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LECTUKES ON THE

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

LECTURES ON THE

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION TOGETHER WITH A WORK ON THE PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

BY GEORG

WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL

TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION

BY THE REV. J.

E,

B.

SPEIRS,

B.D., AND

BURDON SANDERSON

THK TRANSLATION EDITED

BY THE

REV. E. B. SPEIRS, B.D.

IN THREE VOL.

VOLUMES III.

LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, &

CO.

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD 1895

I?

The right* of translation and of reproduction are reserved.

Printed by BALLANTVNE,

At

HANSON &

the Ballnntyne Press

Co.

3k

'

vff-ff

v,3 CONTENTS PART THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION C.

The division of the subject God in His eternal Idea

in-and-for-self

;

the king-

7-33

2. 3.

Trinity

.

.

The

PAOK

1-151 1-6

of the Father

Determination in the element of thought Absolute diremption

1 .

II.

....

continued

I.

dom

III

.

.

.

7

.

.

8

.

9

eternal Idea of

God

in the element of conscious-

ness and ordinary thought, or difference the 33-100 kingdom of the Son The positing of the difference 2. The world 36 of Man 3. The essential nature 45 The Idea in the element of the-Church or Spiritual ;

1

.

.

.

III.

b. c.

-35

.

....

Community the kingdom of the Spirit 100-15 The conception of the Spiritual Community 108 The realisation of the Spiritual Community 123 The realisation of the spiritual in universal reality 134 .

;

a.

.

1

.

.

.

.

LECTURES ON THE PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

.......

FIRST LECTURE

SECOND LECTURE

THIRD LECTURE

.

.

.

.

FOURTH LECTURK FIFTH LECTURK

SIXTH LECTURE

SEVENTH LECTURK

.

.

110796

CONTENTS

vi

PAGK

2I2

EIGHTH LECTURE

NINTH LECTURE

TENTH LECTURE ELEVENTH LECTURE TWELFTH LECTURE

.

THIRTEENTH LECTURE FOURTEENTH LECTURE

.

22 ^

.

2 75

.

.

2

...

.

3J3

.

AMPLIFICATION OF THE TELEOLOGICAL PROOF AMPLIFICATION OF THE TELEOLOGICAL

.

.

-

32&

AND ONTOLOGICAL

PROOFS AMPLIFICATION OF THE ONTOLOGICAL PROOF

INDEX

35

'

.

'

2 93

FIFTEENTH LECTURE

SIXTEENTH LECTURE

266

.

347

36

-368

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EELIGION PAET

III

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

(Continued)

C.

THE DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. The absolute, eternal Idea is, in its essential existence, and for itself, God in His eternity before the creation of the world, and outside of the world. II. The Creation of the World. What is thus created, I.

in

up within itself into Nature and finite What is sides, physical Spirit. thus created is therefore an Other, and is placed at first It belongs to God's essential nature, outside of God. to Himself this something which to reconcile however, is foreign to Him, this special or particular element which comes into existence as something separated from Him, just as it is the nature of the Idea which has separated itself from itself and fallen away from itself, to bring itself back from this lapse to its truth or true state. this otherness or other-Being, divides

two

It is the way or process of reconciliation whereby unites and brings into harmony with itself what it Spirit distinguished from itself in the state of diremption and III.

Spirit

is

Thus

and thus

Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the in its Church. present the distinctions we make are not made in an

differentiation,

VOL.

III.

A

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

2

external fashion

developed eternal

life

;

on the contrary, the action, the Absolute Spirit, is itself an a development and a carrying back of but,

life-force ;

it is

of the

development into itself. Put more definitely, what

this

is

that the universal Spirit, the posits

together with

itself

its

determinations, develops only at the end we have in

itself,

constitutes

at

exists at first

and

same time

the as

a

Whole,

involved in this idea

is

Whole which

it

three

this Spirit is, characteristics or

and that what form completed

realises

a

itself,

It presupposition. or pre-posits presupposes its

only at the end. Spirit has thus to be considered in the three forms or elements in

itself,

exists likewise

which it posits itself. The three forms indicated are eternal Being in and with itself, the form of Universality the form of mani:

;

festation or appearance, that of Particularisation, Being for another ; the form of the return from appearance into itself,

absolute Singleness or individuality. itself in these three forms.

The divine Idea unfolds

Spirit is divine history, the process of self-differentiation, of separation or diremption, and of the resumption of it is divine history, and this history is to be conthis ;

sidered in each of these three forms.

Considered in relation to the subjective consciousness, The first form they may further be denned as follows. is

the element of thought.

He

is

in-and-for-Himself,

is

In pure thought God is as revealed, but He has not yet

reached the stage of manifestation or appearance, He is God in His eternal essence, God abiding with Himself

and yet revealed.

According to the second form

He

exists in the element of the popular or figurative idea, in the element of particularisation. Consciousness here

takes "

up an

attitude

of

reserve in reference

to

the

Other," and this represents the stage of appearance or The third element is that of subjectivity manifestation. as such. This subjectivity is partly immediate, and takes

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

3

the form of feeling, idea, sentiment but it is also partly subjectivity which represents the Notion, thinking reason, ;

the thought of free Spirit, which returns into itself.

As

is

free only

when

it

regards place or space, the three forms, since they

appear as development and history in different places, The divine so to speak, are to be explained as follows. history in its first form takes place outside of the world, outside of finitude where there is no space, representing

God

He

His essential being or in-and-for-Himself. is represented by the divine history in shape in the world, God in definite completed ex-

as

is

in

The second form a real

istence.

The third stage

is

represented by the inner

place, the Spiritual Community, existing at first in the world, but at the same time raising itself up to heaven,

and which as a Church already has Him in itself here on earth, full of grace, active and present in the world. It is also possible to characterise the three elements, to distinguish them in accordance with the note

and

In the first element God is beyond time, as the eternal Idea, existing in the element, of eternity in so far as eternity is contrasted with time. Thus time in this comof Time.

and independent form, time in-and-for-self, unfolds and breaks up into past, present, and future. Thus the divine history in its second stage as appearance is regarded as the past, it is, it has Being, but it is Being which In taking on the form is degraded to a mere semblance. of appearance it is immediate existence, which is at the same time negated, and this is the past. The divine plete

itself

history is thus regarded as something past, as representThe third element ing the Historical properly so called. is the present, yet it is only the limited present, not the

which distinguishes from the past and future, and represents the element of feeling, of the immediate subjectivity of spiritual Being which is now. The present must, however, also represent the third element the Church raises itself to Heaven too, eternal present, but rather the present

itself

;

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

4

and thus this Present is one which raises itself as well and is essentially reconciled, and is brought by means of the negation of its immediacy to a perfected form as universality, a perfection or completion which, however, does not yet exist, and which is therefore to be conceived of as future.

stage

is

before

Now of the present whose perfect but this perfect stage is distinguished

It is a it,

from the particular Now which is still immediacy, and it is thought of as future. We have, speaking generally, to consider the Idea as divine self-revelation, and this revelation is to be taken in the sense indicated

by the three categories just men-

tioned.

According to the first of these, God exists in a pure form for the finite spirit only as thought. This is the theoretical consciousness in which the thinking subject exists in a condition of absolute composure, and is not yet posited in this relation, not yet posited in the form of a process, but exists in the absolutely unmoved calm of

Here God

the thinking spirit.

is for it thought of, exists thus in the simple conclusion rests Spirit that He brings Himself into harmony with Himself by means of His difference which, however, here exists only in the form of pure ideality, and has not yet reached the

for thought,

and

form of externality Himself.

This

is

the

and

in immediate unity with these relations, and it exists

is

first of

solely for the thinking subject

the pure Father.

content

only.

This

which is

occupied with the Kingdom of the is

The second characteristic is the Kingdom of the Son, in which God exists, in a general way, for idea or figurative thought in the element of mental pictures or This is the moment of separarepresentation by ideas. Looked at from this tion or particularisation in general.

second standpoint, what in the first stage represented God's Other or object, without, however, being defined as such,

now

receives the character or determination of an

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION Other.

Considered from the

first

5

standpoint,

God

as the

not distinguished from the Father, but what is stated of Him is expressed merely in terms of feeling.

Son

is

In connection with the second element, however, the Son characterised as an Other or object, and thus we pass

is

out of the pure ideality of Thought into the region of If, according to the first ordinary thought or idea. characterisation,

God

begets only one Son, here

Here the Other

duces Nature.

element of difference thus receives is

which

is

the element which

comes

in,

and and

He

pro-

and the

its justification.

What

is

we have

already designated Subject the content. Man is

constitutes

itself

Since

here involved in the content. to Nature,

Nature,

Nature, the world in general, and related to it, the natural Spirit. Here

thus differentiated

Spirit

is

is

Man is

here related

himself natural, he has this character

only within the sphere of religion, and consequently we have here to consider Nature and Man from the point of The Son comes into the world, and view of religion.

When we

this is the beginning of faith. coming of the Son into the world

the language of faith.

God

finite spirit as such, for in

speak of the

we

are already using cannot really exist for the

the very fact that

God

exists

for it it is directly involved that the finite spirit does not maintain its finitude as something having Being, but that

stands in a certain relation to Spirit and is reconciled to God. In its character as the finite spirit it is represented

it

as in a state of revolt

and separation with regard to God. with what is its own object

It is thus in contradiction

and content, and for

its

abolition

in this contradiction lies the necessity The to a higher form.

and elevation

necessity for this supplies the starting-point, and the next step in advance is that God exists for Spirit, that

the divine content presents itself in a pictorial form to Here, however, Spirit exists at the same time Spirit. in an empirical and finite form, and thus what God is Since, however, appears to Spirit in an empirical way.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

6

the Divine comes into view, and exists for

Spirit in no of this this has kind, history history longer the character of outward history ; it becomes divine history, This the history of the manifestation of God Himself.

constitutes the transition to the

in which

we have

Kingdom

of the

the consciousness that

Man

Spirit, is

im-

plicitly reconciled to God, and that this reconciliation The process of reconciliation itself is exists for Man.

contained in Worship. It has to he noted further that

we do

not, as

we

did

previously, draw a distinction between Notion, Form, and It will become evident, as we go on to treat Worship. of the subject, that worship enters in directly everywhere.

The following general remarks may here be made on this The element with which we have got to do is point. Spirit, and Spirit is what manifests itself, what essentially exists for self, or has actual existence, and as thus it never exists alone, but always possesses the character of something revealed, something which exists for an Other, for its own Other, i.e., for that side of Being which is represented by the finite spirit. Worship

conceived of

thus

is

Spirit,

ship

is

the relation of the finite spirit to the absolute for this reason we find that this idea of wor-

and

present in each of these elements.

In this connection a distinction has to be drawn between the Idea as it exists in the various elements for the Notion, and the Idea as it appears in the form of ordinary conception.

thought which

is

Religion

is

universal, not only for intellectual

marked by culture and

grasp, for the philosophical consciousness ; but the truth of the Idea of God is manifest also to the ordinary con-

sciousness which represents things pictorially by ideas, and is marked by those necessary characteristics which are inseparable from the things.

ordinary or popular ideas of

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

GOD IN HIS ETERNAL IDEA IN-AND-FOR-SELF. Thus, regarded in the element of thought,

God

is,

so

to speak, outside of or before the creation of the world. In so far as He is thus in Himself, He represents the

eternal Idea which

is

not yet posited in

its reality,

but

merely the abstract Idea. Thus God in His eternal Idea still exists in the abstract element of thought, and not in that of notional It is this pure Idea with which we are comprehension. is itself

as yet

This is the element of thought, the already acquainted. Idea in its eternal presence, as it exists for free thought, whose fundamental characteristic is the untroubled light, self-identity, an element which is as yet unaffected by the presence of Being other than itself. Within this sphere or element (i.) Determination is

necessary, inasmuch

as thought in general is different from thought which comprehends or grasps the process

of

Spirit.

