Monism as Connecting Religion and Science Part 3

[Footnote 20: _Monistic Religion_.

Amongst the many attempts which have been made in the course of the last twenty years to reform religion in a monistic direction on the basis of advanced knowledge of nature, by far the most important is the epoch-making work of David Friedrich Strauss, ent.i.tled _The Old Faith and the New: A Confession_ (11th ed., Bonn, 1881: _Collected Writings_, 1878). Compare M. J. Savage, _Religion in the Light of the Darwinian Doctrine_; John William Draper, _History of the Conflict between Religion and Science_; Carl Friedrich Retzer, _Die naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung und ihre Ideale, ein Ersatz fuer das religiose Dogma_ (Leipsic, 1890); E. Koch, _Natur und Menschengeist im Lichte der Entwickelungslehre_ (Berlin, 1891). For the phylogeny of religion see the interesting work of U. Van Ende, _Histoire Naturelle de la Croyance_ (Paris, 1887).]

[Footnote 21: _Freedom in Teaching_.

The jubilee of the "Naturforschende Gesellschaft des Osterlandes" was celebrated in Altenburg on October 9, 1892, contemporaneously with the commencement of the brilliant celebration of the golden wedding of the Grand Duke and d.u.c.h.ess in Weimar. As exceptional as the celebration are the characteristics which distinguish this august couple. The Grand Duke Carl Alexander has, during a prosperous reign of forty years, constantly shown himself an ill.u.s.trious patron of science and art; as Rector Magnificentissimus of our Thuringian university of Jena, he has always afforded his protection to its most sacred palladium--the right of the free investigation and teaching of truth. The Grand d.u.c.h.ess Sophie, the heiress and guardian of the Goethe archives, has in Weimar prepared a fitting home for that precious legacy of our most brilliant literary period, and has anew made accessible to the German nation the ideal treasures of thought of her greatest intellectual hero. The history of culture will never forget the service which the princely couple have thereby rendered to the human mind in its higher development, and at the same time to true religion.]