To evaluate Spalding’s relationship to the preceding theological
tradition, some other passages of his work need to be mentioned.
Once he speaks of a person who‘recognizes and honours divinity
with reason and emotion’,^92 giving the impression that recognition is
the rational and epistemic component of religion. Similarly, he can
mention‘the recognized (anerkannt) or felt (geahnt) Highest and
Best’.^93 Spalding can also formulate religion as consisting generally
of‘the recognition of a well-ruling divinity and continuous (fortwäh-
rend) life’.^94 The true relevance of religion consists in the concurrence
of our feeling of right (Recht) with human dignity and properly
directed quest for happiness.^95
As Beutel notes, such ideas reveal a proximity to Immanuel Kant.^96
Spalding is not, however, a consistent Kantian but does take over
various trends in Enlightenment moral thinking. The passages quoted
reveal a rationality that is not expressed in intellectual doctrine,
manifesting itself as an immediate recognition of something that
has emotional relevance. Such features were adopted by Schleierma-
cher soon after Spalding (see section 3.3).^97
In a passage that resembles Fichte to an extent, Spalding considers
that the seriousness and truthfulness of religious conviction can only
be known through verbal expressions and concrete actions (Han-
dlungsweisen). Spalding wants to avoid both emotional coldness and
exaggerated enthusiasm in developing‘the self-conscious seriousness’
with which the‘recognized principles’(anerkannte Grundsätze) are
followed.^98 He is critical of theology in general, as it tends to forget
the‘living emotion and active practice of the good’. A theologian may
lose genuine religion.^99 Such passages underline the idea of personal
appropriation.^100
In this way, Spalding joins the Pietist criticism of dogmatic the-
ology and considers that the primary object of recognition consists in
persons and facts rather than assented doctrines. As his neological
approach tends to replace God and Christ with morality, right, well-
being, and emotion, he nevertheless differs considerably from Pietist
proclamations. Unlike Pietism, the person who performs the act of
(^92) Religion, 76. (^93) Religion, 183. (^94) Religion, 127.
(^95) Religion, 129. (^96) Beutel 2014, 286, 289.
(^97) For their relationship, see Beutel 2014, 276–7.
(^98) Religion, 153. (^99) Religion, 140.
(^100) Cf. also the motto ofReligion(frontispiece crit. edn),‘Bist du weise, so bist du
dir weise’(Proverbs 9:12, If you are wise, you are wise for yourself ).
134 Recognition and Religion