The

in-and-for-self,

eternal Idea in its essential existence, present in thought, the Idea in its

is

Eeligion has thus a content, and the religion is the religion of men, and besides his other qualities, is a thinking conscious-

absolute truth.

content

Man,

is

an object

;

and therefore the Idea must exist for thinking But this is not all that Man is, for it is in the sphere of thought that he first finds his true nature, and it is only for thought that a universal object exists, only to thought can the essence of the object show itself; and since in religion God is the object, He He is object inasis essentially an object for thought. much as Spirit is consciousness, and He exists for thought ness,

consciousness.

because

it is

God who

is

the object. consciousness

God cannot and absolute His eternal i.e., essentiality. His manifestation of Himself is something different from For sensuous or

exist as God,

in

reflective

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

8

If God and is made to sensuous consciousness. were present only in feeling, then men would be no higher than the beasts. It is true that He does exist for feeling too, but only in the region of appearance or mani-

this,

Nor does He

festation.

exist for consciousness of the

Eeflection is certainly thought too ; rationalistic type. but it has at the same time an accidental character, and

because of this

and

is

He

kind.

its

something chosen at random, certainly not a content of this

content

God

limited.

is

is

thus exists essentially for thought. It is thus when from the matter we start put

necessary to

what

we

is

subjective,

reach, too,

from Man.

when we

start

But this is the very truth from God. Spirit exists

for the spirit for which it does exist, only in so far as it reveals and differentiates itself, and this is the eternal

Idea, thinking Spirit, Spirit in the element of its freedom. In this region God is the self-revealer, just because He is Spirit

;

That God

He is

not yet present as outward manifestation. ' exists for Spirit is thus an essential principle.

but

Within this pure thought the Spirit is what thinks. relation is of an immediate kind, and there exists no between the two elements to differentiate them. Thought is pure unity Nothing comes between them. with itself, from which all that is obscure and dark has This kind of thought may also be called disappeared. pure intuition, as being the simple form of the activity of thought, so that there is nothing between the subject and the object, as these two do not yet really exist. This kind of thought has no limitation, it is universal activity, and its content is no other than the Universal itself it difference

;

pure pulsation within itself. 2. It, however, passes further into the stage of absoHow does this differentiation come lute Diremption. The element of about ? Thought is actu, unlimited. is

most immediate form consists in this we have seen to be the two sorts modes in which the principle appears, show their dif-

difference in its

that the two sides which of

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

9

The one side, ference in their differing starting-points. subjective thought, is the movement of thought in so far as it starts from immediate individual Being, and, while within

what

this, raises itself to

is

Universal and Infinite,

as is the case with the first proof of the existence of God. In so far as it has arrived at the stage of the Universal, is unlimited ; its end is infinitely pure thought, so that all the mist of fmitude has disappeared, and it

thought

and thus side is

God

every trace of separation has vanished, The second thinking upon God, begins. that which has for its starting-point the Universal,

here thinks

;

religion,

the result of that

The Universal

is,

movement, thought, the Notion. however, in its turn again an inner nature is to differentiate itself within

first

movement, and its and thus to preserve within

itself the element of difdo this in such a way as not to disturb Here universality the universality which is also there. is something which has this element of difference within itThis represents the self, and is in harmony with itself. abstract content of thought, and this abstract thought is the result which has followed from what has taken place. itself,

ference, but yet to

The two

sides are thus mutually opposed or contrasted. Subjective Thought, the thought of the finite spirit, is a but this process goes on Process too, inner mediation ;

or behind

It is only in so far as subto something higher that has raised itself jective thought and thus what we have in religion is religion begins,

outside of

it,

it.

pure motionless abstract thought. The concrete, on the other hand, is found in its Object, for this is the kind of thought which starts from the Universal, which differentiates itself,

and consequently is in harmony with itself. element which is the object for thought,

It is this concrete

taking thought in a general sense. This kind of thought is thus abstract thought, and consequently the finite, for the abstract is finite ; the concrete is the truth, the infinite object. 3.

God

is

Spirit;

in

His abstract character

He

is

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

io

characterised

as

universal

Spirit

which

particularises

This represents the absolute truth, and that is the true one which possesses this content. religion the process referred to it is movement, life is Spirit

itself.

;

;

to differentiate itself, to give itself a definite to determine itself ; and the first form of the character,

its

nature

is

differentiation consists in this, that Spirit appears as the universal Idea itself. This Universal contains the entire

Idea, but it only contains it, it is the Idea potentially only. In the act of judgment or separation, the Other, what is

put in contrast with the Universal, the Particular,

God

is

distinguished from the Universal, but as implying that what is thus distinguished repreThus these two sents His entire Idea in-and-for-itself. characteristics mean the same thing in reference to each other mean that there is an identity between them, that they are one, that this difference is not merely done away with implicitly and that we are merely aware of this, but that the fact of their being the same has been brought forward into actuality or posited, and that these differences are done away with in so far as this differentiation just means that the difference is actually shown to be no difference, and thus the One is at home with as that

fact that this

Spirit, or,

The Holy love,

but

we

it

is

the Other.

itself in

The

which

is

so

is

just

what

is

meant by

expressed in terms of feeling, by eternal Love.

When we say God is Spirit is eternal love. are expressing a very great and true thought ;

would be unreasonable merely

to take this in

such

way as a simple characterisation of God without analysing the meaning of love. For love implies a distinguishing between two, and

a simple

yet these two are, as a matter of fact, not distinguished from one another. Love, this sense of being outside of the is myself, feeling and consciousness of this identity. myself, but in another but alone I find satisfaction and am at

My self-consciousness is not in this

Other in

whom

;

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

II

and I exist only in so far as I am peace with myself at peace with myself, for if I had not this inner peace I

would be the contradiction which breaks

itself

up

into

outside of me, has its Thus the two are represented simply by this consciousness of their being outside of themselves and of their identity, and this perception,

this Other, just because parts self-consciousness only in me.

it is

of the unity, is love. represents the distinction referred to, and the nullity of this distinction, the sort of play of this act of distinction which is not to be taken seriously, this feeling, this

God

is

love

and which

is

;

knowledge

i.e.,

He

therefore posited as something abolished,

as the eternal, simple Idea. This eternal Idea, accordingly, finds expression in the Christian religion under the name of the Holy Trinity,

i.e.,

and this is God Himself, the eternal Triune God. Here God exists only for the man who thinks, who

The ancients keeps within the quiet of his own mind. it is pure theoretic contemplacalled this enthusiasm tion, the supreme repose of thought, but at the same ;

time

its highest activity manifested in grasping the pure Idea of God and becoming conscious of this Idea. The to of the of God's nature is disclosed mystery dogma

men to

they believe in

;

them the highest

and have already vouchsafed truth, although they apprehend it it,

only iu the form of a popular or figurative idea, without being conscious of the necessary nature of this truth, and

without grasping it in its entirety or comprehending it. Truth is the unveiling of what Spirit is in-and-for-itself.

Man

himself Spirit, and therefore the truth exists for with, however, the truth which comes to him does not yet possess for him the form of freedom is

To begin

him.

;

it is

him merely something given and

for

received, which,

This however, he can receive only because he is Spirit. this of the has been called the dogma truth, Idea, Trinity.

God

is

which

Spirit, the activity of is

not outside of

itself,

pure thought, the activity which is within the sphere

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

12

own being. * It was Aristotle chiefly who conceived God under the abstract determination of activity.

of its

of

Pure activity

is

knowledge

(in the scholastic period actus

but in order that

it may actually appear as has to be posited iii its moments or stages. Knowledge implies the existence of an Other or object

purus)

;

activity, it

which is consciously known, and since it is knowledge which knows it, it is reckoned as belonging to it. * This

how God, who

represents Being in-and-for-self, eternally produces Himself in the form of His Son, distinguishes Himself from Himself, and is the absolute act

explains

What He thus distinjudgment or differentiation. Himself does not take on the form of somefrom guishes than which is other Himself; but, on the contrary, thing what is thus distinguished is nothing more nor less than that from which it has been distinguished. God is no no or and mixture enters darkness, colouring Spirit The relation between Father and into this pure light. Son is expressed in terms of organic life, and is used in of

;

This natural relation is the popular or figurative sense. merely pictorial, and, accordingly, never entirely corresponds to the truth that is sought to be expressed.

We

say that

God

eternally begets His Son, that

God

dis-

tinguishes Himself from Himself, and thus we begin to say of God that He does this, and that in being in the Other whom He has brought into definite existence, or posited,

He

is

simply with Himself, has not gone outside is the form of love but, at the same

of Himself, and this

;

we ought to know that God is Himself just this God is the beginning He does this definite entire act. time,

;

He

equally the end only, the totality, and God thought of it is as totality that God is Spirit. simply as the Father is not yet the True. (Thus in the thing; but

is

Jewish religion He is conceived of without the Son.) He is, on the contrary, Beginning and End He is His own presupposition, He constitutes Himself His prethis is simply another form of the fact of supposition ;

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION He

differentiation

this is the truth,

is

13

The

the eternal Process.

fact that

and the absolute

truth, appears rather in the form of something given or taken for granted. That this should be consciously known as the entire and

absolute just the

of philosophy,

philosophy. In

and

the truth in-and-for-itself, is, however, and is the entire content of

truth,

work

it it is

seen

how

all

that constitutes Nature

presses forward in a dialectic form to this Here we are not central point as to its absolute truth. Spirit

concerned to prove that the dogma, this silent mystery, That is done, as has been said, the eternal Truth.

is

in the whole of philosophy. By way of giving a more definite explanation of these characteristics, we may further call attention to the

following points (a.) When the intention :

the attributes are what

God He is a mode of

butes are

and

this

;

is

is first

to express

thought

of.

what God These

is,

attri-

defined by means of predicates, expressing the truth which is char-

is

acteristic of the ordinary thought, of the understanding. Predicates are definite characteristics, particularisations,

such as goodness, almighty power, &c. The predicates certainly do not represent natural immediacy, but have got a permanence by means of reflection,

and in

this

way

the definite content which

they represent has become immovably fixed in itself, exactly as is the natural content by means of which

God

Natural represented in the religion of Nature. the such as the exist but sea, &c., are, they sun, objects, the determinations of reflection are as much self-identical is

;

as is natural

As mode

immediacy.

Orientals have a feeling that this is not the true of expressing the nature of God, they say that He

TroAiww/xos, that His nature cannot be exhausted by predicates, for names are in this connection the same

is

as predicates.

What

is

really defective in this

way

of defining

God

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

14

by means

of predicates is that these predicates are only particular characterisations, and that there are many such particular characterisations, and that it is the subject as

essentially undifferentiated to

which they are attached

;

this explains, too, how there comes to be such an infinite number of predicates. Since there are particu-

and

and since these particularisations are viewed in accordance with their determinateness, and ave lar determinations,

made

the subject of thought, they or contradiction with each other,

come to be in opposition and these contradictions

accordingly are not harmonised. This is further seen when these predicates are taken as expressing the relation of God to the world, and when

the world

is

thought of as something different from God.

Being particularisatious, they cannot adequately express His nature, and this explains that other way of considering them as expressing certain relations between God and the world, such as the omnipresence, the infinite wisdom of God in the world.

They do not contain the

true relation of

God

to

Him-

an Other, the world namely, and thus they self, are limited, and in this way get to be contradictory. We have the feeling that God is not represented in this way as living when so many particular features are counted up one after the other. Nor is the contradiction which they involve truly harmonised by taking away their deterbut

to

minateness when the Understanding demands that they should be taken merely sensu eminentiori. The true

harmony

or solution of the contradiction

the Idea, which

is

contained in

is

the self-determination of

God

to the

act of distinguishing Himself from Himself, but is at the same time the eternal abolition of the distinction. If the element of difference were left remaining, there would be contradiction, and if this difference were permaBoth are independent nent, then finitude would arise. in reference to each other, and they are in relation to each

other as well.

It is not the nature of the

Idea

to

allow

/

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

15

on the contrary, its nature ; but, the or cancel difference. God posits resolve is just to of in element but this He also Himself difference,

the difference to remain

abolishes

it

When

as well.

we attach predicates to God in make them particular, our first concern

accordingly

such a way as to harmonise this contradiction. This is an external act, the act of our reflection, and consequently, owing to

is to

the fact that

it is

external and takes place in us, and is it follows that the

not the content of the Divine Idea, contradictions cannot be harmonised.

The Idea in its very nature implies the abolition of the contradiction. Its essential content and nature consists in the very fact it posits this difference and cancels it absolutely, this represents the living nature of the Idea itself. (6.) In the metaphysical proofs of the existence of

that

and

God, we can see that, in passing from Notion to Being, the Notion is not thought of merely as Notion, but as existing also, as

having

necessity arises of

It is in connection

reality.

the standpoint with which

we

making the

are

now

transition'

with

dealing, that the

from the Notion

to Being.

The divine Notion is the pure Notion, the Notion without any limitation whatsoever. The Idea implies that the Notion determines itself, and consequently posits itself as something different from itself. This is a moment

or stage of the divine Idea

itself,

and just because

the thinking, reflecting spirit has this content before it, there arises the necessity for this transition, this forward

movement. The logical element those

so-called

proofs.

of

this It

is

transition

is

contained in

within the Notion

itself,

and with the Notion as the starting-point, and, in fact, by means of the Notion, that the transition must be made to objectivity, to Being, and this in the element of thought. This which appears in the form of a subjective necessity is

content,

is

the one

moment

of the divine Idea itself.

1

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

6

When we

say,

God has

created a world, we imply from the Notion to

has been a transition

that there

only the world is here characterised as God's Other, and as being the negation of essentially of In so far as outside God, without God, godless. God, objectivity,

the world is denned as this Other, the difference does not present itself to us as being in the Notion itself or as contained in the Notion i.e., Being, Objectivity must be shown to be in the Notion, must be shown to exist ;

in the form of activity, consequence, determination of the Notion itself.

shown, at the same time, that this same content, that the necessity for

It is thus plicitly the

tion

is

im-

transi-

seen in the form of the proof of the existence of In the absolute Idea, in the element of

is

God referred to. thought, God is

this purely concrete Universal, i.e., He thought of as positing Himself as an Other, but in such a way that this Other is immediately and directly is

characterised as

God

Himself, and the difference as being

directly done away with, and does not attain to the form of externality, and this just means

merely ideal

is

that what has thus been posited as difference has been shown to exist in and to be involved in the Notion. It is characteristic of the logical sphere in which this itself that it is the nature of every definite concep-

shows

tion or notion to annul

and consequently

itself,

own contradiction, own difference, and

to be its

to appear as its

Thus the Notion itself is still to posit itself as such. affected by this element of one-sidedness and finitude, and

is

something subjective

;

and the characteristics

of the

Notion, its differences, are posited as ideal merely, and do not actually appear in a definite form as differences.

