Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/356

 the value of this arbitrary kind of thought. This sort of thought, which is a matter of choice and does not follow strict laws, is the positive element which comes in here. It is only the Notion in its true nature, the Notion for itself, which truly frees itself absolutely from this positive element, for both in philosophy and religion freedom in its highest form is thought itself as such.

The doctrine or content also takes on the form of something positive; it is something having a valid existence, and it passes as such in society. All law, all that is rational, and in general all that has true value or validity, takes the form of something which exists or is possessed of being, and as such it is for each one something essential, something having true value or validity. This, however, is merely the form in which what is positive appears; the content or substance must be constituted by the true Spirit.

The Bible represents the Positive in this form; but it is one of its own sayings, that the letter killeth, while the spirit giveth life; and here the important point is the kind of spirit which is brought into connection with the letter, what kind of spirit gives life to the word. We must know that we bring with us a concrete spirit, a thinking, reflecting, or feeling spirit, and we must have a consciousness of the presence of this spirit which is active and forms a conception of the content before it.

This act of apprehending or forming a conception is not a passive reception of something into the mind, but, on the contrary, just because the spirit forms a conception, this conceiving of something is at the same time a manifestation of its activity. It is only in the mechanical sphere that one of the sides remains passive in connection with the process of reception. Thus Spirit plays a part here, and this spirit has its ideas and conceptions, it is a logical Essence, a form of thinking activity, and the spirit must know this activity. Thought in this form, however, can also pass into the various categories of finitude.