the
lutheran
and the Reformed
36 See Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, pp.
36 See Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, pp.
Hegels Philosophy of the Historical Religions
S.
Stepelvich, according to whom Hegel's theologi- cal Writings might just as well have been entitled anti-Catholic Writings, is simply wrong.
See l.
S.
Stepelvich, Hegel and Roman Catholicism, pp.
683 f.
For a more adequate inter- pretation of Hegel's position, cf.
e.
Weisser-lohmann, ?
Reformation und Friedrich ii in den geschichtsphilosophischen Vorlesungen Hegels' in e.
Weisser-lohmann und D.
Ko?
hler (Hrsg.
), Hegels Vorlesungen u?
ber die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte (Hegel-Studien, Beiheft 38), Bonn: Bouvier 1998, p.
102.
20 Hegel Gesammelte Werke 5, pp. 96 f.
? 186 peter jonkers
on their socio-political consequences. although he writes in one of these essays extensively about the lord's Supper,21 a theme that serves in his later works as an important aspect of his critique of Catholic religion, he does not make any mention of the diverging interpretations that Catholics and Protestants give of this crucial aspect of their tradition. instead, Hegel focuses on the unifying force of the lord's Supper as a supper of love, a subjective experience which gets an objective dimension through the eat- ing of the bread and the drinking of the wine.
at the end of The Spirit of Christianity Hegel analyses for the first time one of the doctrinal differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, thereby focusing on the question of how all the existing tendencies of separation and reconciliation, opposition and unity, can be thought as resulting from and being united in the divine, all-encompassing unity of life. this concept of life has to be understood as a fundamental specula- tive category in Hegel's writings of the Frankfurt period. With the help of these oppositional concepts and their unification in the idea of divine life he not only interprets the life and teachings of Jesus as an attempt to lovingly reconcile god's separation from the world, which he sees as the tragic fate of the Jewish people, but also criticises the Christian com- munity for its incapacity to remain loyal to the reconciling spirit of its founder. "in all the forms of the Christian religion [. . . ] there lies this fun- damental characteristic of opposition in the divine which is supposed to be present in consciousness only, never in life. "22 However, as Hegel writes at the end of one of the last essays, there is an important difference in this respect between Catholicism and Protestantism. in the Catholic Church, the opposition between god and the world always remains somewhat implicit and is never accepted in its harshest consequences: "all actions and expressions of life [. . . ] purchase their righteousness with the sense of the servitude and the nullity of their opposition. " Hegel is referring here to the subservient position of the laity with regard to the clergy, and to the practice of indulgences, both being attempts to mediate through external and sensuous means the radical nature of the separation between god and the world. By contrast, Protestants accept this separation unambigu- ously and experience it internally, in the sense that "the opposition of
21 H. nohl (ed. ), Hegels Theologische Jugendschriften, Frankfurt am Main: Minerva 1966 [reprint], pp. 297 ff. [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, pp. 248 ff].
22 nohl, Hegels Theologische Jugendschriften, p. 341 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 301].
? hegel on catholic religion 187
god [to the fate of the world] is felt in more or less pious thoughts,"23 or is even further radicalised through the faith in a god who 'hates' the world, as is the case in some Protestant sects. With this, Hegel foreshadows his idea, elaborated in his later writings, that Catholicism hallows the sensu- ous world, because Catholics see the world as a legitimate way of reconcil- ing themselves with god, whereas in Protestantism the sensuous world is completely annihilated, so that the reconciliation between god and the world takes place on a purely spiritual level. Consequently, Catholic reli- gion is unable to 'spiritualize' human life and its joys, to see these joys as resulting from the autonomous, spiritual efforts of humankind, as is the case in Protestantism, but experiences them as gifts and favours from god. in this way the external, sensuous, un-spiritual character of man's reconciliation with god is perpetuated.
3. 2 Catholic Religion in Hegel's Later Works and Lectures
the overview of the Early Writings has shown that Hegel's view on Catho- lic religion centres around three main themes: its inadequacy to reconcile god and the world in a spiritual way, its clinging to all kinds of sensuous elements, and its incapacity to accept the idea of freedom, both on a per- sonal level and as the principle of the modern state. in his later works he often goes back to what he sees as these basic characteristics of Catholi- cism, but interprets them from a philosophical perspective. in particular, he interprets the above mentioned characteristics of Catholicism within the framework of a dialectical philosophy of the Spirit. this implies that the (absolute) Spirit is activity, becoming, self-movement, and--as its highest form--knowing self-relation, the identity between the know- ing subject and the known object. When applied to Hegel's philosophy of Spirit, the fact that the Spirit is conscious self-movement means that in this process it becomes aware of its opposition against all otherness, which is e. g. exemplified by god's separation from the sensuous world. this negative moment of the dialectical movement of the Spirit has to be accepted in its full harshness: "the life of god and divine cognition [. . . ] sinks into mere edification, and even insipidity, if it lacks the seriousness, the suffering, the patience, and the labour of the negative. "24 according
23 nohl, Hegels Theologische Jugendschriften, pp. 341 f. [Hegel, Early Theological Writ- ings, p. 301].
24 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 9, 18 [Hegel, Phenomenoplogy of Spirit, translated by a. V. Miller. With an analysis of the text and Foreword by J. n. Findlay, oxford: Claren- don 1977, 10].
? 188 peter jonkers
to Hegel's interpretation of Christianity the apex of this negativity is the death of Christ, which Hegel consistently calls death of god in order to stress its harshness. However this opposition and negativity, the death of god, should not be seen as final, as the annihilation of the Spirit as such. the harsh experience of god's death is only a moment of the life of the Spirit and has to be superseded as a moment of the absolute Spirit. through the life, death and resurrection of his Son, god reconciles himself with the world, although this reconciliation is not sensuous, but spiritual. as we will see below more in detail Hegel relies on this fundamental spec- ulative insight in the nature of the absolute idea and of the essence of the Christian god as self-conscious Spirit for his interpretation and evaluation of the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism.
a. Catholicism's Hallowing of the World
Hegel's idea of the cycle of separation and reconciliation not only deter- mines his understanding of Christianity as such, but is also of crucial importance to mark his idea of the difference between Catholic and Prot- estant religion. as we shall see, he considers the Catholic interpretation of the idea of reconciliation as inadequate, since it preserves a hallowing of the (sensuous) world. this means that Catholicism is unable to com- pletely negate the sensuous world and replace it by a spiritual idea of it, which forms a differentiated unity with god's spiritual nature. one could even say that its incapacity to supersede the hallowing ('Heiligung') of the world underlies Hegel's criticism of all other aspects of Catholicism, such as the sensuous, external character of its sacraments, and its incapacity to separate itself as a specific confession from the state. therefore, i shall start with analysing Hegel's view of this essential characteristic of Catholi- cism and point at its implications for other aspects of this confession in the next subsections.
in his Lectures on Natural Law of 1802/03,25 and also in Faith and Knowledge (dating from spring 1802),26 Hegel elaborates his rudimentary ideas from the Spirit of Christianity about separation and reconciliation.