Such

is

the Notion which gives itself an objective form.

When we abstract

;

we speak

or of

say God, we speak of Him merely as when we say God the Father, the Universal,

Him

in terms of finite existence merely.

His infinitude consists just in

this,

that

He

does

away

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION with this form of abstract and in this way difference His very nature to abolish

sequently then only that

17

universality, of immediacy, is

posited

this

He

but

;

difference. is

truly

is

just

It is

con-

it

reality,

truth,

infinitude.

This Idea

is the speculative or philosophical Idea, the rational element, and inasmuch as it is reached by thinking, it is the act of thinking upon what is rational. i.e.,

Thought which

is not speculative, thought which is the product of the Understanding, is the thought which does not get beyond difference as difference, nor beyond the finite and the infinite. Both have an absoluteness attri-

buted to them, and yet they are thought of as being in relation to each other, and as so far constituting a unity,

and consequently

as

having in them the element of con-

tradiction. (c.) This speculative Idea stands opposed to the sense element in thought and also to the Understanding. It is

consequently a secret or mystery to the senses and their way of looking at things, and to the Understanding also.

For both is

it

is

rational in

a /uLixmipiov, i.e., so far as regards what The nature of God is indeed not a

it.

mystery in the ordinary sense of the term, and of all in the Christian religion, for in municated the knowledge of Himself,

what He

is,

He

least

God has comHe has shown

it

has revealed Himself; but

it

is

a mys-

tery for sense-perception, for idea or ordinary thought, for the senses and their way of looking at things, and for the Understanding.

Speaking generally, the fundamental characteristic of the sensuous outside

of

is

externality, the idea of things as being In space the differences are

one another.

in time they are successive. Space and Time represent the externality in which they exist. Thus it is characteristic of the mode of regarding things which belongs to the senses, that differences should pre-

contiguous,

sent themselves as lying outside of one another, B VOL. III.

18

TRIE

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

is based on the idea that the have an independent existence and remain external to one another.

Thus, -sense-knowledge

differences

Thus, for the senses, w-hat

is

in the Idea

is

a mystery,

for in the region of the Idea, the way in which things -are looked at, the relations ascribed to things, and the categories employed, are entirely different from what we

have in the region of sense.

The Idea is just this act of distinguishing or differentiation which at the same time -gives no difference and does not hold to this difference as permanent. tiated

;

God beholds Himself

in what is differenHis Other He is united merely with there with no other but Himself, He is

and when

Himself,

He

is

in

in close union only with Himself, His Other.

He

beholds Himself in

In connection with the senses we have something In sense- knowledge one thing is here and another there, each passes for something independent, it does not pass for being something which is what it is because it finds itself in an Other. In the region of sense-knowledge two things cannot be in one and the same place they are mutually exclusive. In the Idea the differences are posited, not as exclusive, but as existing only in this mutual inclusion of the one quite the reverse of this.

;

by the

other.

This

is

the true superseusuous, not the

ordinary supersensuous, which

above the

and

is

regarded as something

fdr this latter equally belongs to the region of sensuous, in which things are outside of one another ;

indifferent

characterised as

and

absorbed,

to one another.

In so far as God is is done away with

Spirit, externality

and therefore

this

is

a

mystery

for

sense.

This Idea is equally something beyond the grasp of the Understanding and is for it a secret, for it is the very nature of the Understanding to hold fast by and keep

unchangeably to the idea that the categories of thought absolutely exclusive and different, and that they

are

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

19

remain unalterably independent in relation to each other. The Positive is not the same as the Negative, as, for example, cause-effect. But, so far as the Notion is concerned, it is equally true that these differences cancel themselves.

It is just

because they are differences that they remain finite, and it is the nature of the Understanding to stick to the

and even when

finite,

itself

it is dealing with the Infinite has the Infinite on the one side and the finite

it

on the The

other. real truth is that the finite,

and the

which

Infinite

put in contrast with the finite, have no true existence, but are themselves merely transitory. So far this is a secret for the sensuous way of conceiving of things and for is

the Understanding, and they struggle against the element of rationality in the Idea. Those who oppose the doctrine of the Trinity are men who are guided merely their senses and understanding.

by

The Understanding is equally powerless to grasp the meaning of anything else whatever, or to get at the truth Animal life also exists as Idea, as regarding anything. a unity of the notion or conception of the soul and bodily form. For the Understanding each of these exists for

They are undoubtedly

itself.

but

different,

their nature to abolish this difference. this

perennial process.

impulses,

needs,

difference,

and

What

has

and consequently this

originates

life it

within

it is

Life

is

exists

;

equally

simply it has

has within it.

itself

There thus

to be a contradiction, and the Understanding takes these differences as implying that the contradiction does

comes

itself; when they are brought into relation with each other nothing exists but just the contradiction, which cannot be cancelled.

not cancel

The contradiction is there; it cannot cease to exist if the elements of difference are held to be perennial elements of difference, just because it is the fact of this difference that

is

insisted upon.

"What has

life

has certain needs,

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

20

and thus involves a contradiction, but the these

am

is

satisfaction of

the removal of the contradiction.

In the case of impulse, in the presence of any need, I distinguished from myself, and this within myself.

But

life

means the harmonising

just

of the contradiction,

the satisfying of the need, the attainment of peace, in such a way, however, that a contradiction springs up What we have is the alternation of the act of again. differentiation or contradiction,

and of the removal

of the

contradiction.

The two

are different in point of time, the element of succession is present in connection with them, and they are on that account finite. Here, too, the Understanding,

and the satisfaction of impulse by grasp the truth that in the very act of affirmation, in the very feeling of self, there is at the same time contained the negation of the feeling of self,

in considering impulse

themselves,

fails to

limitation, defect,

at once pass

This

and yet I

beyond

this

as having this feeling of self element of defect.

A

the ordinary definite idea of a pva-ri'ipiov. also described as the incomprehensible ; but it is just the Notion itself, the speculative element in thought, which is described as incomprehensible, the is

is

mystery

fact that

what is rational is stated in terms of thought. by means of thought that the element of dif-

It is just

ference

is

definitely developed.

The thinking of the impulse is merely the analysis of what the impulse is the affirmation and the negation ;

the feeling of self, the satisfaction of the and the To think it is just to recogimpulse. impulse nise the element of difference which is in it. When,

involved in

it,

accordingly, the Understanding gets so far, it says this is a contradiction, and it remains at this point, it holds by the contradiction in face of experience, which teaches that :

life itself

just

means the removal

Thus, when

comes

to light,

the impulse

and then

it

is

of the contradiction.

analysed, the contradiction

can be said

:

impulse

is

some-

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

21

of God is equally This is Incomprehensible something incomprehensible. Notion which the involves the but itself, really nothing

The nature

thing incomprehensible.

power of differentiation, and the Understanding does not get beyond the fact of the existence of the difference. Thus it says this cannot be comprehended for the :

;

principle of the

and

abstract self-identity, Understanding not concrete identity, according to which these difis

ferences exist in something which is one. For the UnderThis standing God is the One, the Essence of Essences.

empty

identity without difference

is

the false representa-

God given by the Understanding and by modern God is Spirit, what gives itself an objective theology. form and knows itself in that. This is concrete identity, tion of

and thus the Idea

is

an essential moment.

also

According

to the idea of abstract identity, on the other hand, the One and the Other exist independently, each for itself,

the same time related to each other, and

and are

at

therefore

we

This,

get a contradiction. then, is what is called

The cancelling

the incomprehensible.

or resolution of the contradiction is the

Notion; the Understanding does not get the length of the cancelling of the contradiction, because it starts with the presupposition of its existence ; for it the two sides which form the contradiction are and remain in a state of

mutual independence.

One reason why

it

is

said that the Divine Idea

is

that, since religion, the truth, exists incomprehensible for all men, the content of the Idea appears in a senis

suous form, or in the form of something which can be It appears, we repeat, grasped by the Understanding. in a sensuous form, and so we have the expressions

Father and Son descriptive of a relation which exists in the sphere of life, a designation which has been adopted from what is seen in the sense-life.

In religion the truth is revealed in accordance with but it is something different for it to appear

the content

;

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

22

in the form of the Notion, of thought, or as the Notion in a speculative form. However happily expressed those nai've forms,

such as begetting, son,

&c.,

given to faith,

in hand and applies its categories to them, they are at once perverted, and whenever it is in the mood it does not cease

may

be,

whenever the Understanding takes them

It to point out the contradictions involved in them. and the to do from the this the differengets power right tiation

forms.

and reflection into themselves which exist in these But it is just God or Spirit who Himself abolishes

He does not require to wait for the Understanding to remove those characteristics which contain contradiction. It is just the very nature of them to remove and so, too, it belongs essenSpirit these contradictions.

;

tially to Spirit to posit these characteristics, to

tinctions within

make

dis-

itself, to bring about this separation or

diremption.

When, again, we say that the idea of God in His eternal universality implies that He differentiates Himself, determines Himself, posits something that is His Other or

object,

and at the same time abolishes the

dif-

not outside of Himself in the difference, and ference, is Spirit only through what He thus accomplishes, then we get another example of how the Understanding treats is

the question.

It takes

up

this thought, brings its cate-

gories of finitude to bear upon it, counts one, two, three, and introduces into it the unfortunate category of number. Here, however, we have nothing to do with number ;

numeration is something which implies utter absence of thought, and if we introduce this category here we introduce the element of incomprehensibility. It is possible in the exercise of

Reason

to

make use

Understanding which imply relation. Reason, however, does not only use them, it destroys them, and so, too, here. This is indeed hard for the Understanding, since it imagines that because they have been made use of they have won some kind of right of all the categories of the

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION to exist.

They

23

however, misused when, as here, they

are,

are used in connection with

the

expression, three are

accordingly easy to point out that there are contradictions in such ideas, differences which get the It

one.

is

length of being opposites, and the sterile Understanding In all that is concrete, prides itself on amassing these. in all that has

life,

this contradiction is involved, as has

been already shown. that

is self-identical.

It is only the dead Understanding In the Idea, on the other hand, we

see the contradiction cancelled as well, and it is just this cancelling or harmonising which is spiritual unity. To enumerate the moments of the Idea as three units be- something quite ingenuous and natural, and which does not require to be explained. Only, in accordance with the nature of number, which is here

appears to

introduced into the matter, each characteristic gets a fixed form as one, and we are required to conceive of three units as only one unit, a

demand which

hard to entertain, and which

is,

it

is

extremely

as is sometimes said,

utterly irrational demand. It is the Understanding alone that is

an

always haunted

this idea of the absolute

independence of the unit or One, this idea of absolute separation and rupture. If, on the contrary, we regard the matter from the point of view

by

of logic,

we

see that the

One has an

inner dialectic move-

ment, and is not truly independent. It is only necessary to think of matter which is the true One or unity that offers resistance, but which is subject to the law of gravitation,

to do

i.e.,

it

makes an

away with

not to be one, and rather independence, and thus con-

effort

its state of

fesses that this is a nullity. In fact, just because it is and continues to be the most external extermatter, only

remains in the condition merely of something which ought to be. Matter as such is the poorest, most but it is external, most unspiritual mode of existence which or the abolition of constithe oneness, gravitation, tutes the fundamental characteristic of matter.

nality, it

;

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

24

The idea

of a unit or a

One

is,

to begin with,

something

wholly abstract ; these units get a still deeper meaning when they are expressed in terms of Spirit since they are characterised as persons. Personality is something which based on freedom, freedom in its first, deepest, most inward form, but also in its most abstract form as the freedom which proclaims its presence in the subject is essentially

by

saying, I

am

isolation pure

a person, I exist for myself.

and simple, a condition

When, therefore,

of

This

is

pure reserve.

these differences are defined thus, and

taken as a unit, or in fact as a person, owing to the infinite form according to which each moment is each

is

regarded as a subject, the difficulty of satisfying the demand of the Idea that these differences should be regarded as differences which are not different, but are purely one, and that this difference should be abolished,

appears to be still more insurmountable. Two cannot be one ; each person has a rigid, reserved, independent, self-centred existence. Logic shows that the category of the unit is a poor category, a wholly abstract unit. But when we are dealing with personality, the contradiction seems to be pushed so far as to be incapable of any solution ; still the solution is contained in the fact that there

is

only one person, and this three-

which is consequently moment, expresses the truth that the antithesis is an absolute one, and is not to be taken as an inferior antithesis, and that it is just

fold personality, this personality posited merely as a vanishing

exactly when it has got to this point it abolishes itself. is, in short, the nature or character of what we mean by person or subject to abolish its isolation, its separateness.

