However, the
following
step, which i will take, is new and therefore risky.
Hegels Philosophy of the Historical Religions
When god or the infinite is related in this way to the being of all finite things, this means a first proof of the existence of god.
Hegel formu- lates this proof as a syllogism:
the finite (of all things) presupposes the infinite However, the finite is.
then is also the infinite.
like the way in which the notion of 'Being' is used in the determination of the 'Religion of nature', this proof of the existence of god is also defi- cient; it is abstract and restricted in its validity. What happens here, is not that god is given 'being', but that 'being' is given god. individual, finite things are made general by giving them a spiritual meaning. But the idea of god, which is expressed in this statement, is not 'adequate' to a 'more profound' explanation. the 'Religion of nature' as a whole cannot really be regarded as a religion at all, at the most as a 'heathen religion' or--Hegel is using a term of goethe here--an 'ethnic religion'.
Because Hegel is uncertain about the 'Religion of nature' as a real reli- gion, the german theologian R. leuze, in his study on 'the non-Christian religions in Hegel's philosophy of religion'--a study which is called a standard work on this subject matter by Jaeschke6--, completely leaves out this form of religion. in contrast to what Hegel himself does, leuze decides, on account of its uncertain status as a religion, not to deal with the 'Religion of nature'. He starts with the religion of the Chinese empire, which comes under the 'Religions of nature' in some years of Hegel's Lec- tures, in others not. 7
The Concept of Nature in the 'Religion of Spirit'
We have seen, that the sentence: 'there is a sensual awareness of nature . . . as god' may not be understood as an expression of pantheism in the sense of Spinoza. Moreover, 'being' as it is used in the explanation of the 'Religion of nature' is not 'being' in the full, concrete meaning of this notion. Both of these critical statements by Hegel about the 'Religion of nature' can be traced back to the concept of nature in the 'Religion of spirit'. for
6 Cf. Walter Jaeschke in: Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manu- skripte. vol. 4b, Hamburg: Meiner 1985, p. 653.
7 R. leuze, Die ausserchristlichen Religionen bei Hegel, go? ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht 1975, pp. 9-10.
? religion of nature 7
in this concept, nature is restricted to 'fixed', finite things. in the 'religion of nature' as part of the 'religion of spirit', to worship the 'sun . . . stars, river, sea', the 'sky in general' has to do with an 'undetermined conscious- ness of a mighty being, something mighty, a benevolent spirit'. Such rep- resentations miss clear determinations, which in modern pantheism are applied e. g. to the sun. it is thought of as a ball of a certain kind and mat- ter, surrounded by planets, circling around it according to firm rules. in modern pantheism, in contrast to the 'Religion of nature', finite things are therefore made into something general in a determined way.
in a more developed form of the 'Religion of nature', the power of nature is present in subjective natural beings in a more intensive way than in things. in this connection, animals are mentioned; and on an even higher level human beings. But no firm ontological status is given to those ani- mals or human beings that can make use of the power of nature. they are 'purely immediate, natural' beings, and as such thought of in an 'inadequate' way. their generality is only one of representation or will, not of thinking.
Spirit cannot recognise itself adequately in this concept of nature. Because of the undetermined 'dark' character of the power of nature in the 'religion of nature', the mind is filled with fear, with unclear desires and feelings of scare. 'Coincidental and arbitrary connections' are made. nature is somehow independent, on its own, and ducks out of the uni- versal functions of spirit, which give structure to everything. 'the unity of man and nature', a saying that is often used, is wrong according to Hegel. it should be: the unity of man and 'his nature'. and the nature of man is 'freedom, being spirit'. Due to the presupposed universal determina- tion of all that is by spirit, Hegel cannot understand nature as a meaning- ful whole in itself in which specific natural things have their determined place. in this conception, the attitude of man is not primarily a receiving one with regard to nature as an independent whole.
