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salvation might exert indirect effects on one's occupational life. The simple, pious Dervish is, other
things being equal, more reliable than a non-religious person, in the same way that the pious Parsee is
prosperous as a businessman because of his strict adherence to the rigid commandment to be honest.
But an unbroken unity integrating in systematic fashion an ethic of vocation in the world with assurance
of religious salvation was the unique creation of ascetic Protestantism alone. Furthermore, only in the
Protestant ethic of vocation does the world, despite all its creaturely imperfections, possess unique and
religious significance as the object through which one fulfills his duties by rational action according to
the will of an absolutely transcendental god. The rational, sober, and purposive character of activity and
its result, which were yet not attached to the world, were a sign that god's blessing rests upon such
action. In contrast, these distinctive consequences of Occidental inner-worldly asceticism were not
found in any other religions of the world. This inner worldly asceticism demanded not celibacy as a
monk, but the avoidance of all erotic pleasure; not poverty, but the elimination of all idle and
exploitative enjoyment of unearned wealth and income, an the avoidance of all feudalistic, sensuous
ostentation of wealth; not the ascetic death-in-life of the cloister, but an awakened, rationally controlled
conduct of life, and the avoidance of all attachment to the beauty of the world, to art, or to one's own
moods and emotions. The clear and single-minded goal of this asceticism was the disciplining and
methodical conduct of life. Its typical representative was the "person of a vocation," and its unique result
was the rational objectification of social relationships.
(I) SALVATION BY OTHER'S ACHIEVEMENT
(I.1) Salvation By Grace
When the idea of salvation is further developed, one's own work is regarded as completely inadequate
for the purpose of salvation. At this development, salvation is accessible only as a consequence of the
achievement of some greatly endowed hero, or even the achievement of a god who has become incarnate
for this very purpose and whose grace will work by itself. Grace might be distributed to as a direct effect
of magical activities, or out of the excess of grace which had accumulated as a result of the human or
divine savior's achievements.
(I.1.a) Savior
The idea of salvation by other's achievement arose from the development of salvational myths, above all
myths of the struggling or suffering god, who in his various possible manifestations had become
incarnate and descended upon earth or even traveled into the realm of the dead. Instead of a god of
nature, particularly a sun god who struggles with other powers of nature, especially with darkness and
cold, and having won a victory over them precedes in the spring, there now arises a savior on the basis
of the salvation myths. There are various types of the savior; Christ liberates humans from the power of
the demons; the Gnostic seven archons save humans from enslavement to the astrological determinism
of fate; and the Gnosticism's savior, at the command of the concealed and gracious god, rescues the
corrupted world which was created by an inferior creator god (Demiurge). The savior Jesus saves
humans from the hard-hearted hypocrisy of the world and its justification by self-works. Or again, the
salvation may be from the oppressive consciousness of sin, arising from man's awareness of the
impossibility of filling certain requirements of the law, as was the case with Paul and, somewhat
differently, with Augustine and Luther. Finally, the salvation may be from the abysmal corruption of the
individual's own sinful nature, as in Augustine. In all these cases the savior led human upward toward a
secure haven in the grace and love of a good god.
(I.1.b) Doctrines of Savior
To accomplish these purposes the savior must fight with dragons or evil demons, depending on the
character of the salvation in question. In some cases he is not able to engage in such battle right away --
he is often a child completely pure of sin-- and so he must grow up in concealment or must be
slaughtered by his enemies and journey to the realm of the dead in order to rise again and return
victorious. From this particular belief may develop the view that the death of the savior is a tributary
atonement for the devil's power gained over the souls of humans as a result of men's sins. This is the
view of earliest Christianity. Or, on the contrary, the death of the savior may be viewed as a means of
smoothing the wrath of god, before whom the savior appears as an intercessor for humans, as in the
cases of Christ, Muhammad, and other prophets and saviors. Again, the savior may, like the ancient
bearer of salvation in magical religions, bring person forbidden knowledge of fire, technical arts,
writing, or possibly the lore requisite for subjugating demons in this world or on the way toward heaven,
as in Gnosticism. Finally, the decisive achievement of the savior may be contained, not in his concrete
struggles and sufferings, but in the ultimate metaphysical root of the entire process. This ultimate
metaphysical basis would of course be the incarnation of a god as the only device for bridging the gap
between god and his creatures. This metaphysical conception constituted the culmination of Greek
speculation about salvation, in Athanasius. The incarnation of god presented humans with the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
