Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/96

 of Spirit, but immediately, and therefore in the form of what is natural.

This determination, as we have seen it, has acquired a definite form in the religion of the Phoenicians and in the religions of anterior Asia generally. In these religions the Process which has been spoken of is contained, and in the religion of the Phoenicians the succumbing to death, the estrangement of the god from himself, and his resurrection are brought into special prominence. The popular conception regarding the Phœnix is well known: it is a bird which burns itself, and from out of its ashes there comes a young Phœnix in new vigour and strength.

This estrangement, this otherness, defined as a natural negation, is death, but death that is at the same time annulled, since out of it there issues a revival and renewal of life. It is the eternal nature of Spirit to die to self, to render itself finite in Nature, and yet it is by the annulling of its natural existence that it comes to itself. The Phoenix is the well-known symbol of this. What we have here is not the warfare of Good with Evil, but a divine process which pertains to the nature of God Himself, and is the process in one individual. The more precise form in which this progressive process definitely appears is represented by Adonis. This representation has passed over to Egypt and Greece, and is mentioned in the Bible, too, under the name of Thammus (הַּמּוּן), Ezek. viii. 14, “And behold there sat women weeping for Thammus.” One of the principal festivals of Adonis was celebrated in spring; it was a service in honour of the dead, a feast of mourning which lasted several days. For two whole days Adonis was sought for with lamentation; the third day was a joyous festival, when the god had risen again from the dead. The entire festival has the character of a solemn feast of Nature, which expires in winter and awakens again in spring. Thus in one aspect this is a natural process, but looked