Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Together with a Work on the Proofs of the Existence of God

It has appeared to me to be necessary to make religion by itself the object of philosophical consideration, and to add on this study of it, in the form of a special part, to philosophy as a whole. By way of introduction I shall, however, first of all (A) give some account of the severance or division of consciousness, which awakens the need our science has to satisfy, and describe the r&lation of this science to philosophy and religion, as also to the prevalent principles of the religious consciousness. Then, after I have (B) touched upon some preliminary questions which follow from those relations, I shall give (C) the division of the subject.

To begin with, it is necessary to recollect generally what object we have before us in the Philosophy of Eeligion, and what is our ordinary idea of religion. We know that in religion we withdraw ourselves from what is temporal, and that^Veligion is for our consciousness that region in which all the enigmas of the world are f solved, all the contradictions of deeper-reaching thought fi^- have their meaning unveiled, and where ‘the voice of the heart’s pain is silenced — the region of eternal truth, of eternal rest, of eternal peace/’ Speaking generally, it is through thought, concrete thpught, or, oto put it more definitely, it is by reason of his being Spirit, that man is man; and from man as Spirit proceed all the many -developments of the sciences and arts, the interests of political life, and all those conditions which have refer- :ence to man’s freedom and will. But all these manifold forms of human relations, activities, and pleasures, and all the ways in which these are intertwined}^ all that has worth and dignity for man, all wherein he seeks his happiness, his glory, and his pride, finds its -ultimate centre in religion, in the thought, the conscious-’ ness, and the feeling of God. Tlius God is the beginjiing of all things, and the end of all things. As all things proceed from this point, so all return back to it again. He is the centre which gives life and quickening to all things, and which animates and preserves in existence all the various forms of being. In religion man places himself in a relation to this centre, in which all other relations concentrate themselves, and in so doing he rises up to the highest level of consciousness and’ to the region which is free from relation to what is other than itself, to something which is absolutely self-sufficient, the unconditioned, what is free, and is its own object and end.,-