The Heterodox Hegel


Book Description

O'Regan (religious studies, Yale U.) argues for a theological reading of Hegel which clarifies the religious or theological species Hegel thinks can be brought into rapprochement with philosophy; unites a number of different approaches to Hegel which have proven fruitful, if incomplete; and, within the bounds of a systematic approach, addresses que




The Heterodox Hegel


Book Description




The Orthodox Hegel


Book Description

This fifth book on Hegel assesses the consequences of Hegelian thought for spirituality. The fourth title in this series, Hegel’s Philosophy of Universal Reconciliation (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2013), recalled the more explicit phrase, “to restore all things in Christ”, identifying the universal with the particular and, finally, the individual. This concreteness is the true universal. The “double negation”, “The Orthodox Hegel”, shows how the Christian movement, obliged by its own momentum to recognise its spiritual identity with the thought called, metonymously, “Hegelian”, is Spirit itself impelling. As standing for, even incorporating this movement, as Aristotle once had incorporated philosophy for some, Hegel instances that concrete particularity determining religion towards its ideal of universality in an individual, the spirit “poured out” upon “all flesh” but on a given “day”. It originates in “prophecy” as philosophy originates in religion and art, the three “forms of absolute spirit” (Hegel) perfected in philosophy, the third, which “the absolute religion” must, consequently, elicit. After indexing this project, themes of logic, subject and predicate, meaning and identity in difference are developed. Philosophy and absolute idealism are identified, thus capturing the latter for orthodoxy. The primacy of mediated thought over immediate observation emerges as the first condition for science and spiritual self-consciousness generally. In later chapters, the thought rises to properly theologico-metaphysical themes, such as Rinaldi’s critique of the Hegelians, Kenneth Foldes and Richard Winfield. Trinity, incarnation, immortality, infinity, and the absolute are all discussed, along with revelation, the idea. A postscript relates the work to contrary attitudes among some orthodox thinkers, falling short of, or denying the rights and duties of, a specifically speculative reason. The title intends no reference to any recent work denying the orthodoxy of Hegel or, rather, the Hegelian character of orthodoxy.




G.W.F Hegel


Book Description

Offering the only anthology of Hegel's religious thought, Vanderbilt University's Professor Peter C. Hodgson provides sympathetic and clear entree to the German philosopher's religious achievement through his major relevant texts starting with early theological writings and culminating with Hegel's1824 lectures on the philosophy of religion.




Hegel: Faith and Knowledge


Book Description

As the title indicates, Faith and Knowledge deals with the relation between religious faith and cognitive beliefs, between the truth of religion and the truths of philosophy and science. Hegel is guided by his understanding of the historical situation: the individual alienated from God, nature, and community; and he is influenced by the new philosophy of Schelling, the Spinozistic Philosophy of Identity with its superb vision of the inner unity of God, nature, and rational man. Through a brilliant discussion of the philosophies of Kant, Fichte, and other luminaries of the period, Hegel shows that the time has finally come to give philosophy the authentic shape it has always been trying to reach, a shape in which philosophy’s old conflicts with religion on the one hand and with the sciences on the other are suspended once for all. This is the first English translation of this important essay. Professor H. S. Harris offers a historical and analytic commentary to the text and Professor Cerf offers an introduction to the general reader which focuses on the concept of intellectual intuition and on the difference between authentic and inauthentic philosophy.




Metaphysics to Metafictions


Book Description

Through close reading and interpretive reflections, Paul Miklowitz examines key dialectics in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in order to come to terms with the undoing of the Hegelian system of totality inaugurated by Nietzsche. In his interpretation of the Phenomenology, Miklowitz shows how Hegel skillfully manipulates narrative structures, even while disavowing them. Tracing the self-undermining implications latent in Hegel's strategy of retrospective phenomenological reconstruction through to their "coming to self-consciousness" in Nietzsche's central character of Zarathustra, Miklowitz argues that Hegel leaves a problematic legacy to philosophers, claiming to have achieved comprehensive wisdom in "absolute knowing," and that Nietzsche responds by undermining the authority of the philosopher. Thus metaphysical questions are reformulated and resolved in narratives self-consciously mediated by irony: they become "metafictions," philosophic imperatives that expressly acknowledge their own createdness and call into question their universality. In examining Nietzsche's post-apocalyptic and anti-Hegelian perspectivism, Miklowitz focuses on Thus Spoke Zarathustra, offering a new interpretation of "eternal return" in light of the problematic character of repetition intrinsic to the narrative structure of metaphysical illumination: Nietzsche's project, unlike Hegel's metaphysics, proposes to serve philosophy not as a uniquely true source of doctrine, but rather as an exemplary experiment in metafiction. Finally, Miklowitz also briefly examines some of the "postmodern" effects of this intellectual history and its consequences for the theoretical discourse of philosophy—whose end (in the sense of a telos) was reached in Hegel, only to have its end (in the sense of death or destruction) proclaimed by Nietzsche.




Truths about Evil, Sin, and the Demonic


Book Description

The Problem of Evil and the Predicament of Theodicy As Christians or theists we are moved to share the truth of God's love for humankind. But how can we speak of such providential care in a world rife with crime, war, racism, genocide, and even ecocide? In response to this predicament, a theodicy proposes a rational "defense" of God's goodness that offers consolation to victims and hope to all believers. Truths about Evil, Sin, and the Demonic provides a sweeping history of the discipline of theodicy that focuses on its strategic turning points and its possible future. Belitsos argues that, because of the atrocities of the last century and the threat of horrendous evils in the coming century, we need to marshal the most explanatory elements of all previous theodicies and then drive toward an "integrative" model based on a creative synthesis. The author also turns to a modern revelatory source that supports his argument for such a "meta-theodicy." He concludes by critically engaging with this source and the entire tradition in his call for an apophatically informed integral theodicy.




Contemporary Debates in Negative Theology and Philosophy


Book Description

In this volume, scholars draw deeply on negative theology in order to consider some of the oldest questions in the philosophy of religion that stand as persistent challenges to inquiry, comprehension, and expression. The chapters engage different philosophical methodologies, cross disciplinary boundaries, and draw on varied cultural traditions in the effort to demonstrate that apophaticism can be a positive resource for contemporary philosophy of religion.




Hegel's Hermeneutics


Book Description

An advance on recent revisionist thinking about Hegelian philosophy, this book interprets Hegel's achievement as part of a revolutionary modernization of ancient philosophical thought initiated by Kant.




The Anatomy of Misremembering: Hegel


Book Description

This compelling work is the most comprehensive and sophisticated account to date of the relationship between Hans Urs von Balthasar--a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest--and the German philosopher Georg Hegel. While underscoring the depth and breadth of Balthasar's engagement with the philosopher, author Cyril O'Regan argues that Balthasar is the most concertedly anti-Hegelian theologian of the 20th century. For him, it is essential to engage Hegel because of his corrections of sclerotic forms of premodern Christian thought, but even more importantly to resist and correct his systematic thought, which represents a comprehensive misremembering of the Christian thought, practices, and forms of life. An important and original work, this book addresses a topic that puts the possibility of an authentic postmodern theology at stake.