THE STRUCTURE AND ORIGIN OF THE RELIGIOUS PASSIONS
Now if we consider the human mind, we shall find, that with regard to the passions, 'tis not of the nature of a wind-instrument of music, which in running over all the notes immediately loses the sound after the breath ceases; but rather resembles a string-instrument, where after each stroke the vibrations still retain some sound, which gradually and insensibly decays .... each stroke will not produce a clear and distinct note of passion, but the one passion will always be mixt and confounded with the other. 1 David Hume, Treatise, Bk. II, Pt. III, Sec. IX Much has been said about the importance of the essential religious passions such as suffering (a form of grief), joy, anxiety, hope, adoration (a form of love), and guilt (a form of humility). Tillich takes anxiety to be the means whereby man becomes aware of the divine grounding of his being? Kierkegaard sees suffering as the distinguishing mark of the religious? And no religious writer has failed to emphasize, along with Paul. the joyous feeling of being "caught up to the third heaven." 4
However, it has too seldom been explored how these passions mix and blend together and how they relate to other forms of religious response such as belief, action, and desire? But before it is possible to understand how the intermingling of these passions, as Hume suggests above, produces the music of religion, we must first get a grip on their structure and origin.