3. 'Religion of nature' in an earlier Period of Hegel's Writings
The Concepts of Life and Nature in Hegel's Conception of Religion in 1800-1802
it is amazing that in an earlier phase of his thought Hegel defends a con- cept of nature, which is clearly understood as an independent whole that is on the same level as the human world or even can claim priority with regard to the latter. When he started to build up a 'system of philosophy'
8 heinz kimmerle
of his own in the years 1800-1802, philosophy of nature methodologically formed the main part of it. the concept of life was the basic concept of this system. the contents and the structure of this system of philosophy is examined in my earlier research and published in my book: Das Prob- lem der Abgeschlossenheit des Denkens. Hegels 'System der Philosophie' in den Jahren 1800 bis 1804. 8 in the meantime, it is generally recognised that Hegel's systematic drafts of his early Jena period (including some texts of his last year in frankfurt) have a specific meaning, which is different from his later systematic conceptions. 9 this is also documented in the Hegel- Lexikon, which has recently become available. 10
Traces of Earlier Concepts of Life and of Nature in the Explanation of Religion in the Phenomenology of Spirit of 1807 and in the Systematic Drafts from 1802/03 until 1806
Before going into details about the concepts of life and nature and their meaning for the explanation of religion in the systematic conception of the years 1800-1802, i will show which traces of these conceptions still can be found in the Phenomenology of Spirit of 1807 and in the Systematic Drafts from 1802/03 until 1806. in a certain sense traces like these can also be identified in the later work of Hegel.
the path, which is followed in the Phenomenology of Spirit from cer- tainty on the basis of sense data through all forms of knowledge to the 'certainty of the spirit of itself' finally results in the 'consciousness of the absolute being', which means: the phenomenon of religion. But this way through the forms of knowledge is different from the development of spirit in general. 'With reference to religion' this development cannot 'be represented in time'. Consequently, we find in the Phenomenology of Spirit a sequence of religions, which precede the 'revealed religion', that differs from the sequence in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. the sequence in the latter starts also with the 'natural religion'. But this form of religion is obviously related to the structure of the 'philosophy of nature' and not to that of the 'science of logic'. the first form of 'natural
8 Bonn: Bouvier 19822 (Hegel-Studien. Beiheft 8), see pp. 135-146.
9 H. Kimmerle (ed. ), Die Eigenbedeutung von Hegels Jenaer Systemkonzeptionen, Berlin: akademie Verlag 2004.
10 P. Cobben (ed. ), Hegel-Lexikon, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2006, pp. 44-50.
? religion of nature 9
religion' is the 'religion of light'. Pure light is characterised by differentia- tions within itself. it contains the same structure as the 'system of the sun' in the philosophies of nature from 1801 to 1804. then follow, similar to the historical sequence in the Lectures, the religions of plants and animals. in contrast to the historical explanations, the indian 'religion of flowers' gets a specifically positive place here. in 'conscious animal life' we encounter in the text of 1807, like in the Lectures, the first subjective form of religion. in addition to that, moral qualifications are connected already with this stage of 'natural religion'. in the Phenomenology, 'natural religion' is fol- lowed by the 'religion of art'. in the centre of this form of religion stands the 'living piece of art' in the feasts of certain gods in ancient greece. Here we find a clear accent on the concept of life. the 'revealed religion' of Christianity is the highest form of religion, which is identical to 'abso- lute knowledge' as the highest form of knowledge, as far as the content is concerned. 11 this is in accordance, of course, with the identity of 'absolute religion' and 'absolute philosophy' in the Encyclopaedia from 1817 on and in the Lectures on the philosophy of religion from 1821 on.
in the Systematic Drafts from 1802/03 until 1806, the 'philosophy of spirit' has a dominant position with regard to the 'philosophy of nature'. this is, however, only the case since the article on 'natural law', which is published in two parts in 1802 and 1803 in the Kritisches Journal der Philosophie, commonly edited by Hegel and Schelling. in this article, we can find the blunt formulation that 'spirit is higher than nature'. 12 in the Jena Systematic Drafts after that date, the 'philosophy of nature' neverthe- less still forms the main part of the system as far as size is concerned. in the Systematic Drafts of 1803/04 the text of the 'philosophy of nature' is unequally longer than that of the 'philosophy of spirit'. this prepon- derance of the 'philosophy of nature' only gradually becomes less in the Drafts of the following years: 1804/05 and 1805/06. in all these Drafts, the concept of life clearly plays an important role also in the 'philosophy of spirit' as the 'life of the spirit'. in the texts of 1803/04, we read in the 'phi- losophy of spirit' that the spirit as 'spirit of a people' returns to its 'absolutely
11 Hegel, Pha? nomenologie des Geistes, ed. W. Bonsiepen & R. Heede, in: Hegel, Gesam- melte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 9, 1980, pp. 363-421. the writings of the Jena-period are quoted from the critical edition. Quotations here are also my translation, (HK).
