Nature, we here seek to regard it as the end of God, then we see that it is His power only that is manifested in it, it is only His power that becomes objective to Him in it, and wisdom is as yet quite abstract. When we speak of an end, it must not be thought of as simply power; it must have a really determinate character. Spirit is, in fact, the region in which it can be present, and since God is end in Spirit as consciousness, in Spirit which is posited over against Him, and here, therefore, in the finite spirit as such, His end in the finite spirit is His representation, His recognition. God here has the finite spirit over against Him. Being-other, or otherness, is not as yet posited as having absolutely returned into itself. The finite spirit is essentially consciousness. God must, therefore, be an object of consciousness as being the Essence, i.e., in such a way as to be acknowledged and extolled. It is the glory of God which is, to begin with, His end. God’s reflex presence in self-consciousness, taken generally, is not yet known. God is only recognised, but if He is also to be really known or cognised, then it is necessary that He, as Spirit, should posit differences in Himself. Here He has as yet only the abstract characterisations referred to.
Thus at this stage the thought that religion, as such, is the end, is an essential characteristic, which means that God becomes consciously known in self-consciousness, that He is object in it, and has an affirmative relation to it. He is God as being infinite power and subjectivity in Himself. The second point is that He manifests Himself, and that this should be essentially in another spirit, which, as finite, stands in an objective relation to Him. Thus the characteristic which comes in here is the acknowledgment and exaltation of God, the glory of God, His universal glory, for not only the Jewish nation, but the whole earth, all peoples, all nations are to praise the Lord. This end, namely, that He should be recognised, known, honoured by consciousness, may, to start
