Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/127

 when God is determined as subject. The need begins to exist when the moment of Nature, of immediacy, is overcome, in the conception of subjective self-determination or in the conception of freedom—that is to say, at the standpoint which we have now reached. Inasmuch as the mode of definite Being is determined by means of the inner element itself, the natural form is no longer sufficient, nor is the imitation of it sufficient either. All peoples, with the exception of the Jews and Mahommedans, have images of their gods; these, however, do not belong to fine art, but are mere personifications of conceptions or ideas, signs of merely conceived or imagined subjectivity, where this last does not as yet exist as immanent determination of the Essence itself. Figurate conception or idea has an external form in religion, and from this what is known as pertaining to the Divine Essence is to be essentially distinguished. In the Hindu religion God has become man; it is in totality that Spirit is always present: whether, however, the moments are looked upon as belonging to the Essence or as not belonging to it, is what makes all the difference.

It thus becomes a necessity to represent God by means of fine art when the moment of naturalness is overcome, when Spirit exists as free subjectivity, and its manifestation, its appearance in its definite existence, is determined by means of Spirit from within, and exhibits the character of something which is a spiritual production. Not until God Himself has the determination of positing the differences under which He appears, out of His own inner Being, not until then does art enter as necessary for the form given to the god.

In connection with the introduction here of art, two moments specially deserve attention: first, that God is presented in art as something capable of being beheld by sense; secondly, that as a work of art the god is something produced by human hands. To our notions,