Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/130

 The forms of this development and self-determination of the Universal are the principal moments in logic, and these likewise constitute the form of the whole abovementioned sphere of being. The development of God in Himself is consequently the same logical necessity as that of the Universe, and this latter is only in so far inherently divine as it is at every stage the development of this form.

To begin with, this development is, it is true, different in each case in respect of the matter (Stoff), since, when it proceeds in an element of pure universality, it yields only Divine forms and moments; while in the region of finiteness, on the other hand, it yields finite forms and finite spheres of existence. Thus this matter and its forms are so far quite different, regardless of the fact that the form of the necessity is the same. Further, however, these two elements (Stoffe), the development of God in Himself and the development of the Universe, are not absolutely different. The Divine Idea signifies that it is the Absolute Subject, the truth of the universum of the natural and spiritual world, and not merely an abstract Other. Therefore the matter is the same in both cases. It is the intellectual divine world, the divine life in itself, which develops itself; but the spheres of its life are the same as those of the world life. This latter, which is the divine life in the mode of Appearance, or phenomenal existence, in the form of finiteness, is looked at in that eternal life in its eternal form and truth, sub specie æterni. Thus we have finite consciousness, finite world, nature, that which presents itself in the phenomenal world. It is this, in fact, which constitutes the antithesis of the Other and the Idea. The Other of the simple Idea which exists as yet in its substantiality, appears, too, in God, but there retains His attribute of eternity, and continues to abide in love and in the divine condition. This Other, which remains in the condition of what has