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salvation, which is characterized by a methodology of religious salvation, as "ascetic." This designation
is for our purposes here, and we do not in any way deny that this term may be and has been used in
another and wider sense. The contrast between our usage and the wider usage will become clearer later
on in this work.
(H.1.b) World-rejection
Religious virtuosity, in addition to overcoming the natural instinct under a systematic conduct of life,
always leads to a radical ethical and religious criticism of the social relationship of life in order to
overcome it, since the conventional virtues of the society are inevitably unheroic and utilitarian. Not
only does the mere "natural" moral within the world not guarantee salvation, but it actually endangers
salvation through preventing from what is alone indispensable for it. The "world" in the religious sense,
namely, the domain of social relationships, is therefore a realm of temptations. The world is full of
temptations, not only because it is the site of sensual pleasures which are ethically irrational and
completely diverting from things divine, but even more because it fosters in the self-satisfaction and self-
righteousness in the fulfillment of common obligations of religiously average persons, at the expense of
the sole concentration on active achievements of salvation.
Concentration upon salvation may entail a formal withdrawal from the "world": from social and
psychological ties with the family, from the possession of worldly goods, and from political, economic,
artistic, and erotic activities --in short, from all creaturely interests. Any participation in these affairs
may appear as an acceptance of the world and thereby as an alienation from divine. This is "world-
rejecting asceticism."
(H.1.c) Inner-worldly Asceticism
On the other hand, concentration upon salvation may require the maintenance of specific quality of
religious attitude as the elected instrument of God within the world but against to the order of the world.
This is "inner-worldly asceticism." In this case the world is presented to the religious virtuoso as the
assigned duty. The ascetic's task is to transform the world in accordance with her/his ascetic ideals, in
which case the ascetic will become a rational reformer or revolutionary of the "natural right." Examples
of this were seen in the "Parliament of the Saints" under Cromwell, in the Quaker State of Pennsylvania,
and in the conventicle communism of radical Pietism.
As a result of the differences in religious qualification, such ascetics always become an aristocratic,
exclusive organization within or, specifically, outside the world of the average people who surround
these ascetics; in principle, an ascetic's aristocracy is not different from a "class". Such an ascetic
enterprise might be able to conquer the world, but it still could not raise the religious endowment of the
average person to its own level of virtuosity. Any rational religious enterprise that ignored this self-
evidence had to experience its consequence.
From the point of view of asceticism, the world as a whole remains to an "eternal damnation" (massa
perditionis). The only remaining alternative is a renunciation of the illusion that the world can meet to
the religious requirement. Consequently, if a demonstration of religious qualification is still to be made
within the orders of the world, then the world, for the very reason that it inevitably remains a natural
vessel of sin, becomes a challenge for the demonstration of the ascetic qualification and for the strongest
possible battle against the world's sins. The world abides in the worthless state of all things of the flesh.
Therefore, any sensuous attachment to the world's goods may imperil concentration upon and possession
of the good of salvation, and may be a symptom of unholiness of heart and failure of rebirth.
Nevertheless, the world as a creation of god, whose power comes to expression in it despite its
creatureliness, provides the only medium through which one's unique religious charisma must prove
itself by means of rational ethical action, so that one may become and remain certain of one's own state
of grace.
Hence, as the object of this active demonstration, the order of the world in which the ascetic is situated
becomes for her/him a "vocation" which s/he must "fulfill" rationally. As a consequence, and although
the enjoyment of wealth is forbidden to the ascetic, it becomes his vocation to engage in economic
activity which meets rational and ethical requirements and which conforms to strict legality. If the
activity brings success and profit, it is regarded as the manifestation of god's reward upon the labor of
the faithful and of god's blessing with his economic conduct of life.
Any excess of emotional feeling is prohibited as being a deification of the creaturely, which denies the
unique value of the divine gift of grace. On the other hand, "vocation" is the rational and sober laboring
for the cause of the rational purposive society of the world, which is set by the God's creation. In similar
way, any eroticism that tends to deify the human creature is condemned. On the other hand, it is a
divinely prescribed vocation of human "to soberly produce children" (as the Puritans expressed it) within
marriage. Then, too, there is a prohibition against the exercise of force by an individual against other
human beings for reasons of passion or revenge, and above all for purely personal motives. However, it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]