conscious union Religion occupies the highest position。 In it; Spirit … rising above the limitations of
temporal and secular existence … bees conscious of the Absolute Spirit; and in this
consciousness of the self…existent Being; renounces its individual interest; it lays this aside in
Devotion … a state of mind in which it refuses to occupy itself any longer with the limited and
particular。 By Sacrifice man expresses his renunciation of his property; his will; his individual
feelings。 The religious concentration of the soul appears in the form of feeling; it nevertheless
passes also into reflection; a form of worship (cultus) is a result of reflection。 The second form of
the union of the objective and subjective in the human spirit is Art。 This advances farther into the
realm of the actual and sensuous than Religion。 In its noblest walk it is occupied with representing;
not indeed; the Spirit of God; but certainly the Form of God; and in its secondary aims; that which
is divine and spiritual generally。 Its office is to render visible the Divine; presenting it to the
imaginative and intuitive faculty。 But the True is the object not only of conception and feeling; as in
Religion; … and of Intuition; as in Art; … but also of the thinking faculty; and this gives us the third
form of the union in question … Philosophy。 This is consequently the highest; freest; and wisest
phase。 Of course we are not intending to investigate these three phases here; they have only
suggested themselves in virtue of their occupying the same general ground as the object here
considered … the State。
§ 51
The general principle which manifests itself and bees an object of consciousness in the State; …
the form under which all that the State includes is brought; is the whole of that cycle of phenomena
which constitutes the culture of a nation。 But the definite substance that receives the form of
universality; and exists in that concrete reality which is the State; … is the Spirit of the People itself。
The actual State is animated by this spirit; in all its particular affairs … its Wars; Institutions; &c。 But
man must also attain a conscious realisation of this his Spirit and essential nature; and of his original
identity with it。 For we said that morality is the identity of the subjective or personal with the
universal will。 Now the mind must give itself an express consciousness of this; and the focus of
this knowledge is Religion。 Art and Science are only various aspects and forms of the same
substantial being。 In considering Religion; the chief point of enquiry is whether it recognises the
True … the Idea … only in its separate; abstract form; or in its true unity; in separation … God being
represented in an abstract form as the Highest Being; Lord of Heaven and Earth; living in a remote
region far from human actualities; … or in its unity; … God; as Unity of the Universal and Individual;