Stepelvich, according to whom Hegel's theologi- cal
Writings
might just as well have been entitled anti-Catholic Writings, is simply wrong.
Hegels Philosophy of the Historical Religions
as i will show below more in detail his position with regard to Roman Catholicism was fuelled by a mix of personal and political elements.
therefore, i shall start with analyzing two important biographical and political facts that influenced Hegel's view of this matter.
as will become apparent below, they are important to understand Hegel's philosophy of religion.
2. Personal and Political elements
the duchy of Wu? rttemberg, in which both Stuttgart, where Hegel was born, and tu? bingen, where he studied theology, lie, was a Protestant enclave in the dominantly Catholic south of germany. Hegel grew up in a family that was well aware of its strong Protestant roots, with a keen awareness of the existence of religious differences and with the convic- tion of their momentous consequences: according to a story, which was told in his family, his ancestors had emigrated from Catholic austria in the 16th Century, where the Protestants had been required to convert to Catholicism, and gone to Protestant Wu? rttemberg. 7
6 g. nicolin (ed. ), Hegel in Berichten seiner Zeitgenossen, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag 1970, p. 528 [Hegel, The Letters. Translated by C. Butler and Chr. Seiler; with commentary by C. Butler, Bloomington (ind. ): indiana University Press 1984, p. 664].
7 t. Pinkard, Hegel. A Biography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000, pp. 2 f; l. S. Stepelvich, 'Hegel and Roman Catholicism', in: Journal of the American Academy of
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in the course of his life, several incidents, personal as well as politi- cal, reinforced Hegel's negative predisposition towards Catholicism. He vented his feelings about these incidents in his private correspondence, but it is difficult to determine the context of these utterances adequately. therefore i will limit myself here to discussing one incident, which hap- pened at the end of his life. Because of its official character and its possible consequences for his career this incident probably caused the most seri- ous deterioration in Hegel's attitude towards Catholicism, and is probably one of the causes of the sudden change in his philosophical position with regard to Catholic religion. in the winter semester of 1825/26 a chaplain of the St. Hedwig's cathedral in Berlin had complained to minister alten- stein that Hegel had publicly slandered Catholic religion. 8 in his Lectures on the History of Philosophy he had repeated a longstanding Protestant leg- end about the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. according to this legend, Catholics were required to worship a mouse, as well as its excre- ments, if it were to eat the consecrated host, since the transubstantiated body of Christ would be in the mouse's stomach. 9 altenstein deftly passed the problem over to Schulze, who asked Hegel to respond in writing to the complaint. in a confidential letter of april 3, 1826 he gave a quite defiant answer in six points. First, "as professor of philosophy at a Royal Prussian University in Berlin, and as a lutheran Christian, it is only to be expected that [he] should express [him]self in such terms on the teachings and spirit of Catholicism. " Secondly, he has "not sought the opportunity to speak out on the Catholic Church," but has "had to speak of it" in his lec- tures on the history of philosophy, especially in the part about scholastic philosophy. thirdly, he did "not leave the matter [of Catholicism] at the level of generalities of either a mild or timid nature, or of a purely con- demnatory, deprecatory nature. " He has, "on the contrary, had to interpret the Catholic doctrine at its very centre--i. e. the Host, to speak of it, and to speak of it with scientific determinateness. " He has "therefore explained and expressed luther's teachings as true, and as recognised by philoso- phy as true. " Moreover, he is certainly not the only lutheran Christian,
Religion, 60, 4 (1992), p. 674. See also: J. Hoffmeister (ed. ), Briefe von und an Hegel IV/1, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag pp. 1952 ff, 8 [Henceforth: Hegel, Briefe].
8 See Pinkard, Hegel, p. 529, and Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, p. 54.
9 g. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manuskripte, Bd. 9: Vorlesungen u? ber die geschichte der Philosophie, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag 1986, p. 27 [Henceforth: Hegel, Vorlesungen 9] [Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy. Edited and translated by Robert F. Brown, Berkeley (Calif. ): University of California Press 2000, p. 47].
