The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-01-27
POPULAR APoLoGETlcS.
Adapted from the German of Rev.
Peter Mikes, S j., by Rev.
James Watcher.
Liz. Goethe's Divinity.

OblectIons Inc priests anu WOIleH
would like to catechise us men like
Margaret did Dr. Faust Well, of
course, we believe in God, but accord
ing to the manner of Goethe, the great
poet and thinker. We say with Faust
Goethe.
DIR. Faust to Margaret:
Hear me not falsely, sweetest coun-
tenance!
Who dare express Him?
And who profess Him,
Saying: | believe in Him!
Who, feeling, seeing,
Deny His being,
Saying: | believe Him not!
The All-enfolding,
The All-upholding,
Folds and uphOlds He not
Thee, me, Himself?
Arches there not the sky above us?
Lies not beneath us, firm, the earth?
And rise not, on us shining?
Friendly, the everlasting stars?
Look not, eye to eye, on thee,
And feelst not, thronging,
To head and heart, the force,
sun weaving lJS el6IIdl SECRET,
Invisible, visible, round thy life?
Vast as it is, fill with that force thy
heart,
And when thou in the feeling WIDELY
blessed art,
Call it, then, what thou wilt
Call it Bliss Heart! Love! God!
] have no name to give it!
Feeling is all in all:
The Name is sound and smoke,
Obscuring heavens clear glow"
TRANSLATED by Bayard Taylor.)
Answer: You certainly expect a
different answer from me than the one
the naive Margaret gave, who thought
that "All that is fine and good to
hear it So" or at least considered it
"tolerable" But for thinking man
this nebulous, pantheistic, emotional
, religion of Goethe is intOlerable, hOl-
low, and unreasonable.
A dishonest sport is here made with
the word God; God is only bliss,
Heart, Love-" hence no personal being
That is bare pantheism that calls the
All it's God: the All which stirs and
moves in eternal mystery, which can
at the most be called the All-enfold
ing, the All-upholding," but on no ac-
account admits a personal, eXtramun-
dane (outside the world God beside
ITSELF
For a thinking man the world pre-
sents itself everywhere, in the small
est as in the largest, as the work of
an intelligence hence of a spirit, Of
personality: this we call God.
Whoever has no clear ideas about God
and the world, may, like the unhappy
Margaret, be bambooZled and say:
Much the same way the preacher
spoke,
Only with slightly different phrases"
But these slightly different phrases"
are the very opposite.
The famous professor of political
economy, Roscher* (71S94) says that
the principal reason for the idolizing
of Goethe is his easy, pantheistic con-
ception of life. That in this respect
he is the opposite of Shakespeare.
Of sin, conscience, justice, and grace
Goethe has no understanding; his
Faust, who by his low sensuality had
ruined in the most terrible manner
a whole family (mother, daughter,
child and brother), knows nothing of
sorrow and repentance; he sleeps
bedded on the f1owery sod, forgets
his former terrible life and awakes to
new joys of life. Is this moral? Also
in his old age he commits the worst
injustices and still finally ascends into
heaven without sorrow and penance.
Faust never turned himself to God,
his last end, and never freed himself
from the devil! There is no mention
of a moral conversion. His 'redemp-
ton" is, therefore, the purest, external
comedy. This easy, but anything than
moral earnest view, is only practical
attempt to live happily in this world
and then die blessed death
Roscher says: Whoever thinks
such an answer sufficient to, such vital
questions, to him the life of the poet
(Goethe) must appeal and be quieting
in high degree"