into life," or of "a world made
in time," which cannot be humble enough in its thanks and praises to
Jehovah for an ephemeral existence full of misery, anguish and need.
Whoever seriously thinks that superhuman beings have ever given our race
information as to the aim of its existence and that of the world, is
still in his childhood. There is no other revelation than the thoughts
of the wise, even though these thoughts, liable to error as is the lot
of everything human, are often clothed in strange allegories and myths
under the name of religion. So far, then, it is a matter of indifference
whether a man lives and dies in reliance on his own or another's
thoughts; for it is never more than human thought, human opinion, which
he trusts. Still, instead of trusting what their own minds tell them,
men have as a rule a weakness for trusting others who pretend to
supernatural sources of knowledge. And in view of the enormous
intellectual inequality between man and man, it is easy to see that the
thoughts of one mind might appear as in some sense a revelation to
another.