12 Hegel, Jenaer Kritische Schriften, ed. H. Buchner/o. Po? ggeler, in: Hegel, Gesammelte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 4, p. 484.
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general element', the 'ether', and consequently to the beginning of the 'philosophy of nature'. 13
The Concepts of Life and Nature in the Systematic Conception of 1800-1802 and Their Meaning for the Explanation of Religion
in the years 1800-1802, Hegel's 'system of philosophy' contains, different to the later conceptions, not three, but four parts. Part 1, the 'Science of the idea', is divided into a 'logic' as an introduction to metaphysics and a 'Metaphysics' as the explanation of the idea itself. the parts 2 and 3, as a 'Philosophy of nature' and a 'Philosophy of Spirit' respectively, show the reality of the idea. the 'Philosophy of nature' presents in the 'system of the sun' the principle of a unity, which is differentiated within itself. the development of nature on earth (the 'earthly system') starts from the multiplicity of phenomena in 'mechanism' and returns via 'chemism' to the mentioned type of unity in the 'organic'. in the 'Philosophy of Spirit' the idea presents itself as the unity of consciousness, which divides into different elements. then the idea "will summarise its . . . elements, repre- sentation and desire, which correspond to mechanism and chemism of nature, in itself. " as a following step the idea will, in correspondence with the organic in nature, organise 'the realm of needs and of law' and be real as the 'free people'. from here on, the 'system of philosophy' will" finally in the 4th part in the philosophy of religion and of art return to the pure idea and organise the perception of god. "14
this summary of the contents of the 'system of philosophy' of these years is taken over literally for most parts from the manuscript for his lectures in the winter-term 1801/02. Part 4, the 'Philosophy of religion and art', which stands for the 'philosophy of the absolute', is also labelled by Hegel with a Schellingian term 'philosophy of the absolute indifference'. this part returns, however (different from Schelling's conception, as we know it from his writings), to the 'pure idea', as it has been presented in part 1, the 'logic and Metaphysics'. in Schelling's conception of the 'system of philosophy' of that time, 'nature' and 'intelligence', the uncon- scious and the conscious way of producing, are united in the 'philosophy of art'. Hegel refers always, different from Schelling's conception, to both
13 Hegel, Jenaer Systementwu? rfe i (1803/04), ed. K. Du? sing/H. Kimmerle, in: Hegel, Gesammelte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 6, 1976, pp. 316 and 265-266.
14 Hegel, Schriften und Entwu? rfe (1799-1808), ed. M. Baum/K. R. Meist, in: Hegel, Gesam- melte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 5, 1998, pp. 257-265, 263-264.
? religion of nature 11
religion and art, which have to bring together what had been divided, 'nature and intelligence' or 'nature and spirit'. from 1801 on, it is clear for Hegel that, together with religion and art, also 'speculative philosophy' must lead to the return to the 'pure idea' of 'logic and metaphysics' and by that to the restoration of unity. in his book Differenz des Fichte'schen und Schelling'schen Systems der Philosophie, of which the preface is signed in 'July 1801', Hegel formulates as Schelling's conception, with which he agrees, but which is not documented in Schelling's texts, that 'religion,' as the middle-term between 'art' and 'speculative philosophy,' is 'the living perception of absolute life'. 15
these words refer directly to certain formulations in the System- fragment of 1800. in this text, Hegel does not yet speak of 'speculative philosophy' and the 'power to unite', which is inherent in it. 16 in this text-- actually, these are two texts or two text-fragments--philosophy remains bound to finite thinking. it produces series of oppositions, which tend to a higher unity, but do not reach their aim. only religion can lead to the highest unity and as a consequence to the experience of the infinite. therefore, 'philosophy must end up with religion'. in and with religion human beings are elevating themselves 'from finite life to infinite life'. the 'infinite whole [is] an infinite universe of life'. When man 'elevates himself to the living [universe], unites himself with it most ardently, then he worships god'. 17
the concept of life is obviously of fundamental importance, when reli- gion is taken into consideration. the same holds true for the 'system of philosophy' as a whole. the 'philosophy of nature' is dealing with natu- ral life, which is explained in the first instance as the 'system of the sky' that is called by Hegel--in his Habilitationsdissertation, which is written mainly in 1800--an 'animal'. 18 the 'system of the earth', from 'mechanism' via 'chemism' to 'the organic', is presented as the path towards life in the full sense of the word. the inner dynamics of spirit, by which it is pushed forward from one shape of the human world to the other, is thought of as the 'life of the spirit'. and the 'philosophy of the absolute indifference' is understood, as we have seen already, as a presentation of 'absolute life'.
