In the following analysis, I initiate the detailed exploration of Hegel’s religious phenomenology. This chapter occupies itself with the first of the three layers of religious consciousness: the metaphysical conceptualization of divinity. Each formation of religious consciousness proper exhibits such a metaphysical conceptualization, which dictates the teleological progression of one-sided constellations of religious consciousness toward the coincidence of metaphysical concept and concrete representation. These one-sided formations reside within the throes of “Determinate Religion,” whereas Christian religious consciousness resides within the domain of “Consummate Religion.” The metaphysical concept of Christianity stands out as the capital-c Concept (der Begriff der Begriffslehre), incorporating all preceding metaphysical concepts within itself. Contra one of the prevailing renderings of Hegel’s philosophy (of religion), the “conclusion” of Hegel’s phenomenology of metaphysical concepts does not admit of a totalizing termination of transformation; rather, the Christian Concept admits of an ongoing, disclosive dynamic that ruptures the close-ended teleology of determinate religion.