For Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, his major emphasis was upon the dialectical process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.  This process leading toward actualization of one’s spirit or geist extends down to humans but only because it first applies to God as the Absolute Idea.  Within Hegel’s thought, the universe is in a constant process of development.  In this process, God (THESIS) interacts with nature (ANTITHESIS), which results in the SYNETHSIS of human development.

One must keep in mind the fact that God is first engaged in the process of actualization, all other actualization occurs as a result of God’s increasing toward actualization.  God ultimately is that being working its way in and through the whole of history so one traces out God by tracing out history wherein God is actualizing himself dialectically.  Thus, within the natural realm, humans in history too are in the process of increasing in actualization.