The name is absent

36 The Rice Institute Pamphlet

gift of life which is accepted humbly from the Creator. The
authentic positive inspiration of high religion derives from
the fact that it appraises realistically the highest potentiali-
ties of human existence even as it refuses to deny them when
they remain unreahzed.

Religion’s total appropriation requires aesthetic sensitivity
as well as ethical insight. Appreciation and Imderstanding
are as fundamental as logical analysis in its interpretation.
Respect for the total context of reality is prerequisite in all
religious knowledge. An inclusive perspective as well as a
sense of wholeness and balance distinguishes the religious
genius from the sectarian. The large contribution of Platonism
to Western theism is itself evidence that careful logical an-
alysis and intuitive insight may complement each other in
new and inclusive insight.

Rehgious education by its very nature seeks to extend the
individual’s understanding of the total dimensions of truth.
Yet the validation of religious experience takes place in part
from within the circle of faith itself. Religious truth is not
accessible to the critic who chooses to ignore both its data
and content. The criticisms of secular humanism have their
answer in part from this claim. The religious man finds that
the experience of forgiveness and reconciliation is basically
Uberating and yields increasing illumination. Although he
reassures his critics that social benefits follow from personal
refigion, he maintains that the truth of its insights can never
be appraised exhaustively from a simply moral point of view.
Socrates’ devotion to the Good, for example, makes clear
that religious dedication has a more inclusive context than
simply loyalty to ethical values. A vital relationship to the
truth of God himself alone sustains the religious man when
evil presses him sorely in difficult circumstances. Participa-

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