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Hodgson, Michael John Christopher
(1998).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000f9dd
Abstract
I seek, in this thesis, by means of a critical exposition and comparison of Hegel’s Early Theological Writings and his mature Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, to elucidate the relationship between human subjectivity, the self-conscious experience of humanity and the absolute truth which is absolute spirit, God. The apparent divorce of positive biblical narrative from its reflective interpretation is not, it is to be argued, the result of the importing of critical philosophy into the domain of Christian experience. Rather, it is intrinsic to that very experience. The tension between positivity and inwardness, so central a problem to the concerns of the earlier philosophy has, by the time of the mature philosophy of religion, become an opportunity, rather than just a problem, for Christianity. Understanding the continuity between Hegel’s Early Theological Writings and the ostensibly very different speculative system, also enables one to understand the relevance of both to contemporary (and especially religious) experience.