Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/152

 true, posited concretely in itself, such as we have in the Christian religion, is not as yet present here.

Since the Absolute is thus defined as the One and as Power, self-consciousness is merely a semblance of the Absolute. It is certainly something for which the Absolute manifests itself, and to which it stands in a positive relation, for the reflection of Power into itself directly gives repulsion, and this is self-consciousness, and thus personality. Self-consciousness begins here to have a certain value, but still it has only an abstract determination, so that self-consciousness in its concrete form knows itself merely as a semblance of existence. It is in bondage, has no extended sphere in itself, no room in which to act; heart and mind are hemmed in; what feeling it has consists only in feeling the Lord; it has its existence and finds its happiness only within this narrow enclosure. Even if, as is the case here, the element of difference comes to light, still it is held fast; it does not really break away, and is not set free. Self-consciousness concentrates itself only in this one point, and though it knows itself as essentially existing—for it is not killed as in Brahma—it is at the same time the non-essential element in the Essence.

(b.) Necessity is something which is self-posited as mediation, and is here accordingly a mediation for self-consciousness. Necessity is movement, implicit process, implying that the accidental element in things and in the world is definitely characterised as accidental, and thus raises itself to and disappears in necessity. When in any religion the absolute Essence is conceived of, or known, or revered as Necessity, then this process is present. It might seem as if we had seen this transition already in the advance of the finite to the Infinite in the fact that the truth of the finite was the Infinite, the absorption of the finite in itself into the Infinite, and that in the same way the accidental also returns into necessity. Whether we regard the determination of the