25 See the editorial notice in Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, pp. 699 ff. to get a clear view on the complex history and status of this manuscript. For an elaborate analysis of these lectures, cf. W. Jaeschke, Die Vernunft in der Religion. Studien zur Grundlegung der Religions- philosophie Hegels (Spekulation und Erfahrung 4), Stuttgart, Bad Cannstatt: Frommann- Holzboog 1986, pp. 170 ff.
26 For a detailed analysis of Hegel's remarks about this issue cf. P. Jonkers, "true Faith in 'Faith and Knowledge' ? ', in Hegel-Jahrbuch 2003, pp. 183-189.
? hegel on catholic religion 189
Christianity as such is founded on two basic experiences: the experience of "the de-divinisation of nature, in other words the scorn of the world," and the experience "that in this infinite separation a man [Christ] incor- porated nevertheless the trust in the unification with the absolute. in this man the world was reconciled with the spirit again. "27 thus, one singular person, Christ, expresses the whole empirical history of humankind, start- ing from an initial, undeveloped harmony (exemplified in the 'natural reli- gion' or 'beautiful mythology' of ancient greece), through the experience of separation (exemplified by the Romans, dispelling with their campaigns of conquest the local gods of the conquered peoples), and leading to the experience of a new reconciliation in Christianity. in its turn, Christian religion is the symbolic expression of the pivotal moments of the life of Christ, viz. his incarnation, suffering and death, and resurrection. it is of vital importance to Hegel that this ultimate reconciliation through Christ is only possible on the basis of the principle of an infinite grief about the absolute discord between god and (sensuous) nature: "Without this grief, reconciliation has neither meaning nor truth. "28 Christianity represents these contradictory feelings of infinite grief and reconciliation in a cult, in which the idea of the death of god on earth and his resurrection from the grave play a constitutive role.
Hegel interprets the history of the Christian community of faith as expressing the constitutive moments of the life of its founder, Christ. in this context, he marks a clear difference between Catholic and Protestant religion as to the degree in which they are prepared to accept the infinite grief about the loss of the original, immediate reconciliation between god and the world, and consequently also as to their respective views of rec- onciliation: "in Catholicism this religion has become a beautiful religion. Protestantism [. . . ] has turned the infinite grief, the liveliness, trust and the peace of reconciliation into an eternal longing. "29 in order to save its trust in the unity of the world with god, Catholicism has made the radi- cal desecration of the world undone, and hallows the world once again religiously. it hasn't been able to accept the moment of the separation between god and the world in its most radical negative consequence, i. e. the complete desecration of the world. the key-idea that clearly dis- tinguishes both Christian confessions from each other is that without
27 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 462. 28 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 462. 29 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, 464.
? 190 peter jonkers
an infinite grief about the separation of god and the world, a grief that Catholic religion is missing, reconciliation has neither meaning nor truth. From the perspective of the history of Christianity, the Catholic idea of reconciliation is stuck in the Middle ages, and ignores the reality of the separation between god and the world, expressing itself especially in the Reformation and the modern separation of faith and knowledge. there- fore, Hegel considers Catholicism to manifest the atavism of a past shape of the world. 30 Consequently, it gives rise to a renewed cycle, undertaken by Protestantism, of separation, infinite grief about it, and reconciliation, which is more in accordance with the essence of Christianity. With this, Hegel foreshadows his criticism in his later writings and lectures of those of aspects Catholicism, which manifest a clinging to sensuous elements, such as the Catholic doctrine of the transubstantiation of Christ in the eucharist, its tendency to multiply the number of mediators between god and the world infinitely, as well as its incapacity to separate its specific confession from the state. in sum, as he phrases it in his course on Philo- sophical Encyclopaedia in nuremberg, in Catholicism "the reconciliation with god is made to some extent external; and, in general, among Catho- lics a more un-spiritual religious actuality prevails. "31
in the famous, programmatic passage from the conclusion of Faith and Knowledge, Hegel again gives an indication of the basic difference between Catholic and Protestant religion, as well as of their philosophical significance:
the infinite grief [. . . ] existed as the feeling that 'god Himself is dead,' upon which the religion of modernity rests; the same feeling that Pascal expressed in so to speak empirical form: 'la nature est telle qu'elle marque partout un Dieu perdu et dans l'homme et hors de l'homme [nature is such that it signifies everywhere a lost god both within and outside man]. [. . . ] Since the more serene, less well grounded, and more individual style of [. . . ] the natural religions must vanish, the highest totality can and must achieve its resurrection solely from this harsh consciousness of loss, encompass- ing everything, and ascending in all its earnestness and out of its deepest ground to the most serene freedom of its shape. 32
First of all, in this passage Hegel repeats his basic idea that Protestant- ism, being the religion of modernity, is founded on subjectivity, which is
30 Jaeschke, Die Vernunft in der Religion, p. 174.
31 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 4, p. 68.
32 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 4, pp. 413 f. [g. W. F. Hegel, Faith and Knowledge. Translated
by W. Cerf and H. S. Harris, albany: State University of new York Press, 1977, pp. 190-1].
? hegel on catholic religion 191
conscious of its radical loss of nature, and feels an infinite grief about this loss. the consciousness that god cannot be found in nature has reached its apex in the experience of good Friday,33 which Hegel interprets not so much as the death of Christ, but as the death of god himself. From a philosophical perspective, this experience can be considered as a sym- bolic crucifixion of nature. 34 Hegel quotes Pascal in order to underscore his conviction that god cannot be found neither within man as a natu- ral being, nor in nature surrounding him. this means ipso facto that, in the eyes of modern subjectivity, all forms of natural religions, i. e. greek mythology, must vanish, because it does not take this basic experience of radical negativity seriously. But the same holds true for Catholic religion, which remains attached to the immediate, sensuous presence of god in the world. For Hegel, a true reconciliation between god and the world, the highest totality, can only be achieved through a radical negation of their immediate unity, not by ignoring it. Secondly however, the radical negation of sensuous nature is not to be taken absolutely, but is only a moment in the resurrection of god as an absolute, spiritual totality. in sum, there is a radical conversion from the absence of god in nature to the presence of god as spirit,35 a conversion that is felt and represented much more adequately by Protestant than by Catholic religion.
Hegel's idea that a true reconciliation is only possible on the basis of a radical disruption of nature exactly corresponds with his view, also for- mulated in Faith and Knowledge, that speculative philosophy can only emerge after reflective philosophy has gone through the complete cycle of its forms, phrasing its oppositions in the most radical way. otherwise, no absolute speculative, differentiated unity is possible. Hegel's view that a true form of religious reconciliation can only emerge after subjectivity has become painfully aware of the radical disruption between god and nature, as well as that true philosophy can only arise after the opposi- tions of understanding have reached their apex, can be interpreted as a foreshadowing of the dialectical movement of the absolute idea in Hegel's later writings. However, at the beginning of the Jena period he does not yet dispose of an elaborated concept of the spirit in order to interpret
33 in this context, it is important to notice that, in german, good Friday is called 'Kar- freitag'. 'Kar' refers to lamentation, grief, and is related to 'karg', which means sparse, dis- tressed. So, whereas the word 'good Friday' already refers ahead to the resurrection of Christ on easter Sunday, 'Karfreitag' stresses much more the sorrow about his death.
