A Reading of Reality
The Creator Spirit. A Survey of Christian Doctrine in the light of Biology, Psychology and Mysticism. By Charles E. Raven, D.D. (Martin Hopkinson. 8s. 6d.)
Dn. RAVEN speaks on page 78 of this remarkable book of " the profound religious conviction which demands a monistic inter- pretation of the universe." That sentence inevitably brings to mind another utterance, not unlike in form but exactly opposite in meaning, by one of the most deeply spiritual of modern theologians. In his preface to the last edition of The Mystical Element of Religion, Baron von Hugel stated his con- viction that " religion has no subtler, and yet also no deadlier enemy in the region of the mind, than every and all Monism " : and this because Monism must tend to obliterate that sense of the " otherness " and distinctness of God, which he held to be the touchstone of all true religion. How then are we to explain this apparently fundamental conflict in the outlook of two profoundly religious minds ; each seeking only for truth, and each fully conversant with the wide range of material brought into the theological arena by modern thought ?
To some extent the contradiction is to be accounted for by the fact that whilst for von lingers intensely metaphysical soul religion was mainly the thirst for Ultimates, it is for Dr.
Raven's scientific temperament very largely concerned with the spiritual explanation of contingents. And this spiritual explanation of contingents, the discovery of the Creative Spirit of God in and through those fragments of His works which human beings can perceive, is perhaps best achieved by the use of such a diagram as is given to us by a limited monism.
This does not impair the view that such a monism leaves un- touched the vast reaches of the Supernatural ; and that any attempt forcibly to extend its boundary, any refusal to leave room for a Reality which transcends all these simplifying efforts of our limited minds, will damage and not help the cause of true religion. Dr. Raven, when he comes to discuss " the spirit and mysticism," finds himself compelled to acknow- ledge this—an interesting and indirect testimony to the inability of monism to express the full content of the religious consciousness. " The Eternal is not our nurse, nor our mother only. He is God, Life, Light and Love In commu- nion with Him who is and was and is to come' we apprehend then and there the timeless infinity of reality." Hence, though what we have here is mainly a philosophy—and indeed a theology—of Becoming, it is a Becoming which takes place within the landscape of Eternity. Surely the most convinced transcendentalist need ask no more. And the great merit and value of Dr. Raven's book is, that he is able to link this expe- rience of ultimates with a view of the universe which the biologist and the psychologist can accept ; and produce a Christocentrie philosophy of the world in full harmony with the findings of modern science. He reminds us with force of a truth which piety too easily forgets : that the God of grace must be the God of nature too. In spite of many dis- concerting details, creation, inspiration and incarnation do and must reveal (though at very different levels) the tranquil operations of the same perpetual Providence.
Probably the most important section of this book will be
found to be the chapter on " Mechanism, Vitalism and Emergence " ; for here there is propounded a theory of evolu- tion which includes spiritual values, and can be harmonized
with the outlook of Christian theism. It is based upon the theory of spiritual and physical concomitance which was first developed by Professor Lloyd Morgan in his Gifford lectures, and is now applied to the purposes of apologetic. This means in practice that the same series of facts can be explained (a) physically, (b) psychically, and (c) spiritually. We can trace in them the emergence of life, of mind, and of spirit. Hence the development and meaning of humanity, the peculiarities of human conduct, may be regarded, and truly regarded, from each of these points of view. As we find rational behaviour emerging from within instinctive behaviour, so we find spiritual life emerging from within physical life ; not simply running parallel with it This principle of emergence Dr.
Raven holds to be characteristic of the whole cosmic process ; and to indicate, from the human point of view, the way in which the Creator Spirit works. At each successive level of creation, the existent material combines to produce not merely a predictable compound, but the conditions required for the emergence of an unpredictable novelty. Life, mind and spirit are such emergent novelties—wholly new levels of creation, each prepared by that which went before. And side by side with the physical and mental stories of emergence must go, for the theist, the story of the graded manifestation of Spirit in and through these Its works. Thus the religious mind will develop its apprehensions, enrich its conceptions, of Deity, perpetually " discovering in fresh modes the ever present energy of God," and learning communion with Him " through the universal sacrament of His works."
Beginning his survey with a discussion of the theology of the Spirit, and passing on to consider the evidences of Its presence in Nature--chapters full of fascinating illustrative details, which remind us that Dr. Raven is a biologist as well as a divine—we arrive in the section on psychology at the clou of his argument. This is, that the tendency of the whole creative process is to produce " functioning entities "—indi- viduals, or, in its higher and highest ranges, true personalities —who are in a measure creative in their turn. This conclusion has certain affinities with that of General Smuts, in " Holism and Evolution," but here is made to serve a definitely religious end. Where the human mind apprehends, and responds to, the Divine Spirit, a wholly new level of emergence is seen to be reached, and man's evolution receives its crown :—
" God is now a recognized factor in environment ; individuality, which has been enlarged at each level, now reaches its highest growth in personality, in that surrender of itself to the eternal which is at once self-abandonment and self-realization. . . . From embryo to saint is man's Pilgrim's Progress ; if we could see it whole and complete, we should resolve the antithesis of organism and environment, of nature and nurture, of freedom and determin- ism, of process and deity."
Even those who may feel slight doubts about the last pair of opposites will hardly deny the beauty, eloquence and spiritual value of all that has gone before.
EVELYN UNDERHILL.
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