Philosopher · Modern
G. W. F. Hegel
1770–1831 · Absolute idealism
A self-described Lutheran who held that philosophy grasps in concepts what religion holds in images.
Hegel presented reality as Spirit coming to know itself through history, nature and human institutions, by a dialectic in which contradictions are preserved and overcome. Religion, art and philosophy are the forms in which Absolute Spirit becomes self-conscious; the state is “the actuality of the ethical idea,” and world history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom.
Why he matters: The Catholic Tübingen school (Drey, Möhler, Staudenmaier) and Anton Günther (censured in 1857) wrestled with him; Balthasar's Theo-Drama, Rahner and de Lubac write in his shadow; and Marx, historicism and “process” theologies descend from him.
Where to be careful
The emanation of the world from God and a God who becomes through history are contrary to Vatican I (Dei Filius, ch. 1 and canons 1.3–1.5); the subordination of faith to philosophical comprehension is the rationalism rejected in Dei Filius ch. 4; his divinizing of the state and of world-historical nations is foreign to Catholic social teaching.
Reading
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Elements of the Philosophy of RightG. W. F. Hegel · Ethical life, civil society and the state; § 270 on religion and state.
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Lectures on the Philosophy of ReligionG. W. F. Hegel · Christianity as the “consummate religion,” in his sense.
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The Heterodox HegelCyril O'Regan · A Catholic theologian traces Hegel's gnostic-mystical sources.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.