It must bring about a change of life, without denying the dark side of life; it must show "the Divine in the things nearest at hand, without idealising falsely the ordinary situation of life." The great practical effect of religion, then, must be to create a demand for a new and higher world in opposition to the world of nature.

For this new life religion must provide an ultimate standard.

"Religion must at all times assert its right to prove and to winnow, for it is religion--the power which draws upon the deepest source of life--which takes to itself the whole of man, and offers a fixed standard for all his undertakings." Religion must provide a standard for the whole of life, for it places all human life "under the eternity." It is not the function of religion to set up a special province over against the other aspects of his life--it must transform life in its entirety, and affect all the subsidiary aspects.
But religion is not gained, any more than human freedom, once for all time--it must be gained continually afresh, and sought ever anew.

Thus the fact of religion becomes a perpetual task, and leads to the highest activity.
Eucken speaks of two types of religion--Universal and Characteristic Religion.

The line of division between them is not easy to draw, but the distinction gives an opportunity for emphasising again the essential elements of true religion.
_Universal Religion_ is a more or less vague appreciation of the Spiritual, which results in a diffused, indefinite spiritual life.