A Hegelian Theory of Divine Revelation

This book explores what G.W.F. Hegel meant by ‘God’. Was he referring to the Lutheran conception of the Christian God? Or, was he referring to a heterodox conception of God more in line with his philosophical speculations?

Through a close reading of Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, this book offers a detailed answer to this question. It contends that Hegel assigns two meanings to the concept of God: an inward-facing perspective and an outward-facing perspective.

From the inward-facing perspective, Hegel ventured to authentically capture how world-historical religions respectively portray the divine from their own conceptual, representational, and practical positions. From the outward-facing perspective, Hegel identifies divinity with absolute spirit in its odyssey-like movement toward self-recognition. The concept of God for Hegel encompasses both of these meanings. It is argued that one cannot approximate an accurate comprehension of Hegel’s ‘God’ without analyzing divine revelation.

In contrast to previous books, this book firmly grounds Hegel’s religious phenomenology in historical and logical factors. Through such a grounding, A Hegelian Theory of Divine Revelation attempts to achieve a clarified understanding of the character of Hegelian divine revelation and ultimately a clarified understanding of Hegel’s concept of God.

This book is essential reading for all scholars and researchers of German idealism and of the philosophy of religion, especially those focusing on the thought of G.W.F. Hegel.