Hegel’s invisible religion in a modern state: A spirit of forgiveness

Abstract

This study focuses on the interrelation of freedom, finitude, and reconciliation in Hegel’s understanding of religion. These three moments are found at central stages of Hegel’s treatment of the religious, from Hegel’s early fragments to his mature work. Finitude taking shape in the religious phenomena of a tragic fate, sin, or more generally, failing, is central to Hegel’s philosophical understanding of one-sidedness. As finite, man needs to reconcile with the other, and only as reconciled does he achieve freedom. Hegel credits Christianity with the discovery of the primary essences of spirituality: freedom and forgiveness. Freedom is intensified with the death of God: man realizes that there is no God-given, only man-made, legislation. This deepening of freedom does not overcome man’s finitude but instead intensifies it along with a heightened sense for responsibility, and an increased potential for guilt. In this context, forgiveness is the highest spiritual capacity of modern man, whose fate is to bear the freedom of oneself and the other.

Keywords

• Hegel
• freedom
• finitude
• sin
• fate
• reconciliation
• forgiveness
• modern state
• Christianity
• religion
• Luther