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who "declare[s] the Catholic doctrine on the Host to be mere papistic idolatry and superstition. " Fourthly, his remarks were made during his lec- tures, so that he "could invoke the right of oral delivery, the meaning of which, at least with regard to casual remarks, is often based on nuances even in the tone of voice, and therefore can be altered if not completely turned around through slight inconspicuous deviations, eliminations, or additions. " Fifthly, he considers it beneath his dignity to defend himself against those, who, because of the absurd and malicious conclusions they draw from his lectures, took offence at what he said. He declares a portion of the charges against him to be "errors and misunderstandings born of feeblemindedness;" another portion as "falsehoods, and yet another por- tion to be [. . . ] cases of malicious disparagement. " Hegel's conclusion (his last point) is that, if the Catholics did complain about his lectures,
they would have to blame only themselves for attending philosophical lectures at a Protestant university, under a professor, who prides himself on having been baptised and raised a lutheran, which he still is and shall remain. or else they would have to blame their superiors for failing to warn them or--as has happened elsewhere to Catholic theology students--for failing to prohibit their attendance. "10
as a result of this letter, the charges against Hegel were rejected by the Prussian authorities, which can be seen as a confirmation of the prevailing state of liberty in Prussia. nevertheless he took this incident very seriously, as is shown by a remarkable change in attitude towards Catholicism both in his publications and lectures after 1827. in comparison to his Philosophy of Right (1821) and in the Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1822/23) his criticism of the Catholic Church, in particular of its interference in political matters, is much more stinging, as i shall show below in detail. a remark in a letter to his wife during a trip to the low countries, a year after this incident, is also quite revealing in this respect: "We have looked over their universities [of lie`ge, louvain and ghent] as prospective rest- ing place in case the clerics in Berlin make Kupfergraben [the name of the street in which Hegel lived, P. J. ] completely unbearable for me. the Curia in Rome would in any event be a more honourable adversary than the inanities of the inane clerical stew in Berlin. "11
10 Hegel, Werke. Herausgegeben von e. Moldenhauer und K. M. Michel. Band 11, Frank- furt am Main: Suhrkamp 1971, pp. 68 ff. [Henceforth: Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe] [Hegel, The Letters, pp. 531 f. ]
11 Hegel, Briefe III, p. 202 [Hegel, The Letters, p. 663]; see also: Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, p. 54.
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3. Hegel's Philosophical attitude towards Catholicism
turning now our attention towards a philosophical perspective, it is clear for Hegel that, within Christian religion, Catholicism is but an inadequate actualisation of the concept of religion, especially in comparison to Prot- estantism. He gives a number of reasons for this thesis. the external, sensuous element has always prevailed in Catholicism, whereas Protes- tantism is a more 'spiritualised' form of Christianity, and is therefore bet- ter capable to represent god, whose nature is spiritual. in relation to this, Protestantism's idea of god's reconciliation with the world is realised n a purely spiritual way, that is through superseding sensuous nature, whereas Catholicism remains stuck in the sensuous world. Finally, the authoritar- ian character of Roman Catholic religion, specifically expressing itself in the superiority of the clergy over the laity, and its refusal to accept the principle of secular rule, is at odds with the freedom of all people as the principle of the modern state.
Preliminarily, it is important to notice what Hegel has called 'the Protestant principle', which summarizes his attitude towards Protes- tant religion. 12 With this notion he does not refer to classical Protestant figures and doctrines, since they were--with the exception of luther and his abolition of Catholic institutions and practices like monasticism, celibacy, and fasts, as well as the superiority of the lord's Supper with regard to the eucharist--hardly of importance to him; neither does he consider this principle to be fully realised in the actually existing forms of Protestantism of his times. Rather, the Protestant principle serves for him as a constructive, interpretative concept, with the help of which he can clarify the essential reasonableness and spirituality of Protestant religion, which is closely connected to the reasonableness of (modern) history and the spiritual nature of the absolute. 13 He opposes this Protestant principle to Catholic religion, thereby implying that the latter is unable to realize the inherent reasonableness and spirituality of Christianity as adequately as Protestantism. So, although Catholicism as well as Protestantism are manifestations of the Christian principle of god as the self-conscious, free,
12 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 519 [g. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History. Preface by Ch. Hegel and translated by J. Sibree; a new introduction by C. J. Friedrich, new York: Dover Books 1956, p. 438].
