'Goethe, as lately quoted by Matthew Arnold, said those who have science and art have religion; and added, let those who have not science and art have the popular faith; let them have this escape, because the others are closed to them. Without any hold upon the ideal, or any insight into the beauty and fitness of things, the people turn from the tedium and the grossness and prosiness of daily life, to look for the divine, the sacred, the saving, in the wonderful, the miraculous, and in that which baffles reason. The disciples of Jesus thought of the kingdom of heaven as some external condition of splendor and pomp and power which was to be ushered in by hosts of trumpeting angels, and the Son of man in great glory, riding upon the clouds, and not for one moment as the still small voice within them. To find the divine and the helpful in the mean and familiar, to find religion without the aid of any supernatural machinery, to see the spiritual, the eternal life in and through the life that now is--in short, to see the rude, prosy earth as a star in the heavens, like the rest, is indeed the lesson of all others the hardest to learn.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Science and art provide insight into the ideal for some, while others seek religion in miracles; true divinity lies in the familiar not the miraculous.
- In plain terms
- Some find the divine in science and art, others in miracles, but it is found in everyday life.
- What can you take from it?
- The divine is in ordinary things not miracles.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where do you find the divine?
- Is reason enough for faith?
Another view
Miracles still inspire some where reason falls short.
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