15 Hegel, Jenaer Kritische Schriften, p. 76.
16 idem, p. 14.
17 Hegel, Fru? he Schriften, ed. e. Moldenhauer/K. M. Michel, Theorie-Werkausgabe, vol. 1,
frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1971, pp. 421-422. this edition is relatively reliable and for everybody at hand. i quote from it in my translation (HK).
18 Hegel, Schriften und Entwu? rfe (1799-1808), p. 237.
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the different parts of this 'system of philosophy' are not documented in the remaining passages of the Systemfragment of 1800. they can be recon- structed by using the information on the 'Philosophy of nature' and the 'Philosophy of Spirit', which we have from texts of the years 1801 and 1802. thus it becomes clear that not only the religious dimension of this system is strongly determined by the concepts of life and of nature, but all parts of that system. if this is the case, i dare say that Hegel's thought during this period can be characterised as 'animistic'. everything is understood as 'living', which means also that everything has a soul. the affinity of Hegel's thought in these years with Spinoza's philosophy, especially with the deus sive natura, underpins this interpretation. He contributes to the Spinoza- edition of H. e. g. Paulus, which appears in 1803. 19 Moreover, this affinity is also expressed by the fact that his metaphysics until 1803/04 is based on the Spinozian concept of 'substance'. only in the Systematic Drafts of 1804/05 fichte becomes more important for Hegel again and when the conception of the Phenomenology of 1807 is prepared, which says that there is a unity of 'substance and subjectivity'. 20
up to this point my considerations can be defended easily in the realm of recent Hegel-research.
However, the following step, which i will take, is new and therefore risky. this step is to a certain extent prepared by my contribution to the Rotterdam Hegel-symposium of 2003 on the specific meaning of the Jena systematic conceptions. in the already mentioned Differenzschrift of 1801, Hegel states, also in this respect clearly different from his later convictions, that philosophy 'has no history', but that its task is 'the same at all times', namely to grasp in concepts the conditions of its own time. 21 from an intercultural philosophical perspective, i have added to this statement, that philosophy then also will have this same task 'in all places' and 'in all cultures'. Correspondingly, i want to say here that the animistic conception of religion as it is worked out in Hegel's writings from 1800-1802, can be related to conceptions of the 'religion of nature' and their animistic way of thought as we find them in other cultures.
19 Hegel, Schriften und Entwu? rfe (1799-1808), pp. 513-516.
20 K. Du? sing, ? Von der Substanzmetapysik zur Philosophie der Subjektivita? t. Zum Para- digmenwechsel Hegels in Jena? , in: Kimmerle (ed. ), Die Eigenbedeutung von Hegels Jenaer Systemkonzeptionen, pp. 185-199.
21 H. Kimmerle, ? Das Verha? ltnis von Philosophie und geschichte am anfang der Jenaer Periode des Hegelschen Denkens und dessen aktuelle Bedeutung? , in: Die Eigenbedeutung von Hegels Jenaer Systemkonzeptionen, pp. 11-24.
