Hegel referred to the Christian religion at a certain stage of its development as a form of alienation, for while God reigns in heaven, human beings inhabit an inferior and comparatively worthless ‘vale of tears’. Human nature is thus seen as divided between its essence, which is immortal and heavenly, and its non-essential, mortal, and earthly incarnation. Hence individuals see themselves as fulfilled only after they leave their body and enter another realm; they are alienated from their mortal existence and the world in which they actually live.
