'Religion is the consciousness of freedom and truth. If our concern with it is a feeling then it is bliss, and if an activity then it has to manifest God's glory and majesty. This concept of religion is universal. Religion holds this position for all peoples and persons. Everywhere this concern is regarded as the sabbath of life. Truly in this region of the spirit flow the waters of forgetfulness from which the soul drinks. All the griefs of this bank and shoal of life vanish away in this ether, whether in the feeling of devotion or of hope. All of it drops into the past. In religion all cares pass away, for in it one finds oneself fortunate. All harshness of fate passes into a dream. Everything earthly dissolves into light and love, not a remote but an actually present liveliness, certainty and enjoyment. Even if the bliss of religion is put off into the future, it is still radiant in life here and now, or in the actuality within which this image is effective and substantial. Such is the universal content of religion among human beings ....'
- Hegel, 'Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion', 1831.
"Religion is the consciousness of freedom and truth."
How so?
"If our concern with [religion] is a feeling then it is bliss, and if an activity then it has to manifest God's glory and majesty."
Obviously, concern is a feeling. How is a feeling of concern also "bliss"?
"This concept of religion is universal."
What concept of religion is this?
"Religion holds this position for all peoples and persons."
What is "this position"?
"Everywhere this concern is regarded as the sabbath of life."
What is the "sabbath of life"?
"Truly in this region of the spirit flow the waters of forgetfulness from which the soul drinks."
Where is "this region"?
"All the griefs of this bank and shoal of life vanish away in this ether, whether in the feeling of devotion or of hope."
When do the griefs of which bank vanish away?
"All of it drops into the past."
All of what drops into the past?
"In religion all cares pass away, for in it one finds oneself fortunate."
- Can you give an example of how how all cares pass away in religion?
- In what does one find oneself "fortunate"?
"Everything earthly dissolves into light and love, not a remote but an actually present liveliness, certainty and enjoyment."
When did everything earthly dissolve into light and love?
"Even if the bliss of religion is put off into the future, it is still radiant in life here and now, or in the actuality within which this image is effective and substantial."
- How can the "bliss of religion" be put off into the future?
- How is the it "radiant in life here and now"?
- What is this image and why is it "effective and substantial"?
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