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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Religion
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According to Hegel, religious representations are images that give expression to an inner meaning (Hegel, p. 144-151). Religious representations may give expression to religious feelings and they may as well evoke such feelings. Hegel stresses the point that religion is grounded in thought, that religious knowledge is above feeling. Yet, he is ... arguing that religious knowledge finds expression in representations that ought to be interpreted in light of the concept of God as absolute idea. In a way Hegel is positing the speculative concept of God as a hermeneutical principle able to crack open religious representations found in the form of texts, dogma, and even in history (Hegel, p. 146-147). All religious representations, in particular those of the absolute religion give expression to the dynamic thought process of spirit by means of which it moves from its self-enclosedness through its self-limiting and up to its self-reconciliation.
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Hegel's more romantic perspective on the philosophy of religion, history and politics shifted shortly thereafter. This shift consisted of Hegel's argument that philosophy should consist of an understanding of the history of philosophical thought, wherein past philosophical thought is viewed as partially true rather than false. The progression of philosophical 'truth' for Hegel involves a dialectical resolution of past oppositions into increasingly accurate syntheses. Although Hegel never used them, Hegel's concept of this dialectic can be more easily grasped in terms of Heinrich Moritz Chalybaus' terms "thesis," "antithesis," and "synthesis." With this terminology, the "thesis" consists of a historical movement which, in itself, is incomplete. To resolve the incompletion, an "antithesis" arises which opposes itself to the historical thrust of the "thesis."
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[S]ubjectivity for Hegel is the activity or creativity immanent in the world historical process (264). One should ... not understand Hegel’s notion of God as that of traditional theism. God is not transcendent being apart from the world. Rather, God is dynamic process, and can be actualized only through human history. Thus, the life and the process of God’s unfolding in history is manifest in arts, religion, and philosophy. The human history is the history of human consciousness of God as well as the history of God’s own consciousness.
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Hegel considered art a closer approach to the absolute than government. In the history of art he distinguished three periods—the Oriental, the Greek, and the romantic. He believed that the modern romantic form of art cannot encompass the magnitude of the Christian ideal. Hegel taught that religion moved from worship of nature through a series of stages to Christianity, where Christ represents the union of God and humanity, of spirit and matter. Philosophy goes beyond religion as it enables humankind to comprehend the entire historical unfolding of the absolute.
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By means of this method, Hegel is able to establish the linkage between philosophy and religion, or theology. Hegel approaches different points of Christian dogma and renders them into new forms, in agreement with his speculative concept of God as absolute idea. Hegel sees no obstacle in ... proceeding since, he argues, Christian dogma is only the representation of the absolute concept of God. To the contrary, Hegel feels that he is only bringing forth the true content of dogma (Hegel, p. 144-151).
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Having completed a course of study in philosophy and theology and having decided not to enter the ministry, Hegel became (1793) a private tutor in Berne, Switzerland. In about 1794, at the suggestion of his friend Hölderlin, Hegel began a study of Immanuel Kant and Johann Fichte but his first writings at this time were Life of Jesus and The Positivity of Christian Religion.
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