Page 302 - Contribution To Phenomenology

THE STUDY OF RELIGION IN HUSSERL 295

As long as I have an open practical horizon for which no termination
is definitely predelineated, and so long as I have given to me a
recognized realizable value—even if it be merely in a vague presump-
tive mode of givenness—^which presumably can lead to new practical
values in the direction of the best possible or the absolutely binding, I
have the duty of acting . . . . When I believe [in the practical
realizability of the telos of theory and practice] and make myself aware
of this belief, when I freely perform this belief out of this practical
source, there is given meaning to the world and my life; there is given
also a joyful confidence that nothing is in vain and that all is to the
good (Hua VIII, 351 and 355).

But what if this faith is not forthcoming? And whence arises this source
for this free act? Faith is not a matter of caprice or will-power. I can
neither force myself to believe nor can I modalize at will the peculiar
certainty of belief (Hua VIII, 368). In the case of belief in life's
meaningfulness, the practical as-if, the energetic pursuit of the absolute
ought in the face of Tod und Teufel, etc. the springs of faith cannot be
from a logical necessity, but they must come from some other source.
But is the necessity of being true to oneself a sufficient source?
It would seem that Husserl moves in the direction of holding that
when confronted with the theme of surds and irrationalities then
ultimately belief in the meaning of the world, in the sense of the pursuit
of a meaningful life of theory and action, is a matter of grace.^^ The
sense of grace here is quite unspecific and encompassing. It includes, as
we have seen and as his diary from 1906-1908 indicates (Hua XXIV,
427), help from people with "big souls," the encounter with the Gospel
presentation of Jesus, the acquaintance with people who are good and
decent, "noble artists" who enflame our hearts, etc. In short whatever
awakens us to, and holds open, the Idea, that can be regarded as "the
grace of God."

The world "strives" toward absolute goals, values, and it prepares the
way for them in the hearts of humans. Humans can realize a divine
world (Gotteswelt) in their freedom [which itself], of course, [is]
motivated and disposed by godly grace, and thereby are they able to

^^ This parallels the basic theme of Husserl's philosophical theology, the
Wunder of reason. See, e.g., Hua VII, 394.