34 J. -l. Vieillard-Baron, Hegel. Syste`me et structures the? ologiques, Paris: Cerf 2006, p. 47. 35 Vieillard-Baron, Hegel. Syste`me et structures the? ologiques, p. 52.
? 192 peter jonkers
these two movements as a manifestation of the spirit's dialectical move- ment in history. 36
Characteristic for the Protestant way of dealing with this issue is not only that it has turned the cycle of grief and reconciliation into an eternal longing of the subject for a 'beyond', but also has brought about a recon- ciliation of the subject with empirical reality. Subjectivity's turning away from the sensuous world and its returning in itself has simultaneously set the world free as something purely profane. thus, the subject can recon- cile itself with empirical reality in a way in which the latter has become mere material for the activity of the subject. "that religious elevation and the hallowing of empirical existence, the Sabbath of the world, [which is characteristic for Catholicism, P. J. ] has disappeared, and life has become an ordinary, unholy workday. "37 nevertheless, precisely because of the radical nature of the opposition between an eternally longing subject and a completely de-divinised, ordinary world, the reconciliation, offered by Protestantism, cannot be fulfilled and therefore has to perish as well, as Hegel indicates already in this text from 1802/03,38 and elaborates at length a few years later in the chapter on the 'beautiful soul' of the Phe- nomenology of Spirit.
b. Catholicism's Clinging to Sensuousness
Hegel criticises time and again the sensuous, un-spiritual character of Catholic religion, which he interprets as the inevitable consequence of its hallowing of the world, as we have seen above. in his view, "the prin- ciple of the depravity lies in the [Catholic] Church, [. . . ] and consists in its incapacity to have truly, totally excluded the sensuous. "39 only art can be considered as a legitimate way of giving sensuousness a place in reli- gion, since it 'glorifies' the sensuous, and does not present itself as the ultimate fulfilment of the spirit. But all other sensuous aspects of Catholi- cism, and there are many of them, clearly show its depravity. this pre- eminently concerns its doctrine of the sacraments, and within this, the teaching of the eucharist. in this respect, Catholic religion is inferior to the two other forms of Christianity, viz.
the lutheran and the Reformed
36 See Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, pp. 155-6.
37 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 464.
38 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 464.
39 g. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manuskripte, Band 12:
Vorlesungen u? ber die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag 1996, p. 496 [Henceforth: Hegel. Vorlesungen 12] [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, pp. 412 f ].
? hegel on catholic religion 193
(Calvinist) Church. "into this last midpoint of [Christian] religion differ- ences enter, which endow all the other differences in religion with their significance. "40 Both in the Catholic eucharist and the Protestant lord's Supper, the Christian community is conscious of god's presence in the world, of its spiritual unity with god, since in Christ the vision of this unity is given to the faithful. Moreover, this presence is not just a momen- taneous event, but an eternal process. With this, Hegel stresses again the spiritual nature of god's unity with the world. in this sense, the celebra- tion of the lord's Supper is the realisation of the Christian idea of the reconciliation with god in a cult.
However, Catholic religion has been unable to remain loyal to the spiri- tual nature of Christianity, as becomes manifest in its doctrine of the tran- substantiation and in the various cults devoted to the host. it has isolated the sensuous moment of Christ, so that the unity with god can only be realised in an external, sensuous way, through a piece of bread, not spiri- tually: "the host--this external, sensible thing--becomes by consecration the present god, god as a thing in the manner of an empirical 'thing'. "41 Consequently, the transubstantiated hosts are dispensed among the faith- ful like items at a market or fair (Messe); hence the Catholic eucharist is called a 'mass'. another aspect of Catholicism's isolation of the sensu- ous moment of Christ is the veneration of the consecrated host in the monstrance, i. e. even when it is not consumed. the fact that Catholi- cism thus has turned an external, sensuous thing into something worthy of adoration is the best illustration of its incapacity of truly superseding the sensuous world. For Hegel, the adoration of the host "is the nadir of the external character of the [Catholic] Church. "42 His ridiculing remark in his Lectures on the History of Philosophy about Catholics worshiping a mouse, if it were to eat the consecrated host (see above), fits very well into this frame of interpretation. By contrast, in the lutheran idea of the lord's Supper, the presence of god is purely spiritual. For the lutheran Church, the unification with god is not realised by adoring the host, but
40 Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manuskripte, Band 5: Vorlesungen u? ber die Philosophie der Religion, Teil 3: Die vollendete Religion, Hamburg, Meiner Verlag 1984, p. 288; cf. also p. 261, textvariante gr. [Henceforth: Hegel, Vorlesungen 5] [Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 3: The Consummate Religion, edited by P. Hodg- son and translated by R. F. Brown e. a. , Berkeley: University of California Press 1985, p. 372; cf. also p. 338].
41 Hegel, Vorlesungen 5, pp. 260 f. [Hegel, Philosophy of Religion 3, p. 338]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, 481 ff. [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 377].
42 Hegel, Vorlesungen 9, p. 27 [Hegel, History of Philosophy, p. 47].
? 194 peter jonkers
by eating and digesting it, thus annihilating it insofar as it is something sensuous. the unification with god and the consciousness about the uni- fication of the subject with god so becomes something purely spiritual. in sum, in the lutheran Church "god is utterly a spiritual presence--the consecration takes place in the faith of the subject. "43
the fact that, in the Catholic Church, the sacred is identified with a sen- suous thing, the host, makes that it can be usurped by a group of people, and is turned against the ordinary faithful. this is where Hegel's criticism of the Catholic separation between the clergy and the laity comes in: the former possesses the highest good of humankind, whereas the latter only can receive it from the clergy, which confirms their dependence on them and thus their un-free character. 44 Moreover, the clergy enhances its posi- tion of power by its claim to possess also the other sacraments: thus, it has succeeded in making itself indispensable for the laity to receive god's grace, and formulates ever new conditions the laity has to meet in order to be allowed to receive the host or the other sacraments. in particular, it develops a complex theological doctrine, and claims the access to this sci- ence of the divine for itself, so that the laity is expected to simply believe and obey this doctrine, without understanding it and freely assenting to it. By doing so, the clergy has appointed itself as an extra mediating body between god and the world, possessing many extra sensuous 'means of grace', which it can at will distribute among the laity, so that the latter becomes incapable to address god directly in its prayers. 45 Moreover, the laity is held unable to mend its ways by itself, and can only reconcile itself with god by fulfilling external, sensuous acts, the so-called 'opera operata', by order of the servants of the Church. Hegel calls these 'opera' un-spiritual acts, which make the spirit blunt, especially because they can even be executed by someone else, so that people can set up a complete trade in them, as is the case with the indulgences. 46
43 Hegel, Vorlesungen 5, p. 261 [Hegel, Philosophy of Religion 3, p. 339]. See also Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 19, ? 563 a. [Henceforth: Hegel, Enzyklopa? die2], and Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 20, ? 552 a. [Henceforth: Hegel, Enzyklopa? die3] [g. W. F. Hegel, Philosophy of mind: being part three of the Encyclopaedia of the philosophical sciences (1830). Translated by W. Wallace; with foreword by J. N. Findlay, oxford: Clarendon 1971, pp. 284-5].
