The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5.s1.6

c5.s1.6

The Apostles and the early Christians, says he, placed their faith in Heaven in such an extraordinary manner as to be entirely indifferent to the things of life, the state, *irdisches Vaterland*, the earthly fatherland, and the nation. This attitude is appraised by Fichte as an unnatural condition, as something outside the rule of the world-process, indeed as a rare exception. It is, further, says he, a very abnormal or perverse use (*verkehrter Gebrauch*) of religion, such as has been very often made in Christendom and other faiths, which without reference to the existing circumstances, recommends this retreating from the interests of the state and the nation as real religious disposition (*Zurückziehung von den Angelegenheiten des Staates und der Nation als wahre religiöse Gesinnung*). In the regular order of things, however, earthly life itself is to be regarded really as life (*soll das irdische Leben selber wahrhaftig Leben sein*) in which one can feel happy and which, naturally in expectation of something higher (*freilich in Erwartung eines höheren*), one can gratefully enjoy.