13 Cfr. J. Dierken, ? Hegels ? protestantisches Prinzip'. Religionsphilosophische implika- tionen einer geschichtsphilosophischen Denkfigur? , in: e. Weisser-lohmann und D. Ko? hler (Hrsg. ), Hegels Vorlesungen u? ber die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte (Hegel-Studien, Beiheft 38), Bonn, Bouvier 1998, pp. 126-7.
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absolute spirit, the latter is far better able to realize the Christian principle adequately than the former.
3. 1 Catholic Religion in Hegel's Early Writings
as early as in his Early Writings Hegel discusses his main points of dif- ference with regard to Catholic religion. in spite of the fragmentary and overall theological character of these writings, it will turn out that some relevant points with regard to this issue, which he elaborates in his later writings, are already present in this group of texts. in the essays, written during his stay in Bern (1793-1796), Hegel deals with the question whether a 'folk religion' can serve as a remedy for the intellectual and social dis- ruption of modern humankind, and with the search for an explanation why Christianity has perverted into a positive religion in the course of its development. looking from the perspective of the ideal of a free, har- monious and beautiful folk religion, which he thought to be realised in ancient greece, to the actually existing Christian religion, Hegel is con- vinced that the latter fails to meet any of the characteristics of this ideal. in the earliest Christian communities of faith, the germs of positivity were already present, and in the ages thereafter, they developed themselves ever further, eventually leading to a completely positive religion.
Within this general interpretative framework, Hegel focuses on the socio-political aspects of Catholicism and of Protestantism; it will turn out that he is equally critical to both of them, since they both make them- selves guilty of oppressing people. according to Hegel's interpretation of the history of Christianity, after the times of the Reformation people wanted to restore the purity and sincerity of religion and morals of the first centuries. But this movement ended in a failure. By re-establishing the ecclesiastical police-institutions, the Church reformers thought that they had remained loyal to the simplicity of the early Church, but actually they wanted to control the practice of faith of the people. thus, "little by little, this arrogant practice of prying into a person's innards, of judging and punishing his conscience, began insinuating itself [in Christian soci- ety . . . ]. it became incredibly deep-rooted [. . . ] and burgeoned into the most shocking profusion of repressive institutions and ways of deluding mankind: oral confession, excommunication, [and] penances. "14 these
14 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 131 [Hegel, Three Essays, 1793-1795. edited and trans- lated with an introduction and notes by P. Fuss and J. Dobbins, notre Dame (ind. ): Uni- versity of notre Dame Press 1984, p. 72].
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disciplinary practices are not only characteristic for Catholic confession, but have been maintained to a large extent by Protestantism as well, especially the control over the opinions of people. Besides, in the field of politics, both the Catholic and Protestant Church have interfered into the civil state: the fact that the Church, as a spiritual state, unified itself with the civil state, led to a situation, in which the people, whom the Church wanted to exclude from its fellowship, were deprived of their civil rights as well. 15 Hegel considers this as a violation of the very principle of religious freedom, which is essential to the modern state. in his view, reli- gious freedom is a basic human right, and has to be secured by the state: "to be true to one's faith and to be free in the practice of one's religion is a right in which the individual must be protected, not primarily as a Church member, but as a citizen; and a prince in his capacity as such has a duty to secure this right to his subjects. "16 again, it has to be noted that Hegel is convinced that not only one, but all (Christian) Churches have a problem in acknowledging the capacity of individuals to decide about religious matters on the basis of their own reason: "the fundamental error at the bottom of a Church's entire system is that it ignores the rights per- taining to every faculty of the human mind, in particular to the chief of them, reason. "17 the same holds true with regard to the relation between clergy and laity: in the Catholic Church, the rights of the laity to oppose to the laws of faith have always been equal to null, as it had lost its right even to be represented in discussions about faith. in comparison, the fun- damental principle of the Protestant Church is that its contract rests on the unanimity of all its members. Besides, they can only join this confes- sion voluntarily: the faith of every individual Protestant must be his faith because it is his own, not because it is the Church's. However, the teachers who founded this Church have not always been loyal to this principle, and have "tried to regard their authority as more extensive, and to decide among themselves what the Church's faith is. "18 all this shows that, as far the history and the current socio-political situation of Christianity as such are concerned, the first part of Hegel's Early Writings, written during his
15 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 315 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, translated by t. M. Knox. With an introduction, and Fragments translated by R. Kroner, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1948, p. 105].