44 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 454 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 378]; Hegel, Vorlesungen 9, p. 28 [Hegel, The History of Philosophy, pp. 47-8] See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, p. 500 [Hegel, Philosophy of History, p. 378], and Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 16, p. 316.
45 Hegel, Theorie Werkausgabe 12, p. 455 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 378], and Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 16, p. 316.
46 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 456 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 379].
? hegel on catholic religion 195
another factor in the multiplication of sensuous, mediating elements between god and the world concerns the veneration of the relics of saints. Because the faithful have an endless need for sensuously feeling the pres- ence of the sacred, the number of holy persons, holy images and statues, holy places and times, holy occurrences (miracles) etc. multiplies and individualises itself infinitely. this is the most pregnant illustration of the incapacity of Catholic religion to truly supersede the sensuous: all sensu- ous things are capable of manifesting the presence of the divine. Hegel criticises the veneration of sensuous images as being clearly inferior to the spirit and thinking, but above all he warns that "together with the [veneration of the] image the worship of god in Spirit was lost, and even Christ himself was set aside. "47 in sum, because of the external, sensu- ous character of its 'means of grace', its stress on the 'opera operata' to the detriment of the internal disposition of the faithful, its veneration of saints etc. Catholicism jeopardises the essence of Christianity: Christ is the only true mediator, so that there is no need at all for another media- tor between the Mediator and humankind. 48 the paradoxical conclusion is that the infinite multiplication of external, sensuous mediators between god and the world in the Catholic Church, originally meant to ensure the faithful of their reconciliation with god, of being worthy to receive god's grace, actually hinders a true reconciliation, which presupposes the sub- ject's free assenting to the offer of god's grace.
the ultimate consequence of Catholicism's incapacity to supersede the sensuous world is that it has to regain possession of the most sacred place of the world, the Holy Sepulchre. Hegel discusses the issue of the crusades and its dramatic consequences at length in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History. Besides the political significance of the clash between the orient and the occident, the experience of the crusades is especially of momentous religious importance. By conquering the Holy land, Christianity had gained possession of the holiest of all relics, the soil on which the lord had printed his footsteps, the veronica, the Holy Cross, and last but not least the Holy Sepulchre. the possession of these things was meant to be the fulfilment of Catholicism's sensuous character. However, it also turns out to be the dialectical turning point in the history of Christianity: "in the grave is found the real point of retroversion [of the
47 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 455 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 378]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, pp. 482 f.
48 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 469 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 390].
? 196 peter jonkers
sensuous character of Christian religion, P. J. ]; it is in the grave all vanity of the sensuous perishes. "49 the experience of the empty grave made Chris- tianity aware that its principle is not to be found in the sensuous world, in the grave, among the dead, but in the living spirit of the faithful. Prot- estantism has fully accepted the significance of this dramatic, disappoint- ing experience and has consequently desecrated the world completely. Phrased positively, it
attains the conviction that man must look within himself for the this, which is of a divine nature; subjectivity thereby receives absolute authorisation, and claims to determine for itself the relation [of all that exists] to the divine. this then was the absolute result of the crusades, and from them we may date the commencement of self-reliance and spontaneous activity. 50
Catholicism has been unable to reach this consciousness of the spiritual nature of god, and has kept on holding to the presence of god in all kinds of external, sensuous things.
Hegel's rendering of this crucial moment in the history of Christian- ity is very significant for several reasons. First, it elaborates his idea, only hinted at above, that Catholicism, after having proven its incapacity of really desecrating the world, has given rise to a renewed cycle of sepa- ration, infinite grief and reconciliation: the distressing experience of the vanity of all sensuousness, culminating in the experience of the empty grave, and its consequence, the Reformation, bringing about the turn to a purely spiritual reconciliation with god, are its pivotal moments. While Catholicism has proven to be unable to fulfil this cycle, Protestantism has assumed this task and therefore is the true continuation of the history of Christianity. Hegel's philosophical interpretation of the history of Christi- anity explains, secondly, why he considers Catholicism as a bygone shape of the world spirit.
Henceforth it [the Catholic Church, P. J. ] occupies a position of inferiority to the World-Spirit; the latter has already transcended it, for it has become capable of recognising the sensuous as sensuous, the external as external; it has learned to occupy itself with the finite in a finite way, and in this very activity to maintain an independent and confident position as a valid and rightful subjectivity. 51
49 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 471 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 392]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, pp. 484 ff.
50 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 472 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 393]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, p. 486.
51 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 492 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, 413]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, p. 497.
? hegel on catholic religion 197
in this passage, Hegel refers to the Catholic 'Church', thereby stressing the most external, sensuous and hierarchical aspects of this religion. in this respect, Protestantism cannot be called a 'Church' in the Catholic sense of the word; it has 'reformed' the Church to a community of faith, based upon the universal principles of freedom and reasonableness, which char- acterise Protestant religion as well as modern society. in this way, it has liberated Christian religion from the 'ecclesiastical particularity', charac- teristic for Catholicism, however odd this may sound for Catholic (which literally means 'universal') ears. 52
c. Catholicism's 'Slavish Deference to Authority'
Finally, Hegel's critique of Catholic religion concerns its lack of freedom, both on an individual and a political level. this is the paradoxical result of the Catholic shape of Christianity, which is essentially a religion of free- dom. in particular, it is again a consequence of Catholicism's hallowing of the world and the latter's incapacity to realise a true, spiritual reconcilia- tion of the world with god. Precisely this sensuous character makes peo- ple dependent on something external, un-spiritual, such as the power of the clergy in the distribution of the means of grace, and the multiple pres- ence of the sacred in the world. Whereas Catholic religion has introduced these mediations in order to facilitate man's free reconciliation with god, their external character actually obstructs any reconciliation: the Catholic Church, pretending to possess all these means of grace, acts as if it also were the owner of the conscience of the individuals,53 thus making them un-free. it causes among the faithful a "slavish deference to authority. "54 a true reconciliation does not need all these external means, imposed upon the people by a Church that claims to be the necessary mediator between the world and the sole real mediator, Christ, but can be reached much more appropriately by the faithful themselves as free spiritual beings. Moreover, the external character of the demands of the Catholic Church causes people to comply with them externally as well, thereby still fur- ther jeopardising true, i. e. spiritual reconciliation: "thus, the relationship of absolute un-freedom has been introduced [by the Catholic Church,
52 J. Dierken, Hegels ? protestantisches Prinzip', pp. 139 f.
53 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 19, p. 539; see also Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 456 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 379], Hegel, Enzyklopa? die2 ? 563 a, and Enzyklopa? die3 ? 552 a. [Hegel, Philosophy of Mind, p. 285].
54 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 493 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 413].
? 198 peter jonkers
P. J. ] into the principle of freedom itself [being the essence of Christianity as such, P. J. ]. "55
in this context, Hegel's critique of the three (monastic) vows of pov- erty, obedience and chastity has to be mentioned. they are an example of the imposition of positive ecclesiastical commandments, thus show- ing Catholicism's incapacity to recognise the faithful as free, spiritual human beings. Because of its hallowing of the sensuous world, Catholic religion considers the world as something ethically holy, a content that is immediately given by god, not as the result of man's free, self-conscious, spiritual activity. Because Catholic religion ignores that god's presence in the world is not natural, but spiritual, it is also unable to appreciate that the world's ethical content is spiritual, i. e. immanently unified with self-consciousness. the results of this incapacity are the commandments of holiness, exemplified by the three monastic vows. they illustrate the un-spiritual, un-free character of Catholicism, its dependence on the world as something immediately given by god.