It

Morality, love, just mean the giving up of particularity or of the particular personality and its extension to universality, and so, too, is it with the family and friendship, for there you have the identity of the one with the other. Inasmuch as I act rightly towards another, I In friendship and consider him as identical with myself.

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION win

it

my

abstract personality, back as concrete personality.

love I give

up

25

and in

this

way

~

winning back of personality by the act the being absorbed into the other, which by Such forms constitutes the true nature of personality. It is just this

of absorption,

of the Understanding directly prove themselves in experience to be of those which annul themselves.

In

love, in

subjectivity

it

friendship,

who maintains

himself,

which

is

is

the person or individual of love gets the

and by means

If here, in con-

his personality.

nection with religion, the idea of personality is clung to in an abstract way, then we get three Gods, and the infinite form, absolute negativity is forgotten, or if per-

regarded as not cancelled, then we have evil, personality which does not yield itself up to the

sonality for

is

absolute Idea

is evil.

In the divine unity personality is is only in appearance that is distinguished from that

held to be cancelled, and it the negativity of personality

whereby it is done away with. The Trinity has been reduced to a relation of Father, Son, and Spirit, and this is a childlike relation, a childThe Understanding has no category, like natural form. no relation which in point of suitability for expressing the At the same time it truth can be compared with this. must be understood that it is merely pictorial, and that Spirit does not actually enter into a relation of this kind. still more suitable expression, but Spirit

Love would be a is

the really true one. The abstract God, the Father,

is

the Universal, the

We

all -

have eternal, embracing, total particularity. reached the stage of Spirit ; here the Universal includes everything within itself; the Other, the Son, is infinite the third, the Spirit, is indiparticularity, manifestation ;

The Universal, however,

viduality as such. itself

Spirit,

Spirit

we

;

all three are

say, but

and the third

is

He

is

also the

Spirit.

In the

presupposed This first.

as totality is third,

God

is

to be this as well, is

a truth

which

^

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

26

must be held that

to

as essential.

in accordance

When,

for instance,

W3

with His

conception or the immediate Power which differnotion, potentially entiates itself and returns to itself, it is implied that He

say

God,

is

is this only as being negativity which is immediately related to itself, i.e., as absolute reflection into self, which is just the characteristic of Spirit. Should we, accord-

wish to speak of God as presented in His first determination, in accordance with His Notion, and should we wish to go on from this to the other determinations,

ingly,

we are When,

already speaking of the third ; the last is the first. in order to avoid this, and if we begin in an

abstract way,

we speak

of the first only in accordance

own

determination, or when the imperfection of the notion renders it necessary to do this, then the

with

its

first is

the Universal, and that activity, that begetting or a principle distinct from the abstract-

creating, is already

Universal, which thus appears and can appear as a second something which manifests itself, externalises

principle, as

itself {Logos, Sophia), just as

of

This

Being.

Notion

itself.

It

is

made

comes

the

first exists

as the abyss of the

by the nature

clear

to the front in connection

with

Life every end and with every manifestation of life. maintains itself; to maintain or preserve means to pass into difference, into the struggle with particularity, means

that something finds itself to be distinct from inorganic Life is thus only a resultant inasmuch as it nature.

has brought

produces its

own

;

itself into being, is

what

is

a product which in turn

thus produced

passes through its process, and out of this what is produced was

presupposition,

nothing new comes

is itself living, i.e., it is

it

;

The same holds true already there from the beginning. In so far as love exists, it is of love and reciprocal love. the beginning, and all action is merely its confirmation by But what is which it is at once produced and nourished. it is confirmation of the presence exists, produced already of love, since nothing

comes out of

it

but what

is

already

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION

27

In the same way Spirit presupposes

there.

itself, it is

what begins. The differentiation through which the Divine Life passes is not of an external kind, but must be defined as an inward differentiation in such a

that the First, to be conceived of as the Last. The

way

or the Father, is process is thus nothing but the play of self-preservation or self-confirmation. This characteristic is of importance in this respect that

it

to estimate the value of

constitutes the criterion

many

of God, and by which what detected and criticised, and

by which

of the

is

popular conceptions defective in them can be

it is

specially

owing

to the

presence of that defective element that this characteristic is often overlooked or misunderstood.

We

are considering the Idea in its universality, as it and as defined by means of pure

exists in pure thought,

thought.

This Idea

is

all

truth and the one truth, and

consequently everything particular which is to be conceived of as true must be conceived of in accordance with the

Form

of this Idea.

Nature and the

finite spirit are

a product of God, and

The fact that they have therefore possess rationality. been made by God involves their having truth in themselves, divine truth in general,

i.e.,

the characteristic of

this Idea considered generally. The Form of this Idea exists in

God only as Spirit ; if the Divine Idea exists in those forms which belong to finitude, it is not in that case posited in its true and entire nature, in-and-for-self it is only in Spirit that it so posited. In these finite forms it exists in a finite ;

is

way but the world is something which has been produced by God, and therefore the Divine Idea always constitutes its basis if we consider it in a To kuow general aspect. the truth regarding anything just means to know it and define it in accordance with the form of this Idea. ;

In the earlier India,

we have

religions, particularly in the

ideas

religion of of the

which are in accord with that

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

28

This idea of threefoldTrinity as the true determination. was ness actually consciously reached, the idea that the

One cannot continue

to exist as One and has not the ought to have, that the One does not represent the truth except as it appears in the form of movement, of difference in general, and as standing in relation to some other. Trimurti is the rudest form in which this determination appears.

true form

it

The

third is not, however, Spirit, is not true reconciliabut origination and decay, change in fact, a category which is a unity of these differences, but represents a

tion,

union of a very subordinate kind. It is not in immediate Appearance or manifestation, but only when Spirit has taken up its abode in the Church, when

it is immediate, believing Spirit, and raises the stage of thought, that the Idea reaches perare interested in considering the workings fection.

itself to

We

and in learning to recognise what the basis of the marvellous manifestations which

or ferment of this Idea, lies at

The

occur.

definition of

God

as the Three-in-One

is

one

which, so far as philosophy is concerned, has quite ceased to be used, and in theology it is no longer seriously In fact, in certain quarters an attempt has adopted.

been made to

belittle the Christian religion

by maintain-

ing that this definition which it employs is already older than Christianity, and that it has got it from somewhere or other. But, to begin with, any such historical state-

ment does not

for that matter of it decide anything It must, whatsoever with regard to the inner truth. be that those understood, too, moreover, peoples and

individuals of former ages were not themselves conscious of the truth which was in the idea, and did not perceive that

it

contained the absolute consciousness of the truth

istics,

and

;

as merely one amongst other characteras different from the others. But it is a point

they regarded

it

of the greatest importance to determine whether such a characteristic is the first and absolute characteristic which

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION underlies

all others,

or whether

it is

29

just one form which

appears amongst others, as, for instance, in the case of Brahma, who is the One, but is not at the same time This form has certainly the least an object of worship.

chance of appearing in the Eeligion of Beauty and in that

In the multiplicity and particulariof External Utility. sation which are characteristic of these religions, it is not possible to limits itself

meet with the element and returns to itself.

of

measure which

they are not devoid of traces of this unity. Aristotle, speaking of the Pythagorean numbers, of the triad, says We believe that we have really called on the gods only when we Still

:

have called on them three times. Amongst the Pythagoreans and in Plato we come upon the abstract basis of the Idea, but the characteristics do not in any way get beyond this condition of abstraction, and partly continue in the

abstract

state represented

by

one,

two, three

;

though in Plato they get a rather more concrete form, where we have described the nature of the One and the Other, that which is different in itself, Oarepov, and the third which is the unity of both. The thought here is not of the fanciful kind which we have in thelndian religions, but is rather a mere abstraction.

We have actual categories of thought which are better than numbers, better than the category of number, but which, all

the same, are entirely abstract categories of thought. is, however, chiefly about the time of Christ's birth,

It

and during several centuries

after,

that

we come upon

a

philosophical representation of this truth in a figurative form, and which has for its basis the popular idea ex-

pressed by the Trinity.

It is

found partly in philosophical

systems pure and simple, such as that of Philo, who had carefully studied Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy, and then in the later writers of the Alexandrian School, but more especially in a blending of the Christian religion with philosophical ideas of the kind referred to, and it is this blending of the two which constitutes in a large

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

30

measure the various heresy.

particularly the Gnostic see in these attempts to

heresies,

we

Speaking generally,

grasp the Idea of the Three-in-One, the reality which

Western thought

characterises

world

intellectual

These

idealism.

through to be

refined

the

only

sure,

are,

an

into

away

influence

Eastern

of

first

attempts

what were merely paltry and fantastic conStill we can see in them at least the struggle ceptions. of Spirit to reach truth, and this deserves recognition. An almost countless number of forms of stating the

resulting in

truth

be observed here

may

;

the First

is,

the Father, the

"Ov, terms which express something which is the abyss or depths of Being, i.e., something, in fact, which is as yet empty, which cannot be grasped by thought, but is incomprehensible and beyond the power of any conception to express.

For what is empty, indeterminate, is undoubtedly the Incomprehensible, the negative of the Notion, and it is the nature of its notion to be this negative since it is merely one-sided merely a moment

abstraction,

and constitutes what The One for itself,

of the Notion.

is is

not yet the Notion, the True. If the First is defined as the merely Universal, and if the definitions or determinations are simply referred to ov, then we certainly get the incomprehensible, for it is without content anything comprehensible is concrete, and can >be comprehended only in

the Universal, to the

;

so far as

it

is

And

determined as a moment.

it

is

in

this that tlte defect lies, namely, that the First is not conceived of as being by its very nature totality.

Another idea

of the

same kind

is

expressed

when

it is

said that the First is the fivOds, the Abyss, the depths, aia>v, the Eternal, whose dwelling is in the inexpressible heights, who is raised above all contact with finite things, out of whom 'nothing is evolved, the First Principle, the

Father of

all

existence, the Propator,

only mediately, the Trpoap^,

who

He who was

is

a Father

before the be-

THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION The revelation

ginning.

31

of this abyss of Being, of this

hidden God, is defined as self-contemplation, reflection into self, concrete determination in general self-contem;

in fact, the begetting of the Onlythis represents the fact that the Eternal is in

plation begets,

begotten

;

it is,

process of being comprehended, because here length of determination.

we

get the

This Second, Other-Being or

object, determination, in self-determination, is the most general determination, as it appears in the form of the Xo'yo?, the activity which determines itself after the

action

shown

in short as

manner

of reason,

known

also as the

Word.

The Word

this simple self-expression which does not make hard and fast distinction, and does not become a

is

any hard

and fast distinction, but is taken in an immediate sense, and which being thus immediate is taken up into the inner life of the Eternal, and returns to its original source. It is further expressed by the word o-otpia, Wisdom, the original Man in the absolute purity of his Being, something which actually exists, and is other than that first in short, a particular something with a deuniversality God is the 'Creator, and He is this in finite character.

His

specific character as the Logos, as the self-externalis-

ing, self-expressing

Word, as the

opatrt?,

the vision of God.

This Second came to be further defined as the arche-

This type of Man, Adam Kadmon, the Only-begotten. does not describe some accidental 'characteristic, but, on the contrary, eternal action, which is not confined simply In God there is only one birth, activity in to one time. the form of eternal activity, a characteristic which essentially belongs to the

Universal

itself.

Here we have the true differentiation or distinction which has reference to the quality of both, but this quality is only one and the same Substance, and the difference is accordingly merely superficial as yet even when defined as a person.

The

essential

point

is

that this

(rooi/,

is,

He When we

an eternally living being.

get beyond the

category of

life.

grasp the fact of life in its true- nature, it is seen to be one principle, one organic life of the universe, one living All that is, simply constitutes the organs of system.

The planets which revolve round the sun are simply the giant members of this one system. Eegarded in this fashion, the universe is not an aggregate

the one subject.

of

many

accidents existing in a relation of indifference,

With this thought a system endowed with life. have not, however, yet reached the essential charac-

but

we

is

teristic of Spirit.

We

have considered the formal aspect of the relation

The other aspect

of ends.

what

is

is

that of the content.

The

of the following forms may essential characteristics of the end, or the content of the end which is being realised,

question here What are the

take any

or

how

are these

is

called

wisdom

?

:

ends constituted in respect of what So far as the content is concerned,

the starting-point is the same as that of experience. The study of start, that is, from immediate Being. ends in the form in which we actually meet with them,

We

has,

when pursued from

this side, contributed

more than

anything else to the neglect of the teleological proof, so much so indeed that this latter has come to be regarded

with disdain. We are in the habit of speaking of the wise arrangements of Nature. The various and manifold kinds of animals life

they have,

are, as regards

finite.

the real nature of the

The external means necessary

for

344

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF

this life actually exist

If accordingly

end.

end

is, it is

;

life

in its various forms

we ask what

is

the

the substance of this

seen to be nothing else save the preservation may indeed

of these insects, of these animals, &c.

