{"id":903190,"date":"2026-09-17T16:05:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grundlinien.de\/?page_id=903190"},"modified":"2026-09-17T16:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:05:55","slug":"what-do-christians-get-from-hegel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/grundlinien.de\/en\/what-do-christians-get-from-hegel\/","title":{"rendered":"What do Christians get from Hegel?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In brief:<\/strong> In Hegel stands the strongest philosophical thesis ever advanced about Christianity\u2019s contribution to the political world \u2013 and at the same time a treatment of faith that many believers find intolerable. Both stand in the same texts. Whoever takes away only one of the two has not read Hegel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thesis that meets faith halfway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Hegel subjective freedom<\/a> \u2013 the individual\u2019s right to let count only what he sees to be right \u2013 is no invention of the Enlightenment but Christian in origin. He says so in \u00a7 124<\/a> note as plainly as it can be said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The right of the subject\u2019s particularity<\/em> to find itself satisfied \u2013 or, what is the same thing, the right of subjective freedom<\/em> \u2013 constitutes the turning and centre point in the difference between antiquity<\/em> and the modern<\/em> age. This right, in its infinity, is expressed in Christianity, and has been made the universal actual principle of a new form of the world.<\/p>\nGroundlines, \u00a7 124<\/a> note<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And in \u00a7 185<\/a> note he draws the consequence for antiquity: Plato\u2019s Republic cannot be saved at this point, because it lacks the principle of \u201ethe self-subsistent, infinite-in-itself personality of the individual, of subjective freedom\u201c, which arose inwardly in the Christian religion. The modern legal order is for Hegel no break with Christianity but its kernel become worldly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thesis that is harder to bear<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But the same movement also means: religion has its truth in the form of representation<\/a>, philosophy<\/a> has the same content in the form of the concept<\/a> \u2013 and the concept is the higher form. What faith represents as an event between God and human beings, philosophy understands as a movement of spirit<\/a>. Hegel does not deny the truth of faith; he claims to know it better than the believer does. Whether that is a rescue or a dissolution was already disputed among his pupils and has remained so \u2013 see Was Hegel a Christian, a pantheist or an atheist?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the Groundlines say about it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Three passages repay attention here. First \u00a7 66<\/a>: religion belongs to what is inalienable \u2013 no one can effectively bind himself to have it prescribed to him \u201ewhat is a duty of conscience, or religious truth\u201c. Second \u00a7 270<\/a> note: the state owes religious communities protection, but religion is only the basis<\/em> of the ethical, not its standard; where it produces superstition and bondage, \u201ea saving power is rather required which takes up the rights of reason and of self-consciousness\u201c. Third \u00a7 137<\/a>\u2013\u00a7 140<\/a> on conscience<\/a>: Hegel takes it entirely seriously and shows at the same time how easily it turns into hypocrisy. That analysis has not been surpassed by any sermon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A word of advice for reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One should read Hegel neither as an apologist nor as an opponent. He is neither. He claims that Christianity brought about something in world history that would not be there without it \u2013 and that it can no longer take this contribution back, because it now lies in institutions. That is an unusually high estimation and an unusually uncomfortable one at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources.<\/strong> Groundlines \u00a7 66<\/a> and note, \u00a7 124<\/a> note, \u00a7 137<\/a>\u2013\u00a7 140<\/a>, \u00a7 185<\/a> note, \u00a7 270<\/a> note. \u2013 Encyclopaedia (1830) \u00a7\u00a7 564\u2013571 (revealed religion) and \u00a7 573 note. \u2013 In the glossary: Religion<\/a>, State and Religion<\/a>, Reconciliation<\/a>. \u2013 Literature.<\/strong> Walter Jaeschke, Die Vernunft in der Religion<\/em>, Stuttgart 1986, and Hegel-Handbuch<\/em>, 3rd ed., Stuttgart 2016; on the split in the school David Friedrich Strau\u00df, Streitschriften zur Verteidigung meiner Schrift \u00fcber das Leben Jesu<\/em>, 1837.<\/p>\n\n\n\n