20 Hegel Gesammelte Werke 5, pp. 96 f.
? 186 peter jonkers
on their socio-political consequences. although he writes in one of these essays extensively about the lord's Supper,21 a theme that serves in his later works as an important aspect of his critique of Catholic religion, he does not make any mention of the diverging interpretations that Catholics and Protestants give of this crucial aspect of their tradition. instead, Hegel focuses on the unifying force of the lord's Supper as a supper of love, a subjective experience which gets an objective dimension through the eat- ing of the bread and the drinking of the wine.
at the end of The Spirit of Christianity Hegel analyses for the first time one of the doctrinal differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, thereby focusing on the question of how all the existing tendencies of separation and reconciliation, opposition and unity, can be thought as resulting from and being united in the divine, all-encompassing unity of life. this concept of life has to be understood as a fundamental specula- tive category in Hegel's writings of the Frankfurt period. With the help of these oppositional concepts and their unification in the idea of divine life he not only interprets the life and teachings of Jesus as an attempt to lovingly reconcile god's separation from the world, which he sees as the tragic fate of the Jewish people, but also criticises the Christian com- munity for its incapacity to remain loyal to the reconciling spirit of its founder. "in all the forms of the Christian religion [. . . ] there lies this fun- damental characteristic of opposition in the divine which is supposed to be present in consciousness only, never in life. "22 However, as Hegel writes at the end of one of the last essays, there is an important difference in this respect between Catholicism and Protestantism. in the Catholic Church, the opposition between god and the world always remains somewhat implicit and is never accepted in its harshest consequences: "all actions and expressions of life [. . . ] purchase their righteousness with the sense of the servitude and the nullity of their opposition. " Hegel is referring here to the subservient position of the laity with regard to the clergy, and to the practice of indulgences, both being attempts to mediate through external and sensuous means the radical nature of the separation between god and the world. By contrast, Protestants accept this separation unambigu- ously and experience it internally, in the sense that "the opposition of
21 H. nohl (ed. ), Hegels Theologische Jugendschriften, Frankfurt am Main: Minerva 1966 [reprint], pp. 297 ff. [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, pp. 248 ff].
22 nohl, Hegels Theologische Jugendschriften, p. 341 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 301].
? hegel on catholic religion 187
god [to the fate of the world] is felt in more or less pious thoughts,"23 or is even further radicalised through the faith in a god who 'hates' the world, as is the case in some Protestant sects. With this, Hegel foreshadows his idea, elaborated in his later writings, that Catholicism hallows the sensu- ous world, because Catholics see the world as a legitimate way of reconcil- ing themselves with god, whereas in Protestantism the sensuous world is completely annihilated, so that the reconciliation between god and the world takes place on a purely spiritual level. Consequently, Catholic reli- gion is unable to 'spiritualize' human life and its joys, to see these joys as resulting from the autonomous, spiritual efforts of humankind, as is the case in Protestantism, but experiences them as gifts and favours from god. in this way the external, sensuous, un-spiritual character of man's reconciliation with god is perpetuated.
3. 2 Catholic Religion in Hegel's Later Works and Lectures
the overview of the Early Writings has shown that Hegel's view on Catho- lic religion centres around three main themes: its inadequacy to reconcile god and the world in a spiritual way, its clinging to all kinds of sensuous elements, and its incapacity to accept the idea of freedom, both on a per- sonal level and as the principle of the modern state. in his later works he often goes back to what he sees as these basic characteristics of Catholi- cism, but interprets them from a philosophical perspective. in particular, he interprets the above mentioned characteristics of Catholicism within the framework of a dialectical philosophy of the Spirit. this implies that the (absolute) Spirit is activity, becoming, self-movement, and--as its highest form--knowing self-relation, the identity between the know- ing subject and the known object. When applied to Hegel's philosophy of Spirit, the fact that the Spirit is conscious self-movement means that in this process it becomes aware of its opposition against all otherness, which is e. g. exemplified by god's separation from the sensuous world. this negative moment of the dialectical movement of the Spirit has to be accepted in its full harshness: "the life of god and divine cognition [. . . ] sinks into mere edification, and even insipidity, if it lacks the seriousness, the suffering, the patience, and the labour of the negative. "24 according
23 nohl, Hegels Theologische Jugendschriften, pp. 341 f. [Hegel, Early Theological Writ- ings, p. 301].
24 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 9, 18 [Hegel, Phenomenoplogy of Spirit, translated by a. V. Miller. With an analysis of the text and Foreword by J. n. Findlay, oxford: Claren- don 1977, 10].
? 188 peter jonkers
to Hegel's interpretation of Christianity the apex of this negativity is the death of Christ, which Hegel consistently calls death of god in order to stress its harshness. However this opposition and negativity, the death of god, should not be seen as final, as the annihilation of the Spirit as such. the harsh experience of god's death is only a moment of the life of the Spirit and has to be superseded as a moment of the absolute Spirit. through the life, death and resurrection of his Son, god reconciles himself with the world, although this reconciliation is not sensuous, but spiritual. as we will see below more in detail Hegel relies on this fundamental spec- ulative insight in the nature of the absolute idea and of the essence of the Christian god as self-conscious Spirit for his interpretation and evaluation of the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism.
a. Catholicism's Hallowing of the World
Hegel's idea of the cycle of separation and reconciliation not only deter- mines his understanding of Christianity as such, but is also of crucial importance to mark his idea of the difference between Catholic and Prot- estant religion. as we shall see, he considers the Catholic interpretation of the idea of reconciliation as inadequate, since it preserves a hallowing of the (sensuous) world. this means that Catholicism is unable to com- pletely negate the sensuous world and replace it by a spiritual idea of it, which forms a differentiated unity with god's spiritual nature. one could even say that its incapacity to supersede the hallowing ('Heiligung') of the world underlies Hegel's criticism of all other aspects of Catholicism, such as the sensuous, external character of its sacraments, and its incapacity to separate itself as a specific confession from the state. therefore, i shall start with analysing Hegel's view of this essential characteristic of Catholi- cism and point at its implications for other aspects of this confession in the next subsections.
in his Lectures on Natural Law of 1802/03,25 and also in Faith and Knowledge (dating from spring 1802),26 Hegel elaborates his rudimentary ideas from the Spirit of Christianity about separation and reconciliation.
25 See the editorial notice in Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, pp. 699 ff. to get a clear view on the complex history and status of this manuscript. For an elaborate analysis of these lectures, cf. W. Jaeschke, Die Vernunft in der Religion. Studien zur Grundlegung der Religions- philosophie Hegels (Spekulation und Erfahrung 4), Stuttgart, Bad Cannstatt: Frommann- Holzboog 1986, pp. 170 ff.
26 For a detailed analysis of Hegel's remarks about this issue cf. P. Jonkers, "true Faith in 'Faith and Knowledge' ? ', in Hegel-Jahrbuch 2003, pp. 183-189.