We

find pleasure in contemplating their life ; but the necessity of their nature and destiny is of an absolutely insignificant kind, or, to put it otherwise, is

an absolutely

When we

say, God has made insignificant conception. a we are pious observation, we are things thus, making think of God we have the to but when we God rising ;

idea of an absolute, infinite end, and these petty ends present a sharp contrast to what we recognise as His actual nature. If we now consider what goes on in

higher spheres of existence, and look at human ends, which we may regard as relatively the highest of all, we

most part frustrated and disno In Nature millions appear, leaving permanent result. of seeds perish just when they begin to exist, and without see that they are for the

ever being able to develop the life-force in them. The the largest portion of living things is based on the

life of

destruction of other living things ; and the same holds If we traverse the domain of good of higher ends. morality, and go on even to its highest stage, namely, civil life, and then consider whether the ends here are realised or not,

we

shall find, indeed, that

much

is

attained,

more is rendered abortive, and destroyed by the passions and wickedness of men and this is true of the greatest and most exalted ends. We see the earth but that

still

;

covered with ruins, with remains of the splendid edifices left by the finest nations whose ends we re-

and works

Great natural having a substantial value. and human works do indeed endure and defy

cognise as objects

time, but all that splendid national life has irrecoverably thus see how, on the one hand, petty, subordinate, even despicable designs are fulfilled; and,

perished.

We

on the other, how those which are recognised as having substantial value are frustrated. are here certainly

We

IN LECTURES ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

345

forced to rise to the thought of a higher determination and a higher end, when we thus lament the misfortune

which has befallen so much that is of high value, and its disappearance. We must regard all those ends, however much they interest us, as finite and subordinate, and ascribe to their finitude the destruction which overtakes them. But this universal end is not discoverable in experience, and thus the general character of the transition is altered, for the transition means that we start from something given, that we reason syllogistically from what we find in experience. But then what we find

mourn

present in experience is characterised by limitation. The supreme end is the Good, the general final-end of the this end as the absolute and must look upon it as being based purely on the essential nature of reason, beyond which Spirit cannot go. Reason in the form of thought

world.

Eeason has

to regard

final-end of the world,

is,

however, recognised as being the source of this end. is that this end should show

The next step accordingly

it is accomplished in the world. But the Good is what has a determinate character in-and-for-itself by means of reason and to this, Nature stands opposed, partly as physical Nature which follows its own course and its own laws, and partly as the natural element in Man, his particular ends which are opposed to the Good. If we go by what our senses show us, we find much that is good in the world, but also an infinite quantity of evil, and we would just have to reckon up the amount of evil, and the amount of good which does not attain realisation, in order to discover which preponderates. The Good,

that

;

however,

is

something absolutely substantial

to the very essence of its nature that

it

it belongs should be realised. ;

But

it is something which merely ought to be real, for it cannot reveal itself in experience. It stops short with which to exist, something which being something ought is a postulate. But since the Good has not itself the

power thus

to realise itself, it is necessary to postulate a

346

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF

third thing through

be realised.

This

which the final-end of the world will an absolute postulate. Moral good

is

belongs essentially to Man ; but since his power is finite, and since the realisation of the Good in him is limited

owing to the natural element attaching to him, since, in fact, he is himself the enemy of the Good, it is not within his

power

to realise

it.

The existence

of

God

is

here con-

ceived of simply as a postulate, as something that should be, and which should have for Man subjective certainty,

because

the

Good

reason.

But

this certainty is

represents

what

is

ultimate in his

merely subjective it reideal, and it cannot be shown belief, that it actually exists. Aye, if the Good is to be really moral and present, then we should have to go the length of requiring and presupposing the perpetual existence of the discord, for moral Good can only exist and can only ~be in so far as it is in conflict with evil. It would thus be necessary to postulate the perpetual existence of the

mains merely a

;

an

is opposed to the Good. If, then, we turn to the content, we find it to be limited and if we go on to the supreme end, we find ourselves in another region, where we start from what is inward, not from

enemy, of what

;

what is actually present and supplied by experience. If, on the other hand, we start from experience, the Good, the final-end is something subjective merely, and in this case the contradiction between Man's finite life and the Good would have to exist always.

AMPLIFICATION OF THE TELEOLOGICAL AND ONTOLOGICAL PROOFS GIVEN IN THE LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION FOR THE

YEAR

1827.

AMONGST

the proofs of the existence of God, the CosmoOnly in it is the affirlogical occupies the first place. the absolute Infinite, defined not merely mative, Being, as infinite in general, but, in contrast to the characteristic of contingency, as absolutely necessary. The True is the and not merely Being or absolutely necessary Essence,

Essence.

In

This category already involves other characteristics. fact, these proofs might be multiplied by dozens

;

each stage of the logical Idea

The

may

characteristic of absolute

contribute

necessity

is

its

quota. involved in

the course of thought described.

The absolutely necessary Essence, taken in a general, abstract sense, is Being not as immediate, but as reflected into

itself.

We

have defined Essence as the non-finite,

the negation of that negative we term the finite. That to which we make the transition is thus not abstract

Being, barren Being, but Being which the negation. It involves in it the

ence which carries

is

the negation of

element of difference, the differback into simplicity. In this

itself

this absolute Being or Essence, there is thus involved the determination of difference, negation of the But negation, but difference as it relates itself to itself.

Infinite,

determination of this kind

is

what we

347

call self-determina-

338

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF

to.

In order to understand what

life

is,

recourse

is

accordingly had to external mechanical modes of conception as illustrated by the action of the blood, and to

chemical conceptions as seen in analysis of foods. It is however, possible by such processes to discover what It is necessary to suppose the existence of life itself is. not,

some third thing which has brought these processes into

As a matter

existence.

subject which

of

fact,

however,

it

is

just the

this unity, this harmony of the organism. Still this unity involves the relation of the living subject to external Nature, which is thought of as having a merely

indifferent

is

and accidental connection with the subject. in this relation do not form

The conditions involved

the sole basis of the development of what has life ; still, if the living being did not find these conditions ready to

hand,

it

could not possibly

exist.

The observation

of

this fact directly produces the feeling that there must exist something higher which has introduced this har-

mony.

It at

once awakens sympathetic attention and Every animal has its own narrow

admiration in men.

range of means of sustenance, and indeed many animals are limited to a single source of sustenance, human nature having in this respect also the most general This fact accordingly, that there exists for character.

every animal this outward particular condition, rouses in Man that feeling of astonishment which passes over into a sense of exalted reverence for that third something which has brought about this unity. This represents

Man's elevation to the thought of that higher existence which produces the conditions necessary for the accomThe subject secures its own preplishment of its end. and the act servation, whereby it does this is, further, in all living things an unconscious one, is what in The one gets its means of animals we term instinct. sustenance by force, the other produces it with the help This it is which we term the wisdom of God in of art.

Nature, in which

we meet with

that infinitely manifold

/Ar

LECTURES ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

arrangement in respect of the

various

activities

339

and

conditions necessary to the existence of all particular When we consider all those particular forms in things.

which the living being shows

its activity,

we

find that

that they have not they are contingent, so to speak been produced by the subject itself, and necessitate the ;

existence of a cause outside of them.

The

fact of life

merely involves self-preservation in general ; but living beings differ from one another in an infinite variety of ways, and this variety is the work of something other than themselves. The question is simply this, How does inorganic Nature pass over into organic Nature, and how is

it

possible for

it

to

serve

as

a means for what

is

We

are here met by a peculiar conception of organic ? the way in which these two come together. Animals are inorganic as contrasted with men, and plants are But Nature, which inorganic as contrasted with animals. in itself inorganic, as represented, for instance, by the sun, the moon, and in general by what appears in the form of means and material, is in the first instance

is

immediate, and exists previous to the organic. Eegarded in this way, the relation is one in which the inorganic is

independent, while, on the other hand, the organic is is dependent. The former, the so-called immediate,

what is

Inorganic Nature appears complete

the unconditioned.

in itself; plants, animals, men, approach it in the first The earth might have coninstance from the outside.

tinued to exist without vegetation, the vegetable kingdom without animals, the animal kingdom without men.

These various forms of existence thus seem to be indeWe are in the pendent and to be there for themselves. habit of referring to this as a matter of experience. Thus there are mountains without any vegetation, without animals and men. does not go on in

it

The moon has no atmosphere, there any meteorological process such as

supplies the conditions necessary for vegetation. exists without having

It thus

any vegetative nature, and so on.

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF

350

The

means produces the end, and the end the means.

world is living, it contains the movement of life and the realm of living things. What has not life inorganic Nature, the sun, the stars stands in an essential and

what has life, and to Man in so far measure belongs to living Nature, and partly because he sets particular ends before himself. This finite conformity to an end is found in Man. That is the characteristic note of life in general, and direct relation to as he in a

same time

at the

in the world.

of life as it

This,

species of life

it

actually

true,

is

life

as seen

is, life

in itself,

inner

means that each kind or a represents very narrow sphere, and has

an end

conformity to

is

;

but

it

a very limited nature.

The

real

advance accordingly

is

from

this finite

mode

of life to absolute, universal conformity to an end, to the thought that this world is a /coV/xo?, a system, in which everything has an essential relation to everything else, and nothing is isolated something which is regularly arranged in itself, in which everything has its place, is closely connected with the whole, subsists through the whole, and thus takes an active part in the production, ;

in the

life

of the whole.

made from one end which is articulated into particular ends, in such a way that in The main point

finite

life

to

-thus is that a transition is

one universal

life,

to

this particularisation things are in a condition of and of reciprocal essential relation.

God

is

Essence falls

God

;

harmony

defined, to begin with, as the absolutely necessary but this definition, as Kant has already observed,

very far short of expressing the conception of God. alone is the absolute necessity, but this definition

does not exhaust the conception of God ; the definition He is described as the universal life-force, the

in which

one universal Since

life, is

both higher and deeper.

life is essentially subjectivity,

something

this universal life is subjective, the vov$, a soul.

living,

Thus

IN LECTURES ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

351

involved in the universal

life,

the idea of the soul the characteristic

organising

of

is

the one

all -disposing,

all -ruling,

vovs.

regards the formal element here, we have to note the very same thing as we found in connection with the

As

We

have here once more the transition previous proofs. of the Understanding ; because there are arrangements, ends of a like kind, there is a wisdom which disposes But the act of rising to this and orders everything. thought involves at the same time the negative moment, which is the main point, namely, that this life, these ends as they actually are, and as existing in their imOn mediate finite form, do not represent what is true. this one life this one it is the contrary, movement, vov?,

which is what is true. There are not two things

;

there

is

indeed a starting-

such a character that in

point, but the mediation the transition what is the first does not continue to be is

of

On the contrary, its untruth, the basis, the condition. the negation its negation, is involved in this transition of the negative, finite element in it, the negation of the ;

This negative is negated, and in particularity of life. As this act of elevation, finite particularity disappears. representing truth, the object of consciousness is the

system of one life movement, the vov$ of one ment, the soul, the Universal Soul.

life

move-

Here it happens again that this definition God is the one universal active force of life, the soul which pro:

is a conception which does not yet suffice to express the conception of God. It is essentially involved in the conception of God that

duces, posits, organises a /coV/xoy,

He

is Spirit.

We

have

still

to

consider the

third,

essential

and

In the transiabsolute form from this point of view. tion just referred to, the content was life, the finite life

movement, immediate

life

which actually exists. Here which forms the basis is

in the third form the content

332

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF

Spirit.

Put

Because

finite

in the

form of a syllogism, it runs thus exist or are, and it is Being :

minds

which here constitutes the starting-point,

Mind

absolute

But

or Spirit exists or

therefore the

is.

"

because," this merely affirmative relation, defective in this respect, that the finite minds would require to be thought of as the basis, and God would be this

is

a consequence of the existence of finite minds. The is There are finite minds, but the finite has

true form

no

:

truth, the truth of the finite spirit

is

the absolute

Spirit.

The

finitude of finite

minds

is

no true Being;

it is

by

very nature dialectic, which implies that it abrogates itself, negates itself, and the negation of this finitude is its

affirmation as infinitude, as something universal in-andThis is the highest form of the transition ; for-itself. for the transition is here Spirit itself.

There are in this connection two characteristics, Being In so far as we start from Being, this latter, and God. looked at as it first shows itself, is directly finite. Since these characteristics exist,

we

could equally as well begin

from God and go on to Being, though, when we say we could, we must remember that we cannot speak of what we can do in connection with the conception of God, because

He

is

absolute necessity.

This starting-point when it thus appears in finite form does not yet involve Being; for a God who is not, is The finitude of something finite, and is not truly God. this relation consists in the fact that it is subjective, that it is this general conception in fact. God has existence,

but of

He

has only this purely

finite existence

in our idea

Him. This

is

one-sided

;

we have

introduced into this content,

namely, God, the taint of that one-sidedness, that finitude, which is termed the idea of God. The main point is that the idea should get rid of this defect whereby it is

something merely represented in the mind, something

IN LECTURES ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION subjective, it

and that

this content should

the determination of Being. have to consider this

We

second

353

have attached to mediation as

it

appears in this finite form, or form of the Understanding, in the shape of the Ontological Proof. This proof starts

from the Notion or conception of God, and goes from this to Being. We do not find this transition amongst the instance in Greek philosophy, nor was it for ancients, made in the Christian Church till after a long time. It was one of the great scholastic philosophers, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, that profound, philosophical

who

thinker,

We

first

grasped this idea. but

have the idea of God

idea,

He

How

are

is.