16 Hegel Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 335 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 127]. Cf. Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, pp. 73 f.
17 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 349 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 143]. 18 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 330 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 122].
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stay in Bern, are as critical of Catholic as of Protestant confession. Because of their positive character, neither of them is loyal to the basic principles of the modern state. 19
the fact that Hegel, in this phase of his intellectual development, was primarily interested in the socio-political aspects of Protestantism and Catholicism is also confirmed by a fragment of The German Constitution, written some years later in Jena (1801). in this text, Hegel shows himself for the first time to be more critical of the Catholic than of the Protestant Church. He gives a concrete example of the problematic way in which especially Catholic princes have assumed the responsibility to safeguard the religious rights of the Protestant Church. although the denial of con- ferring civil rights to Protestant or Catholic minorities has occurred both in Catholic and Protestant countries, the Catholic Church has always been "more fanatic" in this. this is so, because the grounds on which this hap- pened seem to be different:
the Catholics were in the position of the oppressors, the Protestant in the one of the people being oppressed; the Catholics had denied the Protestants the right to express their religion freely, as if they were criminals. [. . . ] the ground for the Protestant intolerance could only be either the right to re- compensate the hatred and the intolerance of the Catholics--which would have been an unchristian motive--or a distrust in the strength and truth of their own faith, as well as the fear that their own faithful could be easily seduced by the splendour of Catholic liturgy and the zeal of its adherents. 20
the last part of this quotation shows Hegel's fear that Protestant faithful, whose basic attitude is that of an internal disposition, might be tempted by a kind of religious sensuousness, exemplified by the splendour of the Catholic liturgy, whereas it was clear to him that this kind of un-spiritual religiosity basically had no future.
By comparison, in his writings dating from his Frankfurt period (1797- 1800), and especially in the group of essays, collected under the title The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate Hegel pays far less attention to the differ- ences between Catholicism and Protestantism, and does not focus at all
19 this implies that the opinion of l. 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.
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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].
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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].
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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.
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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.
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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].
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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.
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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.
2. Personal and Political elements
the duchy of Wu? rttemberg, in which both Stuttgart, where Hegel was born, and tu? bingen, where he studied theology, lie, was a Protestant enclave in the dominantly Catholic south of germany. Hegel grew up in a family that was well aware of its strong Protestant roots, with a keen awareness of the existence of religious differences and with the convic- tion of their momentous consequences: according to a story, which was told in his family, his ancestors had emigrated from Catholic austria in the 16th Century, where the Protestants had been required to convert to Catholicism, and gone to Protestant Wu? rttemberg. 7
6 g. nicolin (ed. ), Hegel in Berichten seiner Zeitgenossen, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag 1970, p. 528 [Hegel, The Letters. Translated by C. Butler and Chr. Seiler; with commentary by C. Butler, Bloomington (ind. ): indiana University Press 1984, p. 664].
