By considering a living community sovereign, nationalism implicitly but drastically reduced the relevance of God; even when combined with religion and presented in a religious idiom, it was essentially secular. National consciousness, dramatically different from the fundamentally religious, hierarchical consciousness that it replaced, shapes how we live today.
崇尚鲜活社会主权的国家主义含蓄而又彻底地削弱了上帝的地位；即便与宗教融合并以宗教用语的形式出现，也无法改变其根本的世俗性质。国家意识从根本上有别于它所取代的宗教等级意识，决定了今天的生活方式。