How

are

we

;

He

is

not merely an

make this transition ? God is not merely some-

to

we

to get to see that is this determination of thing subjective in us ? ? with to God be mediated Being

How

The Kantian

criticism

was directed against this soand with triumphant success,

called Ontological Proof too, It so to speak, in its day.

is still held at the present that have been refuted as being worththese proofs day less efforts on the part of the Understanding. have, however, already recognised the fact that the act where-

We

by these higher thoughts are here reached

is

the act of

Spirit, the act peculiarly belonging to thinking Spirit, which Man will not renounce the right to exercise ; and

proof is an act of the same sort. ancients did not know of this transition

so, too, this

The

;

for,

in

necessary that Spirit should go down into itself as deeply as possible. Spirit, when once it has arrived at its highest form of freedom, namely, order to arrive at

it, it is

subjectivity, first conceives this thought of God as subjective, and reaches first this antithesis of subjectivity

and

objectivity.

Anselm expressed the nature of this transition in the The idea of God is that He is abfollowing fashion. If accordingly we think of God only solutely perfect. VOL.

III.

Z

354

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF we

what is merely subjective, and in the form of an idea, is defective, merely represented that is the more perfect which is for not and perfect an as not merely represented idea, but also is, really is. as idea, then

find that

;

Therefore, since God is what is most perfect, He is not idea merely, but, on the contrary, He is possessed of actuality or reality.

The

later, broader,

and more rational form which

re-

presents the development of this thought of Anselin asserts that the conception or Notion of God implies that He is the Substance of all realities, the most real

Essence.

But Being Him.

also

is

reality,

therefore

Being

belongs to It has been urged against this that Being is no reality, that it does not belong to the reality of a notion. Eeality in a notion or conception implies determinate content in a notion, but Being adds nothing to the notion or to the content of the notion. Kant has put it in the following I form an idea of a hundred thalers ; plausible form :

but the notion or conception, the determinateness of the content is the same whether I form an idea of them, or

whether I actually possess them.

As against the first proposition that Being ought to follow from the Notion in general, it has been urged that Notion and Being are different from each other the Notion thus exists for itself, while Being is different.

:

Being must come to the Notion from the outside, from This Being is not involved in the Notion. can be put in a very plausible way by the aid of the hundred thalers. In ordinary life an idea of a hundred thalers is called That is not a notion at all in a notion or conception. which you may have any kind of determination of elsewhere.

It is certainly true that Being may not belong an abstract sense-idea such as blue, or to any determinateness of the Understanding which happens to be in my mind; but then this ought not to be called a notion. content.

to

IN LECTURES

ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

The Notion, and Notion

more the absolute Notion, the

Notion of God, is to be taken Notion contains Being as a determinate Being is a form of the determinateness This may easily be shown to be the case

in-and-for-itself, the

for itself,

and

characteristic.

of the Notion.

in

still

355

this

two ways.

all, the Notion is essentially the Universal which determines itself, which particularises itself it is what has the active power of differentiation, of particularising and determining itself, of positing a finitude, and of negating this its own finitude, and of being through

First of

;

the negation of this finitude identical with itself. This is just what the This is the Notion in general. Notion of God, the absolute Notion, God, really is. God as Spirit or as love

means that God

particularises

Him-

begets the Son, creates the world, an Other of Himself, and possesses Himself, is identical with Himself, in this Other. self,

In the Notion in general, and still more in the Idea, what, in fact, we see is, that through the negation of the particularisation, the positing of which is at the same time the work of the activity which He Himself is, He is identical with Himself, relates Himself to Himself.

The primary question

is,

What

is

Being

?

what

attribute, this determinateness, namely, reality

is

this

Being is it but the the inconceivable is not unutterable, nothing that concrete something which the Notion is, but merely ?

;

the abstraction of reference to

immediacy, Being

is

self.

We may

say, it is

the Immediate in general, and con-

versely the Immediate is Being, it that is, the mediation is negated.

is

in relation to itself,

This determination, namely, reference to

self,

or im-

in the mediacy, accordingly directly Notion in general, and it is involved in the absolute Notion, in the Notion of God, that He is reference to self. This abstract reference to self is directly found in the Notion itself. exists

for

itself

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF

356

The Notion is what has life, what is self-mediating and so Being, too, is one of its characteristics. Being is different from the Notion to this extent, that Being ;

not the entire Notion, but is only one of its characteristics, merely that simple aspect of the Notion in virtue of which it is at home with itself, is self-identity. is

Being is the determination which is found in the Notion as something different from the Notion, because the Notion is the whole of which Being is only one The other point is that the Notion condetermination. tains this determination in itself, this latter is one of its

determinations

;

but Being

is

also different

from the

In so far as Notion, because the Notion is the totality. a aie mediation forms different, necessary element they in their union.

They are not immediately identical all immediacy is and real only in so far as it is mediation within self, and conversely all mediation, in so far as it is immediacy in itself, has reference to self. The Notion ;

true

different from Being, and the peculiar quality of the difference lies in this that the Notion absorbs and

is

abolishes

it.

The Notion

is

the totality, represented by the move-

ment, the process, whereby it makes itself objective. The Notion as such, as distinct from Being, is something purely subjective, and that implies a defect. The Notion, The very however, is all that is deepest and highest. idea of the Notion implies that it has to do away with this defect of subjectivity, with this distinction between It is itself and Being, and has to objectify itself. the act of producing itself as something which has Being,

itself

as something objective.

Whenever we think

of

the Notion,

we must

give

up

something which we only possess, and The Notion is the Soul, the construct within ourselves. what we call final-end of an object, of what has life Soul is the Notion, and in Spirit, in consciousness, the the idea that

it is

;

IN LECTURES

ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

Notion as such attains existing in as such.

its

to

subjectivity

existence as

a free Notion

as

distinct

357

from

its

reality

The sun, the animal is the Notion merely, but has for them the Notion has not become It in consciousness and not in the sun is objective. that \ve find that division which is called I, the existing Notion, the Notion in its subjective reality, and I, this

not the Notion

;

Notion, arn the subjective. No man, however, is content with his mere self-hood.

The Ego

is

and

active,

this activity

jectifying self, in giving to

it

shows

itself in

reality, definite

ob-

existence.

more extended and concrete signification, this All sense of satisfacactivity of the Notion is impulse. tion arises through this process whereby subjectivity is done away with, and what is inward and subjective is posited as at the same time outward, objective, and real, that process by which the unity of the merely subjective and merely objective is brought about, and the two are In

its

stripped of their one-sidedness. There is nothing so well illustrated by all that goes on in the world as the abolition of the antithesis of subjective and objective,

whereby the unity

of the

two

is effected.

The thought

of

Anselm, therefore, so

far as its content

concerned, is the truer and more necessary thought but the form of the proof deduced from it is certainly defective in the same way as the modes of mediation

is

;

previously referred is

hypothetical,

to.

and

its

This unity of Notion and Being defect consists just in the very

fact of its being hypothetical.

What is presupposed is that the pure Notion, the Notion in-and-for-itself, the Notion of God, is, involves Being also. If we compare this content with faith or immediate knowledge, we shall find that the content that of Anselm's presupposition.

is

the same as

358

AMPLIFICATION OF TELEOLOGICAL PROOF

When the matter is regarded from this standpoint of immediate knowledge, what is said is this. It is a fact of consciousness that I have the idea of God, and along with this idea, Being must be given, so that Being is bound up with the content of the idea. If it is said that we believe it, that we know it immediately, then the unity of the idea and Being is expressed in the form of the presupposition just exactly as it is in Anselm's argument, and we have not got one bit further. This is the presupposition we everywhere meet with in He defines the Absolute Cause, Substance, Spinoza too. as that which cannot be thought of as not existing, the conception of which involves existence that is, the idea of God is directly bound up with Being. This inseparableness of Notion and Being is found in an absolute form only in the case of God. The finitude of things consists in the fact that the Notion, and the determinate form of the Notion, and the Being of the ;

The finite is what does Notion, are essentially different. not correspond to its notion or rather to the Notion. We have the notion of Soul the reality, the Being is ;

Man is mortal ; we represented by the corporeal form. this truth also Soul and body can part. express by saying, There we have the fact of separation, but in the pure Notion we have the inseparableness referred to. When we say that every impulse is an example of the Notion which realises itself, we are saying what is formally correct the impulse which has received satisfac;

tion

is

cerned.

infinite so far as the form is conBut the impulse has a content, and so far as

undoubtedly

the determinate character of finite

and limited

;

its

content

in this respect

it

is concerned, it is does not correspond

to the Notion, to the pure Notion. This is the explanation of what is involved in the

What was standpoint of the knowledge of the Notion. considered last was the knowledge of God, the certainty of the existence of

God

in general.

The

essential thought

ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

IN LECTURES

359

When we have following. us ; we are is before the knowledge object, object mediainvolves to it. But this related immediacy directly tion, what was called the act of rising to God, the fact in

connection

this

of

that the

the

is

an

human

spirit

comes

to consider the finite as

non-existent.

By means God, brings clusion

:

I

of this negation Man's spirit raises itself to itself into

know

that

harmony with God.

God

is, is

has originated in this negation.

The con-

the simple relation which

AMPLIFICATION OF THE ONTOLOGICAL PKOOF IN THE LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION FOR THE YEAR 1831. IN the sphere of revealed religion what we have first is the abstract Notion or conception of God.

to consider

This

free,

pure revealed Notion

is

what forms the

hasis.

Being for an Other, is its existence, and the region in which this existence shows itself is the finite spirit. This is the second point The finite Spirit and finite consciousness are concrete.

The manifestation

of the Notion, its

chief thing in this religion is to attain to a knowledge of the process whereby God manifests Himself in the finite spirit, is is,

and

is

identical with

Himself in

The

it.

the identity of the Notion and existence. strictly speaking,

an awkward expression,

have in God is essentially life. In the forms hitherto treated

what was lower

to

what was

of

third point Identity here for

what we

we advanced from

higher,

and took as the

starting-point one definite form of existence regarded in its different aspects. Being was first taken in its most

comprehensive aspect as contingent Being, in the CosmoThe truth of contingent Being is Being logical Proof. Existence was then further in-and-for-itself. necessary conceived of as involving relations of ends, and this Here there is supplied us with the Teleological Proof.

an advance, a beginning from existence as actually given and present. These proofs consequently form part of the finite determination of God. The Notion of God is that of something boundless, not boundless in the bad sense, but rather as representing what has at the same 3 &>

AMPLIFICATION OF ONTOLOGICAL PROOF

361

time the most determinate character possible, pure selfThese first proofs belong to the domain determination.

we

of finite connection, of finite determination, since

start

Here, on the other hand, the startgiven. is the free, pure Notion, and it is accordingly at ing-point this stage that we meet with the Ontological Proof of It constitutes the abstract metathe existence of God.

with what

is

physical basis of this stage.

It

was

first

discovered in

It was then Christendom by Anselm of Canterbury. further developed by all the later philosophers, by Descartes, Leibnitz, and Wolff, yet always along with

the other proofs, though it alone is the true one. The The Notion is Ontological Proof starts from the Notion. considered to be something subjective, and is defined as Here it something opposed to the object and to reality. constitutes the starting-point, and what we have got to is to show that Being, too, belongs to this Notion.

do

The exact method

of procedure

is

as

follows.

The

Notion of God is first of all described, and it is shown that He cannot be conceived of unless as including In so far as Being is separated from Being in Himself. the Notion, our thought.

God exists As thus

in a merely subjective

subjective

He

is

way

in

imperfect, and

It has to be imperfection belongs only to finite Spirit. shown that it is not only our notion which exists, but that He exists independent of our thinking. Anselm

states the proof in the following simple

what

form

:

God

is

beyond which nothing can be thought of as existing if God is merely an idea, then He is not what is most perfect. This, however, is in is

most

perfect, ;

contradiction with the that as perfect which

is

also possessed of Being.

statement; for we consider not merely an idea, but which is

first

If

God

is

merely subjective, we

could bring forward something higher which would be This is further developed as possessed of Being as well.

We

begin with what is most perfect, and this defined as the most real Essence, as the Substance

follows. is

AMPLIFICATION OF ONTOLOGICAL PROOF

362

The

This has been termed possibility.

of all realities.

distinguished from Being, is merely what is possible, or at all events it ought to be what is possible. According to the old Logic, it can be shown that no where exists only possibility Realities are, in accordance with contradiction exists.

Notion as subjective, since

it is

be considered as existing in God only in their affirmative aspect, as limitless, and in such a way But it is that negation is supposed to be eliminated.

this idea, to

easy to prove that in this case all that is is one with

abstraction of something which

when we speak

left

is

itself.

the

For

we mean

to imply that they such as wisdom, rightThese charactereousness, almighty power, omniscience. which be shown to be in istics are attributes may easily of realities

represent different characteristics,

contradiction with each other.

eousness; absolute power for

this

latter

other hand, production. contradict

is

Goodness

is

not right-

in contradiction with

presupposes final-ends.

wisdom;

Power, on the

limitlessness of negation and demanded, the Notion is not to determinateness must be dropped,

means the If,

itself,

as all

is

for every judgment or difference advances to the state of opposition. God is the Substance of all realities, it is said,

and since one of these

is

quently united with the Notion.