7 t. Pinkard, Hegel. A Biography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000, pp. 2 f; l. S. Stepelvich, 'Hegel and Roman Catholicism', in: Journal of the American Academy of
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in the course of his life, several incidents, personal as well as politi- cal, reinforced Hegel's negative predisposition towards Catholicism. He vented his feelings about these incidents in his private correspondence, but it is difficult to determine the context of these utterances adequately. therefore i will limit myself here to discussing one incident, which hap- pened at the end of his life. Because of its official character and its possible consequences for his career this incident probably caused the most seri- ous deterioration in Hegel's attitude towards Catholicism, and is probably one of the causes of the sudden change in his philosophical position with regard to Catholic religion. in the winter semester of 1825/26 a chaplain of the St. Hedwig's cathedral in Berlin had complained to minister alten- stein that Hegel had publicly slandered Catholic religion. 8 in his Lectures on the History of Philosophy he had repeated a longstanding Protestant leg- end about the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. according to this legend, Catholics were required to worship a mouse, as well as its excre- ments, if it were to eat the consecrated host, since the transubstantiated body of Christ would be in the mouse's stomach. 9 altenstein deftly passed the problem over to Schulze, who asked Hegel to respond in writing to the complaint. in a confidential letter of april 3, 1826 he gave a quite defiant answer in six points. First, "as professor of philosophy at a Royal Prussian University in Berlin, and as a lutheran Christian, it is only to be expected that [he] should express [him]self in such terms on the teachings and spirit of Catholicism. " Secondly, he has "not sought the opportunity to speak out on the Catholic Church," but has "had to speak of it" in his lec- tures on the history of philosophy, especially in the part about scholastic philosophy. thirdly, he did "not leave the matter [of Catholicism] at the level of generalities of either a mild or timid nature, or of a purely con- demnatory, deprecatory nature. " He has, "on the contrary, had to interpret the Catholic doctrine at its very centre--i. e. the Host, to speak of it, and to speak of it with scientific determinateness. " He has "therefore explained and expressed luther's teachings as true, and as recognised by philoso- phy as true. " Moreover, he is certainly not the only lutheran Christian,
Religion, 60, 4 (1992), p. 674. See also: J. Hoffmeister (ed. ), Briefe von und an Hegel IV/1, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag pp. 1952 ff, 8 [Henceforth: Hegel, Briefe].
8 See Pinkard, Hegel, p. 529, and Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, p. 54.
9 g. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manuskripte, Bd. 9: Vorlesungen u? ber die geschichte der Philosophie, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag 1986, p. 27 [Henceforth: Hegel, Vorlesungen 9] [Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy. Edited and translated by Robert F. Brown, Berkeley (Calif. ): University of California Press 2000, p. 47].
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who "declare[s] the Catholic doctrine on the Host to be mere papistic idolatry and superstition. " Fourthly, his remarks were made during his lec- tures, so that he "could invoke the right of oral delivery, the meaning of which, at least with regard to casual remarks, is often based on nuances even in the tone of voice, and therefore can be altered if not completely turned around through slight inconspicuous deviations, eliminations, or additions. " Fifthly, he considers it beneath his dignity to defend himself against those, who, because of the absurd and malicious conclusions they draw from his lectures, took offence at what he said. He declares a portion of the charges against him to be "errors and misunderstandings born of feeblemindedness;" another portion as "falsehoods, and yet another por- tion to be [. . . ] cases of malicious disparagement. " Hegel's conclusion (his last point) is that, if the Catholics did complain about his lectures,
they would have to blame only themselves for attending philosophical lectures at a Protestant university, under a professor, who prides himself on having been baptised and raised a lutheran, which he still is and shall remain. or else they would have to blame their superiors for failing to warn them or--as has happened elsewhere to Catholic theology students--for failing to prohibit their attendance. "10
as a result of this letter, the charges against Hegel were rejected by the Prussian authorities, which can be seen as a confirmation of the prevailing state of liberty in Prussia. nevertheless he took this incident very seriously, as is shown by a remarkable change in attitude towards Catholicism both in his publications and lectures after 1827. in comparison to his Philosophy of Right (1821) and in the Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1822/23) his criticism of the Catholic Church, in particular of its interference in political matters, is much more stinging, as i shall show below in detail. a remark in a letter to his wife during a trip to the low countries, a year after this incident, is also quite revealing in this respect: "We have looked over their universities [of lie`ge, louvain and ghent] as prospective rest- ing place in case the clerics in Berlin make Kupfergraben [the name of the street in which Hegel lived, P. J. ] completely unbearable for me. the Curia in Rome would in any event be a more honourable adversary than the inanities of the inane clerical stew in Berlin. "11
10 Hegel, Werke. Herausgegeben von e. Moldenhauer und K. M. Michel. Band 11, Frank- furt am Main: Suhrkamp 1971, pp. 68 ff. [Henceforth: Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe] [Hegel, The Letters, pp. 531 f. ]
11 Hegel, Briefe III, p. 202 [Hegel, The Letters, p. 663]; see also: Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, p. 54.