? hegel on catholic religion 189
Christianity as such is founded on two basic experiences: the experience of "the de-divinisation of nature, in other words the scorn of the world," and the experience "that in this infinite separation a man [Christ] incor- porated nevertheless the trust in the unification with the absolute. in this man the world was reconciled with the spirit again. "27 thus, one singular person, Christ, expresses the whole empirical history of humankind, start- ing from an initial, undeveloped harmony (exemplified in the 'natural reli- gion' or 'beautiful mythology' of ancient greece), through the experience of separation (exemplified by the Romans, dispelling with their campaigns of conquest the local gods of the conquered peoples), and leading to the experience of a new reconciliation in Christianity. in its turn, Christian religion is the symbolic expression of the pivotal moments of the life of Christ, viz. his incarnation, suffering and death, and resurrection. it is of vital importance to Hegel that this ultimate reconciliation through Christ is only possible on the basis of the principle of an infinite grief about the absolute discord between god and (sensuous) nature: "Without this grief, reconciliation has neither meaning nor truth. "28 Christianity represents these contradictory feelings of infinite grief and reconciliation in a cult, in which the idea of the death of god on earth and his resurrection from the grave play a constitutive role.
Hegel interprets the history of the Christian community of faith as expressing the constitutive moments of the life of its founder, Christ. in this context, he marks a clear difference between Catholic and Protestant religion as to the degree in which they are prepared to accept the infinite grief about the loss of the original, immediate reconciliation between god and the world, and consequently also as to their respective views of rec- onciliation: "in Catholicism this religion has become a beautiful religion. Protestantism [. . . ] has turned the infinite grief, the liveliness, trust and the peace of reconciliation into an eternal longing. "29 in order to save its trust in the unity of the world with god, Catholicism has made the radi- cal desecration of the world undone, and hallows the world once again religiously. it hasn't been able to accept the moment of the separation between god and the world in its most radical negative consequence, i. e. the complete desecration of the world. the key-idea that clearly dis- tinguishes both Christian confessions from each other is that without
27 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 462. 28 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 462. 29 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, 464.
? 190 peter jonkers
an infinite grief about the separation of god and the world, a grief that Catholic religion is missing, reconciliation has neither meaning nor truth. From the perspective of the history of Christianity, the Catholic idea of reconciliation is stuck in the Middle ages, and ignores the reality of the separation between god and the world, expressing itself especially in the Reformation and the modern separation of faith and knowledge. there- fore, Hegel considers Catholicism to manifest the atavism of a past shape of the world. 30 Consequently, it gives rise to a renewed cycle, undertaken by Protestantism, of separation, infinite grief about it, and reconciliation, which is more in accordance with the essence of Christianity. With this, Hegel foreshadows his criticism in his later writings and lectures of those of aspects Catholicism, which manifest a clinging to sensuous elements, such as the Catholic doctrine of the transubstantiation of Christ in the eucharist, its tendency to multiply the number of mediators between god and the world infinitely, as well as its incapacity to separate its specific confession from the state. in sum, as he phrases it in his course on Philo- sophical Encyclopaedia in nuremberg, in Catholicism "the reconciliation with god is made to some extent external; and, in general, among Catho- lics a more un-spiritual religious actuality prevails. "31
in the famous, programmatic passage from the conclusion of Faith and Knowledge, Hegel again gives an indication of the basic difference between Catholic and Protestant religion, as well as of their philosophical significance:
the infinite grief [. . . ] existed as the feeling that 'god Himself is dead,' upon which the religion of modernity rests; the same feeling that Pascal expressed in so to speak empirical form: 'la nature est telle qu'elle marque partout un Dieu perdu et dans l'homme et hors de l'homme [nature is such that it signifies everywhere a lost god both within and outside man]. [. . . ] Since the more serene, less well grounded, and more individual style of [. . . ] the natural religions must vanish, the highest totality can and must achieve its resurrection solely from this harsh consciousness of loss, encompass- ing everything, and ascending in all its earnestness and out of its deepest ground to the most serene freedom of its shape. 32
First of all, in this passage Hegel repeats his basic idea that Protestant- ism, being the religion of modernity, is founded on subjectivity, which is
30 Jaeschke, Die Vernunft in der Religion, p. 174.
31 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 4, p. 68.
32 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 4, pp. 413 f. [g. W. F. Hegel, Faith and Knowledge. Translated
by W. Cerf and H. S. Harris, albany: State University of new York Press, 1977, pp. 190-1].
? hegel on catholic religion 191
conscious of its radical loss of nature, and feels an infinite grief about this loss. the consciousness that god cannot be found in nature has reached its apex in the experience of good Friday,33 which Hegel interprets not so much as the death of Christ, but as the death of god himself. From a philosophical perspective, this experience can be considered as a sym- bolic crucifixion of nature. 34 Hegel quotes Pascal in order to underscore his conviction that god cannot be found neither within man as a natu- ral being, nor in nature surrounding him. this means ipso facto that, in the eyes of modern subjectivity, all forms of natural religions, i. e. greek mythology, must vanish, because it does not take this basic experience of radical negativity seriously. But the same holds true for Catholic religion, which remains attached to the immediate, sensuous presence of god in the world. For Hegel, a true reconciliation between god and the world, the highest totality, can only be achieved through a radical negation of their immediate unity, not by ignoring it. Secondly however, the radical negation of sensuous nature is not to be taken absolutely, but is only a moment in the resurrection of god as an absolute, spiritual totality. in sum, there is a radical conversion from the absence of god in nature to the presence of god as spirit,35 a conversion that is felt and represented much more adequately by Protestant than by Catholic religion.
Hegel's idea that a true reconciliation is only possible on the basis of a radical disruption of nature exactly corresponds with his view, also for- mulated in Faith and Knowledge, that speculative philosophy can only emerge after reflective philosophy has gone through the complete cycle of its forms, phrasing its oppositions in the most radical way. otherwise, no absolute speculative, differentiated unity is possible. Hegel's view that a true form of religious reconciliation can only emerge after subjectivity has become painfully aware of the radical disruption between god and nature, as well as that true philosophy can only arise after the opposi- tions of understanding have reached their apex, can be interpreted as a foreshadowing of the dialectical movement of the absolute idea in Hegel's later writings. However, at the beginning of the Jena period he does not yet dispose of an elaborated concept of the spirit in order to interpret
33 in this context, it is important to notice that, in german, good Friday is called 'Kar- freitag'. 'Kar' refers to lamentation, grief, and is related to 'karg', which means sparse, dis- tressed. So, whereas the word 'good Friday' already refers ahead to the resurrection of Christ on easter Sunday, 'Karfreitag' stresses much more the sorrow about his death.
34 J. -l. Vieillard-Baron, Hegel. Syste`me et structures the? ologiques, Paris: Cerf 2006, p. 47. 35 Vieillard-Baron, Hegel. Syste`me et structures the? ologiques, p. 52.
