The Germanic Temple

Artist Fahrenkrog, Barmen

(This article was written in 1907)

Are you, German soul, not rich enough to build your sanctuary out of your own primal possessions?

A suggestively Oriental pomp, always zealous for its absolutes, lies within the soul and places in subjection the receptive, faith-rich fervour of the young German.

Oriental! I mean Moses with his "Thou shalt not!"; or Jesus' "No man can serve two masters," meaning either/or, God or Mammon; or St. Paul's inflexible "There is no other name given us under heaven by which we can be saved!" Remember also the Pope's infallibility in the matters of the human soul. It repeats in mandatory fanaticism to the eternally questing soul an inexorable, rigid "It is so!" And the stronger the soul relies on this, in trust and faith, the sooner it is placed in subjection by means of hypnosis.

The Germanic is in subjection to the Oriental. He is obliged to be, since his rich religious sensibilities still seeks for answers in the east. Here they will be given to him. He must remain in subjection like a clever, curious child, that in looking at endless wonders cannot yet answer for himself, and half in slumber and dream plays with giant-images and fog-elves, and depends on those humans he regards as mature and wise. Of himself the Germanic wouldn't be as bold or arrogant enough to allege and proclaim a universal "It is so!" He trusted the zealous foreigner --- and was truer to the foreign words than their preachers, as the German soul with the coming of Martin Luther awoke and with fervour and might made protest. "Here I stand, I can do no other!" That was the voice of eternity, the sound of religious depth, a compulsion from God. Luther shook off the infallibility of the Romans; but in seeking a balance of power he set up another: the infallibility of the Bible = the revealed word of God of the Orient.

If only he had discovered the soul as the last best and deepest place of divine revelation, and the human soul as the determining law of a religious vision, that after all can give no word other than that which is living in it! --- Well, anyway. Since Luther's day Germany's soul began to free itself from alienating oriental myth and sought its Self.

Is not every true science a striving for truth? Every true word --- even when it has dogmas and priests lined up against it --- a divine word? Did not Jesus also speak of a divine truth when he said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you! --- not in that built with hands!"

We stand at the turning-point to an earlier era. It is like when a person casts off an old and familiar garment. Fleeing frippery, the soul wants to be simple --- to be naked. Humans are filled with embarrassment at their own soul, and threads which spin across from the soul's womb.

Are you, German soul, not rich enough to build a sanctuary in your own heart?

Written by Ludwig Fahrenkrog (1867-1952). Translated by Nissa Annakindt.

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