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3. Hegel's Philosophical attitude towards Catholicism
turning now our attention towards a philosophical perspective, it is clear for Hegel that, within Christian religion, Catholicism is but an inadequate actualisation of the concept of religion, especially in comparison to Prot- estantism. He gives a number of reasons for this thesis. the external, sensuous element has always prevailed in Catholicism, whereas Protes- tantism is a more 'spiritualised' form of Christianity, and is therefore bet- ter capable to represent god, whose nature is spiritual. in relation to this, Protestantism's idea of god's reconciliation with the world is realised n a purely spiritual way, that is through superseding sensuous nature, whereas Catholicism remains stuck in the sensuous world. Finally, the authoritar- ian character of Roman Catholic religion, specifically expressing itself in the superiority of the clergy over the laity, and its refusal to accept the principle of secular rule, is at odds with the freedom of all people as the principle of the modern state.
Preliminarily, it is important to notice what Hegel has called 'the Protestant principle', which summarizes his attitude towards Protes- tant religion. 12 With this notion he does not refer to classical Protestant figures and doctrines, since they were--with the exception of luther and his abolition of Catholic institutions and practices like monasticism, celibacy, and fasts, as well as the superiority of the lord's Supper with regard to the eucharist--hardly of importance to him; neither does he consider this principle to be fully realised in the actually existing forms of Protestantism of his times. Rather, the Protestant principle serves for him as a constructive, interpretative concept, with the help of which he can clarify the essential reasonableness and spirituality of Protestant religion, which is closely connected to the reasonableness of (modern) history and the spiritual nature of the absolute. 13 He opposes this Protestant principle to Catholic religion, thereby implying that the latter is unable to realize the inherent reasonableness and spirituality of Christianity as adequately as Protestantism. So, although Catholicism as well as Protestantism are manifestations of the Christian principle of god as the self-conscious, free,
12 Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe 12, p. 519 [g. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History. Preface by Ch. Hegel and translated by J. Sibree; a new introduction by C. J. Friedrich, new York: Dover Books 1956, p. 438].
13 Cfr. J. Dierken, ? Hegels ? protestantisches Prinzip'. Religionsphilosophische implika- tionen einer geschichtsphilosophischen Denkfigur? , in: e. Weisser-lohmann und D. Ko? hler (Hrsg. ), Hegels Vorlesungen u? ber die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte (Hegel-Studien, Beiheft 38), Bonn, Bouvier 1998, pp. 126-7.
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absolute spirit, the latter is far better able to realize the Christian principle adequately than the former.
3. 1 Catholic Religion in Hegel's Early Writings
as early as in his Early Writings Hegel discusses his main points of dif- ference with regard to Catholic religion. in spite of the fragmentary and overall theological character of these writings, it will turn out that some relevant points with regard to this issue, which he elaborates in his later writings, are already present in this group of texts. in the essays, written during his stay in Bern (1793-1796), Hegel deals with the question whether a 'folk religion' can serve as a remedy for the intellectual and social dis- ruption of modern humankind, and with the search for an explanation why Christianity has perverted into a positive religion in the course of its development. looking from the perspective of the ideal of a free, har- monious and beautiful folk religion, which he thought to be realised in ancient greece, to the actually existing Christian religion, Hegel is con- vinced that the latter fails to meet any of the characteristics of this ideal. in the earliest Christian communities of faith, the germs of positivity were already present, and in the ages thereafter, they developed themselves ever further, eventually leading to a completely positive religion.
Within this general interpretative framework, Hegel focuses on the socio-political aspects of Catholicism and of Protestantism; it will turn out that he is equally critical to both of them, since they both make them- selves guilty of oppressing people. according to Hegel's interpretation of the history of Christianity, after the times of the Reformation people wanted to restore the purity and sincerity of religion and morals of the first centuries. But this movement ended in a failure. By re-establishing the ecclesiastical police-institutions, the Church reformers thought that they had remained loyal to the simplicity of the early Church, but actually they wanted to control the practice of faith of the people. thus, "little by little, this arrogant practice of prying into a person's innards, of judging and punishing his conscience, began insinuating itself [in Christian soci- ety . . . ]. it became incredibly deep-rooted [. . . ] and burgeoned into the most shocking profusion of repressive institutions and ways of deluding mankind: oral confession, excommunication, [and] penances. "14 these
14 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 131 [Hegel, Three Essays, 1793-1795. edited and trans- lated with an introduction and notes by P. Fuss and J. Dobbins, notre Dame (ind. ): Uni- versity of notre Dame Press 1984, p. 72].
