struggling with the world 195that we now need in the spiritual life of humanity. Th e Promethean’s
endeavor, however, is corrupted by the contest for power over others, by
the denial of the truth about our situation in the world, and, above all,
by the failure to challenge and change, to the benefi t of the others, the
or ga nized settings of our life and thought.
Th e quest for power over others draws the power seeker into the
endless stratagems and anxieties of emulation, rivalry, vigilance, com-
bat, and self- disguise. Th e discipline of fi ghting— not to change the
structure but to secure a special place within it— enslaves and poisons
his experience of the present moment. Vitality, rather than being en-
hanced, is mistaken for dominion.
Th ese two vices of the Promethean mistake— the forgetting of the
truth about human existence and the reduction of vitality to power—
work together to aggravate the experience of estrangement from life in
the present rather than to overcome it.
Belated paganism and Prometheanism fail as responses to the prob-
lem presented, in the struggle with the world, by estrangement from
life in the present. Th ere is no solution to this problem that fails to re-
quire a change of vision and of conduct. To bring about such a change
is the work of the religion of the future.