? 192 peter jonkers
these two movements as a manifestation of the spirit's dialectical move- ment in history. 36
Characteristic for the Protestant way of dealing with this issue is not only that it has turned the cycle of grief and reconciliation into an eternal longing of the subject for a 'beyond', but also has brought about a recon- ciliation of the subject with empirical reality. Subjectivity's turning away from the sensuous world and its returning in itself has simultaneously set the world free as something purely profane. thus, the subject can recon- cile itself with empirical reality in a way in which the latter has become mere material for the activity of the subject. "that religious elevation and the hallowing of empirical existence, the Sabbath of the world, [which is characteristic for Catholicism, P. J. ] has disappeared, and life has become an ordinary, unholy workday. "37 nevertheless, precisely because of the radical nature of the opposition between an eternally longing subject and a completely de-divinised, ordinary world, the reconciliation, offered by Protestantism, cannot be fulfilled and therefore has to perish as well, as Hegel indicates already in this text from 1802/03,38 and elaborates at length a few years later in the chapter on the 'beautiful soul' of the Phe- nomenology of Spirit.
b. Catholicism's Clinging to Sensuousness
Hegel criticises time and again the sensuous, un-spiritual character of Catholic religion, which he interprets as the inevitable consequence of its hallowing of the world, as we have seen above. in his view, "the prin- ciple of the depravity lies in the [Catholic] Church, [. . . ] and consists in its incapacity to have truly, totally excluded the sensuous. "39 only art can be considered as a legitimate way of giving sensuousness a place in reli- gion, since it 'glorifies' the sensuous, and does not present itself as the ultimate fulfilment of the spirit. But all other sensuous aspects of Catholi- cism, and there are many of them, clearly show its depravity. this pre- eminently concerns its doctrine of the sacraments, and within this, the teaching of the eucharist. in this respect, Catholic religion is inferior to the two other forms of Christianity, viz.
the lutheran and the Reformed
36 See Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, pp. 155-6.
37 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 464.
38 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 5, p. 464.
39 g. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manuskripte, Band 12:
Vorlesungen u? ber die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag 1996, p. 496 [Henceforth: Hegel. Vorlesungen 12] [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, pp. 412 f ].
? hegel on catholic religion 193
(Calvinist) Church. "into this last midpoint of [Christian] religion differ- ences enter, which endow all the other differences in religion with their significance. "40 Both in the Catholic eucharist and the Protestant lord's Supper, the Christian community is conscious of god's presence in the world, of its spiritual unity with god, since in Christ the vision of this unity is given to the faithful. Moreover, this presence is not just a momen- taneous event, but an eternal process. With this, Hegel stresses again the spiritual nature of god's unity with the world. in this sense, the celebra- tion of the lord's Supper is the realisation of the Christian idea of the reconciliation with god in a cult.
However, Catholic religion has been unable to remain loyal to the spiri- tual nature of Christianity, as becomes manifest in its doctrine of the tran- substantiation and in the various cults devoted to the host. it has isolated the sensuous moment of Christ, so that the unity with god can only be realised in an external, sensuous way, through a piece of bread, not spiri- tually: "the host--this external, sensible thing--becomes by consecration the present god, god as a thing in the manner of an empirical 'thing'. "41 Consequently, the transubstantiated hosts are dispensed among the faith- ful like items at a market or fair (Messe); hence the Catholic eucharist is called a 'mass'. another aspect of Catholicism's isolation of the sensu- ous moment of Christ is the veneration of the consecrated host in the monstrance, i. e. even when it is not consumed. the fact that Catholi- cism thus has turned an external, sensuous thing into something worthy of adoration is the best illustration of its incapacity of truly superseding the sensuous world. For Hegel, the adoration of the host "is the nadir of the external character of the [Catholic] Church. "42 His ridiculing remark in his Lectures on the History of Philosophy about Catholics worshiping a mouse, if it were to eat the consecrated host (see above), fits very well into this frame of interpretation. By contrast, in the lutheran idea of the lord's Supper, the presence of god is purely spiritual. For the lutheran Church, the unification with god is not realised by adoring the host, but
40 Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manuskripte, Band 5: Vorlesungen u? ber die Philosophie der Religion, Teil 3: Die vollendete Religion, Hamburg, Meiner Verlag 1984, p. 288; cf. also p. 261, textvariante gr. [Henceforth: Hegel, Vorlesungen 5] [Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 3: The Consummate Religion, edited by P. Hodg- son and translated by R. F. Brown e. a. , Berkeley: University of California Press 1985, p. 372; cf. also p. 338].
41 Hegel, Vorlesungen 5, pp. 260 f. [Hegel, Philosophy of Religion 3, p. 338]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, 481 ff. [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 377].
42 Hegel, Vorlesungen 9, p. 27 [Hegel, History of Philosophy, p. 47].
? 194 peter jonkers
by eating and digesting it, thus annihilating it insofar as it is something sensuous. the unification with god and the consciousness about the uni- fication of the subject with god so becomes something purely spiritual. in sum, in the lutheran Church "god is utterly a spiritual presence--the consecration takes place in the faith of the subject. "43
the fact that, in the Catholic Church, the sacred is identified with a sen- suous thing, the host, makes that it can be usurped by a group of people, and is turned against the ordinary faithful. this is where Hegel's criticism of the Catholic separation between the clergy and the laity comes in: the former possesses the highest good of humankind, whereas the latter only can receive it from the clergy, which confirms their dependence on them and thus their un-free character. 44 Moreover, the clergy enhances its posi- tion of power by its claim to possess also the other sacraments: thus, it has succeeded in making itself indispensable for the laity to receive god's grace, and formulates ever new conditions the laity has to meet in order to be allowed to receive the host or the other sacraments. in particular, it develops a complex theological doctrine, and claims the access to this sci- ence of the divine for itself, so that the laity is expected to simply believe and obey this doctrine, without understanding it and freely assenting to it. By doing so, the clergy has appointed itself as an extra mediating body between god and the world, possessing many extra sensuous 'means of grace', which it can at will distribute among the laity, so that the latter becomes incapable to address god directly in its prayers. 45 Moreover, the laity is held unable to mend its ways by itself, and can only reconcile itself with god by fulfilling external, sensuous acts, the so-called 'opera operata', by order of the servants of the Church. Hegel calls these 'opera' un-spiritual acts, which make the spirit blunt, especially because they can even be executed by someone else, so that people can set up a complete trade in them, as is the case with the indulgences. 46
43 Hegel, Vorlesungen 5, p. 261 [Hegel, Philosophy of Religion 3, p. 339]. See also Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 19, ? 563 a. [Henceforth: Hegel, Enzyklopa? die2], and Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 20, ? 552 a. [Henceforth: Hegel, Enzyklopa? die3] [g. W. F. Hegel, Philosophy of mind: being part three of the Encyclopaedia of the philosophical sciences (1830). Translated by W. Wallace; with foreword by J. N. Findlay, oxford: Clarendon 1971, pp. 284-5].
44 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 454 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 378]; Hegel, Vorlesungen 9, p. 28 [Hegel, The History of Philosophy, pp. 47-8] See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, p. 500 [Hegel, Philosophy of History, p. 378], and Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 16, p. 316.
45 Hegel, Theorie Werkausgabe 12, p. 455 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 378], and Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 16, p. 316.
46 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 456 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 379].
