ABSTRACT
Religion is nothing other than a practical faith in a moral world-governance, or, to express the same concept in a familiar, hallowed idiom, a living faith in the kingdom of God that will appear on earth. Whoever believes in a moral world-governance, and indeed believes practically, has religion, and only he has religion. It is clear from the words themselves what a moral world-governance is. If things happen in the world so that the ultimate success of the good is to be expected, then there is a moral world-governance. If, on the contrary, fate is unconcerned about virtue and vice, then there is no moral world-governance. The sublime spirit who governs the world in accordance with moral laws is the deity. This is the only concept of God that religion needs; or, rather, it is the only concept of God by means of which religion itself first becomes possible.
