Claim. The Abel-type view of life — pursuit of the internal original nature in a deepening search for God — matured providentially along two parallel tracks: in philosophy through Kant’s synthesis of rationalism and empiricism into critical idealism (succeeded by Fichte, Schelling, Hegel), and in religion through Pietism, Methodism, Quakerism, and Swedenborgian spirit-world investigation — together forming the spiritual-philosophical foundation for the democratic world.
Elaboration. Per Part 2 Ch 6 §2.2: as the Reformation revived Hebraism, it spawned philosophies and movements pursuing the internal original nature, guiding modern people to seek God more deeply.
Philosophical track. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) in his Critical Philosophy assimilated empiricism and rationalism. Sensations from external objects supply contents of cognition but cannot actualize cognition itself; this requires a priori transcendental forms of intuition and thought belonging to the subjective self. Cognition is actualized when sensations are integrated through the synthetic action of thinking. Kant thereby overturned the empiricist thesis that cognition is determined by external objects, founding a philosophy in which cognition is governed by the subjective mind.
Kant was succeeded by the German idealists — Fichte (1762-1814), Schelling (1775-1854), and Hegel (1770-1831), who pioneered the Hegelian dialectic. They solidified the Abel-type view in philosophy. (Hegel is also drawn upon by left-Hegelians for the Cain-side, per dp-cain-type-view-of-life-matures-from-renaissance-through-enlightenment-to-marxism.)
Religious track. New movements arose opposing rationalism in religion and stressing religious zeal and the inner life over doctrines and rituals.
- Pietism: Philip Spener (1635-1705) in Germany — conservative, traditional faith plus mystical experience.
- Methodism: the Wesley brothers (John, 1703-1791; Charles, 1707-1788) — Pietist-influenced revival in spiritually-stagnant England.
- Quakers: George Fox (1624-1691) — Christ as the inner light illuminating believers’ souls; one must receive the Holy Spirit and experience Christ’s inner light before understanding the Bible. Persecuted in England, prospered in America.
- Swedenborg: Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish scientist whose spiritual senses awakened; systematically investigated the spirit world. Long ignored by theologians; his value is gradually being recognized as more people communicate with the spirit world.
Significance. DP gives mystical-experiential Christianity (Spener, Wesley, Fox, Swedenborg) a positive providential identification against the rationalist-dominant intellectual mainstream of the 17th-18th centuries — and uniquely identifies Swedenborg’s spirit-world research as a legitimate providential investigation.
See also. dp-reformation-and-renaissance-as-cain-abel-dispensation-of-separation · dp-democracy-purpose-is-to-receive-messiah-by-will-of-the-people