Philosophy of religion at the turn of the twentieth century can be understood as a continuation and development of some central philosophical themes of the nineteenth century. These themes owe much to two early nineteenth century philosophers, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Auguste Comte. Hegel (1770–1831) sought to reconcile the worlds of the finite and infinite by taking the philosopher on a spiritual journey through the realms of the objective, subjective and absolute spirits. In the absolute spirit he sought to reconcile the tensions in Immanuel Kant's thought between the finite and infinite, subject and object, and faith and knowledge. The absolute spirit for Hegel is one, the infinite whole which contains all the contrasts of finite being. Religion is understood to picture or represent the absolute in imaginative form, and philosophy is understood to transcend and interpret the imaginative in conceptual terms. In so doing, philosophy helps provide a justification for religion in its absolute or Christian form.