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Hegel’s Secular Theology

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Abstract

This essay attempts to present Hegel as a secular theologian and to argue that the theological dimension of Hegel’s thought is central to his entire philosophy and is, in fact, the leitmotif that draws together all of his work. The task of overcoming the dualism between the sacred and the secular provides the driving spirit of all Hegel’s endeavors, from his juvenilia to the mature thought of his Heidelberg and Berlin periods. A secular theology demonstrates its commitment to secularity through three main affirmations: (1) the full reality and significance of this world, (2) the autonomy of the different fields of culture and knowledge besides that of religion, and (3) the epistemological authority of reason and shared experience in determining the real and the true. Hegel’s secular theology, however, has an ambiguous relationship with most forms of theism, including panentheism.

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Notes

  1. G.W.F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, trans. E.B. Spiers and J.B. Sanderson, 3 vols. New York, 1962, (henceforth LPR) I, 200. Vorlesungen ueber die Philosophie der Religion, being vols. XI and XII from G.W.F. Hegels Werke, ed. D. Marheinicke, 18 vols., Berlin 1840–48, (henceforth VPR), XI, 194.

  2. LPR III, pp. 298–9.

  3. G.W.F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A.V. Miller, Oxford, 1977, (henceforth Phen.), p. 476.

  4. LPR III, p. 91.

  5. Ibid.

  6. J. Hoffmeister, Dokumente zu Hegels Entwicklung, Berlin, 1936, p. 364; quoted in R. Heiss, Die grossen Dialektiker des 19. Jahrhunderts: Hegel, Kierkegaard, und Marx, Koeln, 1963; in English Hegel, Kierkegaard and Marx, trans. E. Garside, New York, 1975, see p. 39. The full quote is given at pp. 404-405.

  7. Heiss, loc. cit. p. 41. For a commentary on the passage see pp. 39–44.

  8. LPR III, p. 25.

  9. Ibid.

  10. LPR III, pp. 25–26.

  11. LPR III, pp. 10–11.

  12. From the preface to Phen., p. 10.

  13. Peter Hodgson, in the Appendix to his translation of part three of VPR, The Christian Religion, Montana, 1979, pp. 324-329.

  14. LPR I, p. 200.

  15. Phen., p. 10.

  16. E. Levinas, ‘Metaphysics and Transcendence,’ in Totality and Infinity: An Essay in Exteriority, Duquesne University Press, 1969, p. 36.

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  1. California State University, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Joseph Prabhu

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  1. Joseph Prabhu
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Correspondence to Joseph Prabhu.

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This essay is based on a paper read at the Esalen Panentheism Conference in Esalen, California, March 23–26, 2009.

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Prabhu, J. Hegel’s Secular Theology. SOPHIA 49, 217–229 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-010-0184-6

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