In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

IMMANENCE VS. TRANSCENDENCE 283
(Nation without Space) is one of those texts which explicitly exclude the
possibility of toning down the myth of redemption to a purely metaphorical
status. Grimm offers no alternative to a religiously grounded
world view. His protagonists therefore reject all forms of pragmatism as
the greatest danger to the national interest: "He has identified two
enemies. The first is the sort of property which is interested only in its
own preservation and which alternatively appears in the guise of Economy
or of Realpolitik. The second is the Social Democratic Party"
(Grimm, 662).
Adolf Hitler's relation to the dimension of Transcendence is far more
complex. On the one hand, in the autobiographical passages of Mein
Kampf he occasionally uses words that are traditionally religious; on the
other, he never fully eliminates the possibility of reading them as merely
ornamental elements. Concepts like "fate" or "providence" can thus be
either metonyms for a divine being or metaphors for randomness: "For
this other world is thoughtless. Thoughtlessly, it allows things to go on
as they will; lacking intuition, they do not foresee that sooner or later
fate will take revenge if it is not placated in time. How grateful I am
today to providence, which bade me go to this school. There I could not
sabotage what I disliked. It educated me quickly and thoroughly"
(Hitler, 28-29). One of Hitler's rhetorical strategies consists of supporting
his racist theories by means of two other discourses: he presents
racism both as fulfilling God's will and as corresponding to the laws of
nature. "Eternal Nature inexorably avenges transgressions against her
laws. Therefore, I believe today that I am acting in accordance with the
wishes of the Almighty Creator: by warding off the Jews, I am accomplishing
the Lord's work" (Hitler, 70). Theology and science exist in a
complementary relation here. The natural sciences have contributed
more than any other institutionalized field of knowledge to redefining
traditional concepts of Transcendence under the premise of Immanence,
as well as to producing new concepts of this type. Hitler's racism can
therefore appeal simultaneously to readers who believe in a biologically
grounded world view and to those who are traditionally religious.
Nature and science are the dominant contexts for transforming classical
concepts of Transcendence into concepts of Immanence. Thus,
Maurice Maeterlinck's novel La vie des termites strives to reduce the
problems of individual existence, society, and religion to a purely biological
dimension. Toward the end of the book, Maeterlinck defines the