becoming more human by becoming more godlike 355Our estrangement from life in the present turns perversely into a
source of belittlement. Th us, the orientation to the future, which the
struggle with the world has established in every department of our po-
liti cal and moral experience as the road to the salvation of our souls or
to the improvement of our societies, turns against itself.
To live for the future, whether it is the providential future of God’s plan
or the historical future of a greater life for humanity, is to resist the fi nality
of established arrangements and ruling assumptions. It is to affi rm our-
selves as beings whose possibilities of vision and experience are not lim-
ited by the circumstances in which we fi nd ourselves. Th is announcement
that we make to ourselves is a prophecy of greatness in the midst of the
ordinary and an intimation of our ascent to a higher state of being.
However, the orientation to the future then takes back what it has
given us when it becomes, as it has become in the history of the sacred
and secular struggle with the world, estrangement from the present.
Revulsion against life now diminishes our regard for our greatest good
and denies us all guidance about its preservation. It deprives us of the
means to avoid dying before death. We waste, unknowingly, the trea-
sure that fell into our hands.
Th us, the religion of the future derives three related tasks from its
close kinship with the struggle with the world. Th e fi rst task is to recon-
cile transcendence with solidarity, not in the abstractions of philosophy
but in the conduct of life and the or ga ni za tion of society. Th e second
task is to redirect the orientation to the future in a form that overcomes
alienation from the present. Th e third task is to give eff ect to the im-
pulse that the sacred and profane versions of the struggle with the
world have established in the hearts of men and women: that we must
live and understand our lives in a way that does justice to who we are.
We will renounce the longing to be God and become, instead, more
godlike. We will set aside the hope of eternal life, the better to possess
the mortal life that is ours.
The overthrow: from self- subversion to self- transformation
A way of living that keeps faith with these concerns, experiences, and
ideas must begin in the overthrow of ourselves. By the unwavering rec-
ognition of death, groundlessness, and insatiability, we awake to life.