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disciplinary practices are not only characteristic for Catholic confession, but have been maintained to a large extent by Protestantism as well, especially the control over the opinions of people. Besides, in the field of politics, both the Catholic and Protestant Church have interfered into the civil state: the fact that the Church, as a spiritual state, unified itself with the civil state, led to a situation, in which the people, whom the Church wanted to exclude from its fellowship, were deprived of their civil rights as well. 15 Hegel considers this as a violation of the very principle of religious freedom, which is essential to the modern state. in his view, reli- gious freedom is a basic human right, and has to be secured by the state: "to be true to one's faith and to be free in the practice of one's religion is a right in which the individual must be protected, not primarily as a Church member, but as a citizen; and a prince in his capacity as such has a duty to secure this right to his subjects. "16 again, it has to be noted that Hegel is convinced that not only one, but all (Christian) Churches have a problem in acknowledging the capacity of individuals to decide about religious matters on the basis of their own reason: "the fundamental error at the bottom of a Church's entire system is that it ignores the rights per- taining to every faculty of the human mind, in particular to the chief of them, reason. "17 the same holds true with regard to the relation between clergy and laity: in the Catholic Church, the rights of the laity to oppose to the laws of faith have always been equal to null, as it had lost its right even to be represented in discussions about faith. in comparison, the fun- damental principle of the Protestant Church is that its contract rests on the unanimity of all its members. Besides, they can only join this confes- sion voluntarily: the faith of every individual Protestant must be his faith because it is his own, not because it is the Church's. However, the teachers who founded this Church have not always been loyal to this principle, and have "tried to regard their authority as more extensive, and to decide among themselves what the Church's faith is. "18 all this shows that, as far the history and the current socio-political situation of Christianity as such are concerned, the first part of Hegel's Early Writings, written during his
15 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 315 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, translated by t. M. Knox. With an introduction, and Fragments translated by R. Kroner, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1948, p. 105].
16 Hegel Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 335 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 127]. Cf. Jaeschke, Hegel-Handbuch, pp. 73 f.
17 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 349 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 143]. 18 Hegel, Gesammelte Werke 1, p. 330 [Hegel, Early Theological Writings, p. 122].
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stay in Bern, are as critical of Catholic as of Protestant confession. Because of their positive character, neither of them is loyal to the basic principles of the modern state. 19
the fact that Hegel, in this phase of his intellectual development, was primarily interested in the socio-political aspects of Protestantism and Catholicism is also confirmed by a fragment of The German Constitution, written some years later in Jena (1801). in this text, Hegel shows himself for the first time to be more critical of the Catholic than of the Protestant Church. He gives a concrete example of the problematic way in which especially Catholic princes have assumed the responsibility to safeguard the religious rights of the Protestant Church. although the denial of con- ferring civil rights to Protestant or Catholic minorities has occurred both in Catholic and Protestant countries, the Catholic Church has always been "more fanatic" in this. this is so, because the grounds on which this hap- pened seem to be different:
the Catholics were in the position of the oppressors, the Protestant in the one of the people being oppressed; the Catholics had denied the Protestants the right to express their religion freely, as if they were criminals. [. . . ] the ground for the Protestant intolerance could only be either the right to re- compensate the hatred and the intolerance of the Catholics--which would have been an unchristian motive--or a distrust in the strength and truth of their own faith, as well as the fear that their own faithful could be easily seduced by the splendour of Catholic liturgy and the zeal of its adherents. 20
the last part of this quotation shows Hegel's fear that Protestant faithful, whose basic attitude is that of an internal disposition, might be tempted by a kind of religious sensuousness, exemplified by the splendour of the Catholic liturgy, whereas it was clear to him that this kind of un-spiritual religiosity basically had no future.
By comparison, in his writings dating from his Frankfurt period (1797- 1800), and especially in the group of essays, collected under the title The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate Hegel pays far less attention to the differ- ences between Catholicism and Protestantism, and does not focus at all
19 this implies that the opinion of l. 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.
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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].
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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].
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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.
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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.
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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].
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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.
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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.
