Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 3.djvu/134

 Christian content of faith is to be justified by philosophy, not by history. What Spirit does is no history; it takes to do only with what exists on its own account, is in-and-for-itself, not with something past, but, on the contrary, simply with what is present.

3. But this has appeared in time, too, it has a relation to the subject, it exists for it, and it has a no less essential relation to the fact that the subject is intended to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

This fact that the subject itself is to become a child of God involves the truth that reconciliation has actually been completely accomplished in the Divine Idea, and that it has accordingly appeared in time, that the truth has become a matter of certainty to men. It is just this fact of certainty which is the manifestation, the Idea, in the manifested form in which it comes to consciousness.

The relation of the subject to this truth is that the subject reaches this very consciousness of unity, thinks itself worthy of it, produces it in itself, is filled with the Divine Spirit.

This takes place by means of mediation in itself, and this mediation means that the subject has this faith; for faith is the truth, the presupposition that reconciliation is essentially and absolutely accomplished and is certain. It is only by means of this belief that reconciliation has been essentially and absolutely accomplished and is certain, that the subject is capable of placing itself in this unity, and is in a position to do this. This mediation is absolutely necessary.

In the blissful feeling thus reached by means of this act of apprehending the truth, the difficulty is removed which is directly involved in the circumstance that the relation of the Spiritual Community to this Idea is a relation of individual particular subjects to the Idea; this difficulty is, however, done away with in this very truth itself.