Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/163

 The moral which is drawn from it contains at all events the essential moral forces which have been at work in it, which have produced it. These are its inner, its substantial element. The narrative thus presents the aspect of something which is broken up into detail, it possesses this detached or isolated character, and is individualised to the utmost possible degree; but universal laws, moral forces are recognisable in it too. These do not exist for idea or ordinary thought as such. What concerns idea or ordinary thought is the narrative as it historically develops itself in the phenomenal sphere.

In an historical narrative of this kind, there is something even for the man whose thoughts or conceptions have not as yet been definitely formed and cultivated. He feels these forces in it, and has a dim consciousness of them. Such is the essential form which religion takes for the ordinary consciousness, for consciousness in its ordinary state of cultivation. It is a content which at first presents itself in a sensuous manner, a succession of actions, of sensuous determinations, which follow each other in time, and are, further, side by side in space. The content is empirical, concrete, manifold, but it has also an inner element. There is spirit in it which acts upon spirit; the subjective spirit bears witness to the Spirit which is in the content, at first through dim recognition without this Spirit being developed for consciousness.

c. All spiritual content, all spiritual relation in general is finally idea when its inner characteristics come to be conceived of simply as self-related and independent.

If we say, “God is all-wise, good, righteous,” we have a definite content; but each of these determinations of the content is single and independent; “and,” “also,” are the links which belong to the general idea. “All-wise,” “supremely good,” are conceptions too: they are no longer imagery, do not belong to sense or history, but are spiritual determinations. They are not, however, as yet actually analysed; the distinctions are not yet