Being, Being is conseThis proof maintained find it worked out par-

recent times, and we " Morning Hours." Spinoza ticularly in Mendelssohn's defines the Notion or conception of God by saying that it

itself until

is

that which cannot be conceived of apart from Being. finite is something whose existence does not corre-

The

The species is realised in existing spond to the Notion. individuals, but these are transitory ; the species is the In the case of the finite, existence Universal for itself. does not correspond to the Notion. in the case of the Infinite, which

On is

the other hand, determined within

this is the reality must correspond to the Notion Kant criticised the Idea, the unity of subject and object.

itself,

;

IN LECTURES ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

363

this proof, and the objections he urged against it were as If God is defined as the Substance of all realifollows.

then Being does not belong to Him, for Being is no It makes no difference to the Notion or concep-

ties,

reality.

tion whether

it exists or does not exist, it remains the Already in Anselm's day this objection was urged " The fact of my forming an idea of by a monk who said,

same.

anything does not therefore imply that the thing exists." Kant maintains that a hundred thalers really remain the

same whether I merely form an idea of them or actually them consequently Being is not a reality, or real Ifc predicate, since nothing is added by it to the Notion. conbe that is not determinate may granted Being any tent all the same, nothing certainly should be added to the Notion. (We may remark in passing that to speak possess

;

;

of every wretched form of existence as a notion is to go on quite wrong lines.) On the contrary, it should be rid of the defect attaching to it in that it is merely someThe Notion which thing subjective, and is not the Idea.

only something subjective, and is divorced from Being, In the form of the proof as given by a nullity. Anselm, the infinitude consists in the very fact that it is

is

not one-sided, something purely subjective to which The Understanding keeps Being Being does not attach.

is

and the Notion strictly apart, and considers each as selfBut even according to the ordinary idea the Notion apart from Being is considered one-sided and untrue, and so, too, Being in which there is no Notion is looked on as notionless Being, Being which is inconceivable. This antithesis which is found in finitude cannot have any place in connection with the Infinite or God. But it is the following circumstance which makes the That most perfect and most real proof unsatisfactory. existence is in fact a presupposition measured by which Being for itself and the Notion for itself are one-sided. Descartes and Spinoza defined God as the cause of Himself. Notion and existence form an identity in other identical.

;

AMPLIFICATION OF ONTOLOGICAL PROOF

364

words,

God

as Notion cannot be

What

Being.

is

conceived of without

unsatisfactory in this view

that

is

we

have here a presupposition, and this means that the Notion measured by this standard of hypothetical necessity must be something subjective. The finite and subjective, however, is not finite only as measured by the standard supplied by that presuppoIt is finite in itself, and is consequently the antisition. It is the unsolved contradiction.

thesis of itself. is

supposed

imagine as finite

to

be distinct from the Notion.

Being

We may

we can ;

regard this latter as strictly subjective, but the essential characteristic of Being is in

the Notion

itself.

This finitude of subjectivity

is

done

away with in the Notion itself, and the unity of Being and the Notion is not a presupposition relatively to the it is measured. Being in its immethat its truth is and we have seen diacy contingent, The Notion involves necessity. necessarily Being, and

latter,

and by which

is

this is simple reference to self, the absence of mediation.

If

we

consider the Notion,

all difference is

we

absorbed, and

find it to be that in in

which

all

which

determinations

This ideality is mediation or difference, which has been absorbed and removed, perfect clearness,

are merely ideal.

The freepure transparency, being at home with self. dom of the Notion is just absolute reference to self, which is also immediacy, unity without mediaThe Notion thus has Being in itself potentially.

identity tion.

Its very meaning is that it does away with its one-sided ness. The idea that Being can be separated from the

Notion is a mere fancy. When Kant says that it is impossible to extract reality from the Notion, he is thinkBut the finite is ing of the Notion as something finite.

what annuls itself and if we were to think of the Notion in this way as divorced from Being, we should just have that very reference to self which Being essenjust

tially

;

is.

The Notion, however, has not Being

in itself potentially

IN LECTURES ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION It

only.

is

not seen to be there merely

'by

us

;

365

but, on

the contrary, the Notion is actual Being, Being for itself It abolishes its subjectivity, and objectifies itself. also.

Man

what was, to begin with, and is consequently which has The Notion something Being. in that eternally activity whereby Being is

realises his

merely

ends

;

that

is,

ideal loses its one-sidedness,

made

into

shows

itself

posited as identical with

In perception, feeling,

itself.

&c., we have outward objects before us; but we take

them up into ourselves, and thus the objects are ideal in us. The Notion is thus the continuous act whereby it When we regard closely the abolishes its difference. nature of the Notion, we see that this identity with Being The course is no longer a presupposition, but a result. the Notion makes itself obof procedure is as follows :

and

jective, turns itself into leality, the unity of subject and object.

is

God

thus the truth, is

an immortal

living Being, says Plato, whose body and soul are united Those who separate the two sides do not get in one.

beyond what

is finite

and untrue.

The standpoint which we here occupy

is

the Christian

"We have here the Notion of God in its entire This Notion is identical with Being. freedom. Being but the Notion is not is the poorest of all abstractions one.

;

We

so poor as not to contain this determination in it. have not to deal with Being in the poverty of abstraction, in immediacy in its bad form, but with Being as the

Being of God, as absolutely concrete Being, distinguished from God. The consciousness of finite Spirit is concrete Being, the material for the realisation of the Notion of God. Here it is not a question of any addition of Being to the Notion, or merely of a unity of the Notion and such expressions are awkward and misleading. Being The unity is rather to be conceived of as an absolute process, as the living movement of God, and this means that the two sides are distinguished from each other, while the process

is

thought of as that absolute, con-

AMPLIFICATION OF ONTOLOGICAL PROOF

366

Here we have

tinuous act of eternal self-production.

The the concrete and popular idea of God as Spirit. Notion of Spirit is the Notion which has Being inand-for-itself, that is to

it is

This infinite

say, knowledge.

When thus posited negative reference to self. act of the distinguishing, self-differentiajudgment,

Notion

is

But what

tion.

is

thus differentiated, and which at

first

appears as something outward, devoid of Spirit, outside The developof God, is really identical with the Notion.

ment

of this it is

religion it is

is

the absolute truth.

known

that

the very nature of

reveal

God

Idea

is

is to differentiate.

In the Christian

God has revealed Himself, and God to reveal Himself, and to

What

is

revealed

is

just that

the revealed God.

for those Religion must be something for all men so purified their thought that they know what exists in the pure element of thought, and who have ;

who have

arrived at a philosophical knowledge of what God is, as well as for such as have not got beyond feeling and

ordinary ideas. Man is not merely pure thought. On the contrary, thought manifests itself as perception or picture-thought, The absolute truth or in the form of ordinary ideas.

which

is

revealed to

Man must

therefore exist for

him

as a being who forms general ideas and sensuous images, who has feelings and sensations. This is the mark by religion in general is distinguished from philosophy. Philosophy thinks what otherwise exists only for the Man who thus ordinary idea and sensuous perception.

which

forms general ideas, is in his character as Man a thinking being also, and the substance of religion comes to him as a being who thinks. It is only a thinking being that can have a religion, and to think is also to form ideas, though the former act alone is the free form of

The Understanding thinks

truth.

get beyond identity; for

Being

is

Being.

it

too,

the Notion

but is

it

does not

Notion, and

These two one-sided categories always

IN LECTURES keep

ON PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

367

this one-sided form, so fur as it is concerned.

In

their true nature, on the other hand, these finite forms are no longer held to be inherently identical on the

ground that they are, but rather they are considered to be merely moments of a totality. Those who find fault with philosophy for thinking religion, for stating religion in terms of thought, don't know what they want. Hatred and vanity here come directly into play under the outward guise of humility. True humility consists in

having the

what

spirit

absorbed in the

most inward, in having within us the object, and the object only. Thus anywhich still be thing subjective present in feeling, may We have to consider the Idea from the disappears. of and to view, purely speculative point justify its claims as against the Understanding, and against it as being truth, in losing ourselves in

is

hostile to all content of religion whatsoever. This conis called a mystery, because it is something hidden

tent

from the Understanding length of the process

;

for the latter does not get the this unity is, and thus it is

which

that everything speculative, everything philosophical, for the Understanding a mystery.

is

INDEX Causa Sui,

as the the, i, 24, 66 as Power, ii. 140

ABSOLUTE,

:

One and

Absolute religion, the, ii. 327 ; positive religion, 336 ; a religion of freedom, 347 Adonis, myth of, ii. 85 Anaxagoras, ii. 55 in Animals, worship of, i. 307 Egypt, ii. 94, 112 ii. Aiiselm, i. 21 353; Hi. 159, ;

Man,

Egyptian,

ii.

114

ff.

of, 78, 82.

193,

29,

12,

ascension

139;

i.

ii.

re'igion of,

122

;

224 ii. 350

i.

27

iii.

;

doctrine, ii.

1

8l ii.

its

ii.

;

;

1

10

contrasted

;

;

with

truth of,

Moham-

medan, 143 Church, Christian, the, origin, iii. 97, loo, 123 doctrine of, 124 on the ii. on Cicero, gods, 309 its

sublimity,

;

;

Roman

;

;

;

I

iii.

Creed, the,

Lamaism, 58

Cross, iii. i.

254

;

311

Confucius, 346 iii. Cosmological Proof, ii. 144 ff. essential defect in, 259 238 Creation, conception of, ii. 155, 178 ;

;

religion, the,

religion, i.

;

the,

i.

27 creeds, iii. 126 its meaning, 255 ;

ii.

;

89

iii.

DEAD, reverence

103 i.

of, 91 died for

;

religion of Spirit, 107

on Bb'hine, on the Trinity, ii. 32 Only- begotten, 37 Brahma, ii. II, 26 as thought, 31 ; has no temple. 42 Brahmans, the, ii. 38 Buddha, ii. 50 Buddhism, ii. 48 compared with

Cat,

91, note;

;

88

CATHOLIC

;

;

330 polemical, as kingdom of God, iii. 79 the

Protestant Church, basis of Christian ; ;

of,

and

;

144 teaching death of, 86, 87.

resurrection

;

God

of

121

85,

;

religion,

;

;

341

a

179 Christian religion, the, begins in commands us to dualism, i. 17 know God, 37 ; iii. 193 ; the revealed religion, i. 84 the perfect

in

;

the, in

;

;

;

Bible,

257 335

and the Idea, 113 mira1 16; and His Apostles,

;

cles of,

and as Nature, 223 God, iii. 203 various meanings of, 233 Being and Notion, ii. 350 iii. 355 i.

95

all,

;

;

i.

Son

;

Man,

85

92, 97, 98

is religious,

;

89

76,

of

Socrates, 77, 86,

152

114 in Greek religion, 273 Atonement, the, iii. 94 Authority, in religion, i. 224 Christian Church, iii. 125

Being, denned,

iii.

and Son

320, 325. 349, 357, 361 Art, its origin and nature,

i.

Christ, history of, not myth. i. 146 ; for the Church, iii. 113; not merely a man, i. 226; the God-

11.

i.

of,

of,

moral religion, 340

353. 36i

BEAUTY,

;

X., ministry China, the religion

;

264 Antigone, the, Apologetics criticised, Aristotle quoted, iii.

320

iii.

general and special, i. 14 ; and effect, ii. 291 iii. 321 on the Singhilli, i. 312

Causes, cause Cavazzi Charles

a

326

of,

368

in Egypt,

ii.

for, 1

10

i.

311

;

care

INDEX Death, conception religion, ii. 97 Descartes on God,

Development i.

in Egyptian

of,

iii.

363

in the finite religions,

79

Devil, the, in Milton,

49

iii.

;

Dogmas, considered

of

no moment,

39 ; studied historically, 41 ; ii. 345 ; in Christian Church, iii. 126 Dualism in Jewish religion, ii. 199 i.

ECKHARDT

quoted, i. 218 Egypt, religion of, ii. 101 Eleatics, the, i. 98 ; iii. 320, 325 Elevation to God, iii. 229 End, idea of, ii. 150, 289 ff. England under the Stuarts, i. 249

;

;

;

27

;

in Chris-

129

tianity,

Trinity, 30

i. 24 j a a living God, 33 ;

;

knowledge of, 36, 45, 191 ; iii. 190 not merely in feeling, i. 51 ; ;

defined, 90, 92

; ii. 55, 126, 327, the most universal personality, i, 121 personality in, ii. 56 ; existence of, i. 167 ; iii. 155 ff. ; ex consensu gentium, 197 as the One, ii. 135 ; attributes of 180; iii. 205, 217; Jewish, ii. 210; exists for Spirit, iii. 8; as love, IO ; not defined by predi-

348

;

;

becomes man, 75 13 " God is dead," 91 as Creator,

>

;

;

not jealous,

176 ; i. 198 ; the Notion, 208

iii.