? hegel on catholic religion 195
another factor in the multiplication of sensuous, mediating elements between god and the world concerns the veneration of the relics of saints. Because the faithful have an endless need for sensuously feeling the pres- ence of the sacred, the number of holy persons, holy images and statues, holy places and times, holy occurrences (miracles) etc. multiplies and individualises itself infinitely. this is the most pregnant illustration of the incapacity of Catholic religion to truly supersede the sensuous: all sensu- ous things are capable of manifesting the presence of the divine. Hegel criticises the veneration of sensuous images as being clearly inferior to the spirit and thinking, but above all he warns that "together with the [veneration of the] image the worship of god in Spirit was lost, and even Christ himself was set aside. "47 in sum, because of the external, sensu- ous character of its 'means of grace', its stress on the 'opera operata' to the detriment of the internal disposition of the faithful, its veneration of saints etc. Catholicism jeopardises the essence of Christianity: Christ is the only true mediator, so that there is no need at all for another media- tor between the Mediator and humankind. 48 the paradoxical conclusion is that the infinite multiplication of external, sensuous mediators between god and the world in the Catholic Church, originally meant to ensure the faithful of their reconciliation with god, of being worthy to receive god's grace, actually hinders a true reconciliation, which presupposes the sub- ject's free assenting to the offer of god's grace.
the ultimate consequence of Catholicism's incapacity to supersede the sensuous world is that it has to regain possession of the most sacred place of the world, the Holy Sepulchre. Hegel discusses the issue of the crusades and its dramatic consequences at length in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History. Besides the political significance of the clash between the orient and the occident, the experience of the crusades is especially of momentous religious importance. By conquering the Holy land, Christianity had gained possession of the holiest of all relics, the soil on which the lord had printed his footsteps, the veronica, the Holy Cross, and last but not least the Holy Sepulchre. the possession of these things was meant to be the fulfilment of Catholicism's sensuous character. However, it also turns out to be the dialectical turning point in the history of Christianity: "in the grave is found the real point of retroversion [of the
47 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 455 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 378]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, pp. 482 f.
48 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 469 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 390].
? 196 peter jonkers
sensuous character of Christian religion, P. J. ]; it is in the grave all vanity of the sensuous perishes. "49 the experience of the empty grave made Chris- tianity aware that its principle is not to be found in the sensuous world, in the grave, among the dead, but in the living spirit of the faithful. Prot- estantism has fully accepted the significance of this dramatic, disappoint- ing experience and has consequently desecrated the world completely. Phrased positively, it
attains the conviction that man must look within himself for the this, which is of a divine nature; subjectivity thereby receives absolute authorisation, and claims to determine for itself the relation [of all that exists] to the divine. this then was the absolute result of the crusades, and from them we may date the commencement of self-reliance and spontaneous activity. 50
Catholicism has been unable to reach this consciousness of the spiritual nature of god, and has kept on holding to the presence of god in all kinds of external, sensuous things.
Hegel's rendering of this crucial moment in the history of Christian- ity is very significant for several reasons. First, it elaborates his idea, only hinted at above, that Catholicism, after having proven its incapacity of really desecrating the world, has given rise to a renewed cycle of sepa- ration, infinite grief and reconciliation: the distressing experience of the vanity of all sensuousness, culminating in the experience of the empty grave, and its consequence, the Reformation, bringing about the turn to a purely spiritual reconciliation with god, are its pivotal moments. While Catholicism has proven to be unable to fulfil this cycle, Protestantism has assumed this task and therefore is the true continuation of the history of Christianity. Hegel's philosophical interpretation of the history of Christi- anity explains, secondly, why he considers Catholicism as a bygone shape of the world spirit.
Henceforth it [the Catholic Church, P. J. ] occupies a position of inferiority to the World-Spirit; the latter has already transcended it, for it has become capable of recognising the sensuous as sensuous, the external as external; it has learned to occupy itself with the finite in a finite way, and in this very activity to maintain an independent and confident position as a valid and rightful subjectivity. 51
49 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 471 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 392]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, pp. 484 ff.
50 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 472 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 393]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, p. 486.
51 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 492 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, 413]. See also Hegel, Vorlesungen 12, p. 497.
? hegel on catholic religion 197
in this passage, Hegel refers to the Catholic 'Church', thereby stressing the most external, sensuous and hierarchical aspects of this religion. in this respect, Protestantism cannot be called a 'Church' in the Catholic sense of the word; it has 'reformed' the Church to a community of faith, based upon the universal principles of freedom and reasonableness, which char- acterise Protestant religion as well as modern society. in this way, it has liberated Christian religion from the 'ecclesiastical particularity', charac- teristic for Catholicism, however odd this may sound for Catholic (which literally means 'universal') ears. 52
c. Catholicism's 'Slavish Deference to Authority'
Finally, Hegel's critique of Catholic religion concerns its lack of freedom, both on an individual and a political level. this is the paradoxical result of the Catholic shape of Christianity, which is essentially a religion of free- dom. in particular, it is again a consequence of Catholicism's hallowing of the world and the latter's incapacity to realise a true, spiritual reconcilia- tion of the world with god. Precisely this sensuous character makes peo- ple dependent on something external, un-spiritual, such as the power of the clergy in the distribution of the means of grace, and the multiple pres- ence of the sacred in the world. Whereas Catholic religion has introduced these mediations in order to facilitate man's free reconciliation with god, their external character actually obstructs any reconciliation: the Catholic Church, pretending to possess all these means of grace, acts as if it also were the owner of the conscience of the individuals,53 thus making them un-free. it causes among the faithful a "slavish deference to authority. "54 a true reconciliation does not need all these external means, imposed upon the people by a Church that claims to be the necessary mediator between the world and the sole real mediator, Christ, but can be reached much more appropriately by the faithful themselves as free spiritual beings. Moreover, the external character of the demands of the Catholic Church causes people to comply with them externally as well, thereby still fur- ther jeopardising true, i. e. spiritual reconciliation: "thus, the relationship of absolute un-freedom has been introduced [by the Catholic Church,
52 J. Dierken, Hegels ? protestantisches Prinzip', pp. 139 f.
53 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 19, p. 539; see also Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 456 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 379], Hegel, Enzyklopa? die2 ? 563 a, and Enzyklopa? die3 ? 552 a. [Hegel, Philosophy of Mind, p. 285].
54 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 493 [Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 413].
? 198 peter jonkers
P. J. ] into the principle of freedom itself [being the essence of Christianity as such, P. J. ]. "55
in this context, Hegel's critique of the three (monastic) vows of pov- erty, obedience and chastity has to be mentioned. they are an example of the imposition of positive ecclesiastical commandments, thus show- ing Catholicism's incapacity to recognise the faithful as free, spiritual human beings. Because of its hallowing of the sensuous world, Catholic religion considers the world as something ethically holy, a content that is immediately given by god, not as the result of man's free, self-conscious, spiritual activity. Because Catholic religion ignores that god's presence in the world is not natural, but spiritual, it is also unable to appreciate that the world's ethical content is spiritual, i. e. immanently unified with self-consciousness. the results of this incapacity are the commandments of holiness, exemplified by the three monastic vows. they illustrate the un-spiritual, un-free character of Catholicism, its dependence on the world as something immediately given by god.
