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FROMMEL, GASTON (1862-1906)
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See also:FROMMEL, GASTON (1862-1906) , Swiss theologian, See also:professor of See also:theology in the university of See also:Geneva from 1894 to 1906. An Alsatian by See also:birth, he belonged mainly to See also:French See also:Switzerland, where he spent most of his See also:life. He may best be described as continuing the spirit of See also:Vinet (q.v.) amid the See also:mental conditions marking the end of the 19th See also:century. Like Vinet, he derived his See also:philosophy of See also:religion from a peculiarly deep experience of the See also:Gospel of See also:Christ as See also:meeting the demands of the moral consciousness; but he See also:developed even further than Vinet the psychological See also:analysis of See also:conscience and the method of verifying every See also:doctrine by See also:direct reference to spiritual experience. Both made much of moral individuality or See also:personality as the See also:crown and criterion of reality, believing that its correlation with See also:Christianity, both historically and philosophically, was most intimate. But while Vinet laid most stress on the See also:liberty from human authority essential to the moral consciousness, the changed needs of the See also:age caused Frommel to develop rather the aspect of See also:man's dependence as a moral being upon See also:God's spiritual initiative, " the conditional nature of his liberty." " Liberty is not the See also:primary, but the secondary characteristic " of See also:con-See also:science; " before being See also:free, it is the subject of See also:obligation." On this depends its objectivity as a real See also:revelation of the Divine Will. Thus he claimed that a deeper analysis carried one beyond the human subjectivity of even See also:Kant's categorical imperative, since consciousness of obligation was " une experience imposee sous le mode de 1'absolu." By his use of imposee Frommel emphasized the priority of man's sense of obligation to his consciousness either of self or of God. Here he appealed to the current See also:psychology of the subconscious for See also:confirmation of his analysis, by which he claimed to transcend See also:mere intellectualism. In his See also:language on this fundamental point he was perhaps too jealous of admitting an ideal See also:element as implicit in the feeling of obligation. Still he did well in insisting on priority to self-conscious thought as a See also:mark of metaphysical objectivity in the See also:case of moral, no less than of See also:physical experience. Further, he found in the See also:Christian revelation the same characteristics as belonged to the universal revelation involved in conscience, viz. God's See also:sovereign initiative and his living See also:action in See also:history. From this standpoint he argued against a purely psychological type of religion (agnosticisme religieux; as he termed it)—a tendency to which he saw even in A. See also:Sabatier and the symbolofideisme of the See also:Paris School—as giving up a real and unifying faith. His See also:influence on men, especially the student class, was greatly enhanced by the religious force and See also:charm of his personality. Finally, like Vinet, he was a man of letters and a penetrating critic of men and systems. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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