Abstract
For Hegel, God does not exist apart from creation, perfect and complete. Instead, Hegel holds that God is actualized through the world – in nature and, especially, in human nature. God “in himself” is the Absolute Idea of the Logic, an idea which is literally idea of itself. Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature uses the categories of the Logic to show that the entire natural world can be understood as a series of abortive attempts to concretize the pure self-related self-sufficiency of Absolute Idea. It is only in human self-consciousness, however, that Hegel finds the true embodiment of Absolute Idea. Hegel thus holds that God requires nature and human beings: nature and Spirit are moments of the being of God (hence, Hegel’s theology can be accurately described as panentheism). This paper explores Hegel’s theology and its roots in the Aristotelian and mystical traditions.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Hegel (1991, henceforth Geraets, p. 24). When Hegel’s numbered paragraphs are referred to, the abbreviation EL will be used. This is EL § 1.
- 3.
When I am referring to the Logic as a division of the system (i.e., as a set of ideas) and not as a specific text, I capitalize but do not italicize it. Hegel elaborated his Logic in two versions. The first is a three-volume work published 1812–1816 and titled The Science of Logic. The second consists in the first division of Hegel’s Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817). This is often referred to simply as the Encyclopedia Logic.
- 4.
- 5.
Geraets, 303; EL § 236.
- 6.
Geraets, 303; EL § 236, Addition (Zusatz).
- 7.
Hegel (1970, p. 27); Philosophy of Nature (Encyclopedia of the Philosopical Sciences) § 252, Addition.
- 8.
LPR I, 186–187; VPR I, 96.
- 9.
- 10.
Geraets, 133; EL § 82, Addition.
- 11.
Geraets, 226; EL § 151, Addition.
- 12.
- 13.
LPR I, 251; VPR I, 159.
- 14.
LPR I, 84; VPR I, 4.
- 15.
- 16.
Hegel (1970, p. 13); Philosophy of Nature § 246, Addition.
- 17.
LPR I, 126; VPR I, 43.
- 18.
LPR I, 347–348; VPR I, 248. This is actually a “quilt quotation” made up of portions of several lines in Eckhart.
References
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Magee, G.A. (2013). Hegelian Panentheism. In: Diller, J., Kasher, A. (eds) Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_35
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