religion accordingly is its production by means of itself. It is it itself which renders itself concrete, and perfects itself by attaining to the totality of its distinctions, so that the Notion, since it exists only by means of these distinctions, becomes object to itself. The Notion, which we have thus put on a firm basis, is the self-consciousness of Absolute Spirit, it is the self-consciousness which implies that it exists for itself. For itself it is Spirit; that in which there is a distinction between itself and Spirit is the moment of Nature. The meaning of this in popular language is that God is the unity of the Natural and Spiritual; Spirit is, however, lord of Nature, so that the two do not occupy a position of equal dignity in this unity, the truth being rather that the unity is Spirit; Spirit is no third something in which the two are neutralised, but, on the contrary, this indifference of the two is itself Spirit. At one time Spirit represents the one side, and at another is that which overlaps, which reaches over to grasp the other side, and is thus the unity of both. It is in this further concrete determination of Spirit that the process takes place by which the notion of God perfects itself by attaining to the Idea.
The Spiritual is the absolute unity of the Spiritual and Natural, so that this last is only what is posited, sustained by Spirit. In this Idea are found the following moments:—a. The substantial, absolute, subjective unity of the two moments, the Idea in its affirmation in which it is identical with itself. b. The differentiation of Spirit within itself, so that it now posits itself as existing for what is thus differentiated, posited as the latter is by Spirit itself, c. This differentiation itself being posited in that unity of affirmation, becomes negation of the negation, affirmation as infinite, as absolute Being-for-self.
The first two moments are those of the Notion, representing the way and manner in which the relation of the Spiritual and Natural is contained in the Notion. What is further to be observed is, that they are not merely