193

;

fellowship of,

;

with man, 303 Goethe, on classic art, ii. 253 on design, iii. 349 Goodness, innate, criticised, i. 180, ;

192

Greek religion, a religion of humanity, ii. 257 joyous, 261 ; gods of, 230, 244 not symbolical, 285 compared with Roman, 300 ;

its limits,

Exegesis,

GOD,

254

the Absolute,

cates,

Enlightenment," defined, i. 29, 219; iii. 139; and philosophy, 148 Esquimaux, their religion, i. 294 Evil, i. 72; in the Bible, 133; in Persian religion, ii. 73 ; in Egyptian religion, 103 in Jewas reflection, iii. 53 ; ish, 218

60

v.

i.

;

"

as opposed to good,

of, ii. 49 France under Robespierre, i. 257 Freedom, human, i. 227 ; of Spirit, ii. 226 ; Greek idea of, 259 French, the, and the Catholic re-

Foe, religion

ligion,

Divine and human, severance of, i. 239 union of, ii. 349 iii. 72, 129 ;

369

i.

ii.

342

;

;

FAITH, a form of knowledge, i. 117; in relation to knowledge, as understood by iii. 174 ff. Reformers, i. 150; what it is, iii. 21 1 114; breach between, and thought, i. 226 ; iii. 161 explains death of Christ, 87 ; and miracles, 119; as Christian, 157 Fall, the, i. 271, 276 ; ii. 200, 218 ; ;

;

;

Greek religion, ii. 169, 239, 261, 321 ; iii. 314 Father, kingdom of the, iii. 4 ; and of, in

Son, 12, 37 Feeling, reliyious,

i.

iii.

;

;

Finite, the, and Infinite, i. 185, 200 ; relation to the Infinite, iii. 293 ff.

VOL.

III Hesiod, on Chaos,

ii.

Hindus, cosmogony

229

III.

Homer,

i.

315

;

ii.

ii.

of,

17

;

re-

317 262, 269

IDEA, the, defined,

i.

iii.

21

;

ii.

329,

as divine self-revelation, 349 iii. 4; the speculative, 17 ;

119, 125 has twofold character, i. content of bad or good, 129; 130; iii. 182; not a basis for God, i. 137; and philosophy, 149 ; life of, iii. 184 Fetish worship, i. 309 Fichte, i. 228 ; iii. 68

80

;

ligion of pantheistic,

53 Fate, idea

1

in Chinese religion, i. 337 Herodotus, on the Greek gods, i. 223 ; ii. 249 referred to, i. 295 ; on of ii. soul, immortality 1 02 ; on Egyptian gods, 103,

HEAVEN,

Idea, or ordinary thought, defined, i. 143 ; dialectic of, 157 Idols and God, iii. 199 Immortality, of the soul idea of, :

necessarily connected with that of God, i. 79, 314 ; and trans-

Herodotus on, migration, ii. 63 IO2, I IO ; not in Jewish religion, ;

213;

in

Greek

religion,

2 A

260

;

INDEX

370

definite doctrine in Christian religion, iii. 105 ; immortality of Spirit,

57, 302 the, i.

iii.

Incarnation,

;

7

idea

>

pervades every religion, 77 importance, 151 ;. iii. 73 Incarnations, Indian, ii. 23 India, religion of,

ii.

Indian literature,

i.

Infinite

and

finite,

Mendelssohn on the Christian religion, i. 220 ; iii. 362 Middle Ages, i. 21, 101, 280, 285

;

of,

its

184, 325

;

iii.

272 Man, 279 of,

338

i.

;

;

the true miracle, 119 Mithras- worship, ii. 8 1

Mohammedan 297

JACOBI, quoted on faith, Pantheism in system of, 333 and Kant, iii. 250 ; on the knowledge of God, 282 ; on the Causa Sui, 322 Jesus was He the Son of God ? iii. in ; belief in, 120 Jews, as chosen people, ii. 209 i.

;

;

285

259, 293. 299 Innocence, the state not the true state of

i. 218; none amongst Hindus, 92 in Jewish religion, 187 rejected by Christ as criterion of truth, i. 219; ii. 339; iii. 116; how to be understood, 1 18; Spirit

ii.

I ff.

i.

theology of, iii. 158 Miracles, as basis of faith,

118

;

ii.

religion,

198, 212, Christian,

contrasted with

;

iii. 143 Mongols, the,

i.

296

Mysteries, Greek and Christian,

283 Mystery, religion

ii.

of,

ii.

85

:

Job, Book

of,

193

ii.

NATURE, design in, 1.12; not worand shipped in any religion, 8l ;

gion his Critique of Pure Reason, 55, 250 ; his moral standpoint,

KANT, i.

on Teleological Proof, ii. iii. 328 ; on Ontological on Cosiii. 363 Proof, ii. 353 mological Proof, 238 ff. ; quoted, 68 Kingdom of God, the, iii. 78, 85, and Roman Empire, 135, 149 90 Knowledge, denned, i. 119; iii. 162, 296 ; in relation to religion, 295 immediate knowledge, i. 42, 162 228

;

1

;

59

;

;

;

;

LAMAS, the, ii. 57 Life defined, iii. 336 Light, religion of, ii. 70 Love, God as, iii. 10 as understood ;

by Christ, 83 munity, 1 06

;

of Spiritual

Com-

MAGIC, religion of, i. 290 ; prayer as, 293 Man, and God, i. 228 his freedom, 244 ii. 223 ; as essential end, ;

;

165

;

in

religion

of

sublimity,

191 ; and animals, 252 ; his real nature, iii. 45 ; and Nature, 340 ;

knows God, 303 and ;

religion,

v.

celibacy,

366

i.

of,

208 ; iii. 210 270 ; in Jewish

reli-

;

reli-

184 ; in relation to Man, iii. 42 ; organic and inorganic, 339 ; waste in, 344 gion,

ii.

Necessity, its various forms, ii. 141 ; idea of, amongst the Greeks, iii.

^277, 314 Nemesis, ii. 240 Notion, the, what it is, i. 275; deiii. 208 and fined, ii. 348 Being, 15, 222, 354; refuge of religion, 147 ;

;

OBSERVATION, standpoint

of, criti-

176 (Edipus Coloneus, ii. 266, 288 One, conception of the, ii. 135 Ontological Proof, ii. 352 iii. 347 i.

cised,

;

360

ff.,

ff.

Oracles, Greek, 278 Osiris, in Egyptian religion, ii. 101 identified with Nile, 107, 285 ii.

;

PANTHEISM, misunderstood, i. 96 iii. 319; philosophy not, i. 214;

217

;

gion,

333

criticised,

of term, iii.

Paradise,

ii.

54

;

in

;

ambiguity

Hindu

reli-

317

i.

ParmenSdes, 325, 326

273, 279 i.

333

;

ii.

135

;

iii.

Parsis, religion of the,

Manicheism, iii. 297 Manu, code of, ii. 17 Marriage

108,

Spirit,

i.

25 1

ii. 77 Penitence, Christian and Hindu, 37 ; denned, iii. 129

ii.

INDEX i. 139 Phantasy, religion of, ii. I does not produce reliPhilosophy, gion, i. 4 antagonism of theology and Christian ii. 343 ; to, 31 and immediate doctrine, i. 38 knowledge, 42; not Spinozism, 93 ; and religion, iii. 148, 157, 367 ; orthodox par excellence, ii. 345 Philosophy of Religion, i. 23 relato position to philosophy, 23 tive religion, 27 not opposed to re-estabdoctrine of Church, 32 lishes dogma, 37 its adversaries shown up, 56 ; is the unfolding of what God is, go ; a xmity, 100

Perception,

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Phcenix, the, ii. 84 Pietism, iii. 141 Plato, quoted, i. 165

60, 89 ; and secular life, 70 ; revealed, 83 ; ii. 328 ; imposes use absolute obligation, i. 103 of,

;

can it be 145 taught 149 ; the knowledge of God, 167 ; in relation to authority, 224 ; to "the State, 246 ; obof

figures

in,

;

?

262

as self-consciousness, ; as national, 208 ; contrasted with religiousness, 330 ; must exist in feeling, iii. 181 for all men, 366 ; different re-

jective, ii.

164

;

;

moments

ligions

of Notion, i. 79 true meaning, i.

its

Renunciation, 245

Revealed

Revolution, French,

on the Infinite, 255 on Trinity,

200 ; Republic of, on God, 193, 343 iii. 29 Power, conception of, ii. 128, 132 as wise, 154 ; as self -determining, 225 Prometheus, ii. 236 Proof, Physico-theological, ii. 156 nature of, iii. 165 1 'roofs of existence of God, represent knowledge of God, i. 167 iii. 155 ff., 226 S. Property, idea of, ii. 214 Protestant Church and doctrine, iii. ;

;

the re-

;

256

i.

Roman religion, ii. 298 ;

328

religion, ii. ligion of Spirit, 335

self-seeking, 304; superstitious, 311 ; transition to Christian, 317; Roman ;

314

plays,

;

;

;

159 Protestant States, i. 249 Protestantism, i. 252 Protestants, present day, i. 217 view of priests and laymen, 249 and the Bible, iii. 8

RACINE

criticised,

ii.

; ;

265

human and

and faith, 49 be examined religion, 204

;

iii.

? i. ;

divine,

53

;

33

i.

;

how can it true home of

160

;

and dogma,

iii.

159

Reconciliation, in Christian religion, i. 17 ii. 347 ; iii. 124 ; in Greek, ;

286

denned, iii. 67 accomplished, 109, 129; in the world, 136 Reformation, the, i. 47 Religion, defined, i. I, 106, 206; ii. 327 iii. 229 ; and knowledge, i. ii.

;

;

;

5,

15

;

and philosophy, 18

;

iii.

148, 366 ; consciousness of absolute truth, i. 22 ; highest sphere of consciousness, 54

;

of the

Supper,

iii.

132

;

of Baptism, 127 Sacrifice,

its

nature,

Jewish religion, 268 ; of Christ,

i.

218

ii. iii.

;

in

95

Schelling, his idea of God, Sin, original,

Socrates, Chr'st,

ii.

iii.

i.

ii.

53

158

286 77,

logical Proof,

in

234 Greek, ;

;

compared with 86 ; on Teleo-

328

Son, kingdom of, iii. 5, 33; Son of God not the world, 39 Sphinx, the, ii. 119, 122

1

Reason,

SACRAMENT,

conception

Spinoza, on substance, i. 334 ; iii. 325, 327 ; philosophy of, ii. 55 ;

on God, 357 ; iii. 362 Spinozism, i. 92, 97, 98 ; said to confuse good and evil, 99 ; substance in, 333 ; defect in, iii. 320 Spirit, the witness of, i. 43 ; ii. 339

;

essentially manifestation,

i.

46; self-producing, 75; contrasted with Nature, 108 is knowledge of itself, 206 ; is eternal and immortal, iii. 57, 302 ; the kingdom of, IOI ; the true miracle, 119; the Holy Spirit, 97, 107, 108, ;

Iio; attests Christ's mission, 113

Community, the, iii. 100 communion of saints, 107

Spiritual

a

;

State, the, and religion, i. 70, 102, 246, 251 ; final stage of Spirit, 113; as end, ii. 296 realisation of Divine, iii. 138 ;

INDEX

372

Stoicism, iii. 63 Sublimity, religion of, ii. 170 ; God in, 172 Substance, idea of, in religions, 5. 318; Oriental conception of, ii.

53 in Spinoza, iii. 325 Syrian religion, the, ii. 82 ;

Indian, ii. 14; the Holy, the Christian, 99

iii.

II

;

Truth

v. certainty, iii. 178 Understanding, the, hates philosophy, i. 32 religion of, ii. 288 God a mystery to, iii. 17; and and faith, 231 ami reason, 22 proofs of existence of God, 265 and God, 301 ; and contradiction, 306 religion a mystery for, 367 ;

;

;

;

;

TELEOLOGY,

ii.

Teleological

328

ff.,

347

148

Proof,

ii.

157

;

iii.

;

Universal, the, defined,

ff.

Theologians, despise doctrine,

i.

39

;

ii. criticised, 217 345 Theology, of reason, its nature, i. 28 ; contrasted with philosophy of religion, 31 ; and the Bible, ii. ;

343 Thought, defined, i. 94 God exists in, 132; contrasted with idea, 144 ff ; eternal Idea present in,

ii.

Utility, religion of,

Roman

religion,

i. 122 288 is the ;

298

VEDAS,

the, reading of, ii. 18 Voltaire on faith, i. 219 Vorstellung, or idea, defined,

i.

143

;

.

iii.

7 ; Trinity,

and

faith, 161 dogma of the,

3 } ; misunderstood, 159; expresses a childlike relation, iii. 25 ; as a the speculative conception, 29 i.

;

WILL,

the,

iii.

"Word,"

the,

Worship,

its

50

17 ; nature, ii.

special forms of, tion,

240

ZOROASTER,

ii.

77

THE END

Printed by BALLAVTVNE, HAVSON Edinburgh and London

&

Co.

iii. i.

229

31

65, 67, ;

210

;

as propitia-