? religion of nature 13
4. the 'Religion of Sorcery' as the first Concrete form of the 'Religion of nature' in Hegel's lectures Since 1821
General Description of the 'Religion of Sorcery' and Its Occurrence with the Eskimos
in paragraph 'b. the Concrete Representation' of the first chapter of Hegel's manuscript of 1821 for his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (in the lecture-notes of students from 1824 this paragraph is called 'b. Rep- resentation of god'), Hegel describes concrete forms of the 'religion of nature' in different cultures. He starts with the 'religion of sorcery'. in my critical reading, i will follow the text of the lecture-notes of 1824. as a general characteristic of this first concrete form of the 'religion of nature', it can be said that it expresses the 'power over nature', which the 'single self-consciousness' possesses or thinks to possess. Human beings can heal sick persons by magic practices or make rain, when it is needed. this power is something 'spiritual'. With the presence of something spiritual the presence of god in the world of man is given. in correspondence with the conceptual determination of the 'religion of nature' (see ii. 1) this is to be understood as the first concrete form of religion, which is not at the same time the foundation for the ensuing forms. the 'religion of sorcery' is described as the 'oldest' and the 'most wild and rude' form of religion.
for a more detailed description Hegel uses rather recent reports of trav- ellers (from 1819), which deal with the religion of the eskimos. the eski- mos call their sorcerers 'angekoks'. about them is reported that they have the power to make storm come up or calm it down, or to bring whales close to men. they do this by using words, making gestures and dancing until they lose consciousness. the eskimos do not have any 'figure, human being, animal, or anything like that to worship'. according to the notes of Jaeschke, related to this passage, Hegel has not read well or not taken over carefully the reports about dancing. the reports on dancing refer to general cultural habits and not specifically to religious forms of conjura- tion. (l2 24, 272-275/176-179) Hegel finds the 'religion of sorcery' also in Mongolia, in africa and in China.
The African Form of the 'Religion of Sorcery'
for his extensive descriptions of the 'religion of sorcery' in africa, Hegel quotes from the reports of missionaries, especially of the Capuchin
14 heinz kimmerle
J. a. Cavacci from 1694 (original italian edition 1687). 22 Hegel is aware of the fact that these reports are old and little trustworthy, because the mis- sionaries are partial when they talk about non-Christian religious habits and representations. However, he does not take pains to get more recent and more trustworthy sources, which were certainly available for him. He takes over the stories of Cavacci almost literally. these stories contain conjuration of bad spirits by strange and exotic means, healing of sick people with most cruel practices and a lot of killing and cannibalism at different occasions. no critical remark is made by Hegel when he quotes from these one-sided stories. He describes in a somewhat more adequate way the knowledge and practices of the rainmakers. these people know much about weather conditions, but they also use magic practices and certain forms of conjuration. this corresponds to the facts. the magic practices, however, have highly negative connotations. in a similar way is spoken about medicine men and -women. they have extensive knowl- edge of healing herbs, but combine it with magic practices. in addition, they take social relations into consideration when they heal sick persons. (l2 24, 274-281/179-185; 281-293/185-197)
Hegel regards the way of doing things by the traditional healers as a higher type of sorcery. He speaks of 'indirect' or 'mediated sorcery'. the healing herbs are the means, by which the power of sorcery can work. a reflection is at stake, a spiritual procedure, which interrupts the direct operation of the power of sorcery. Hegel deems it important that some kind of 'objectification' takes place here. the subject matter of religious worship becomes partly independent, gets the form of a self-reliant object. in this context, fetishism is discussed, which is rather important for afri- can religion. Plants, animals, rocks, rivers and also artefacts can be adored or worshipped. they have the function to protect the house, village or city or to create a holy place. according to Hegel all this is part of the lowest and rudest form of religion. one step higher leads to the religion of the Chinese empire, where all power of sorcery, all power over nature and over humans, is concentrated in one person, the emperor. this form of the
22 Cf. Walter Jaeschke in Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manu- skripte. vol. 4b, 1985, pp. 839-840. Jaeschke gives the exact reference of the book of Cavacci, from which he takes extensive documentation of the context of Hegel's quotations: J. a. Cavacci, Historische Beschreibung der in dem unteren occidentalischen Mohrenland ligenden drey Ko? nigreichen Congo, Matamba, und angola. und derjenigen apostolischen Missionen so von denen P. P. Capucinern daselbst verrichtet worden . . . auss dem Welschen in die teutsche Sprache u? bersetzt, Mu? nchen: 1694.
? religion of nature 15
'religion of sorcery' is not discussed here. as mentioned above, the ancient Chinese religion is not in every year when Hegel has given these lectures, subsumed under the lowest form of religion. like the indian and egyptian religions in those cases, it is part of the 'religion of imagination'.
5. 'Religion of Spirits' in traditional african thought
The Belief in Spirits and the Animist Religion
Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (since 1821) are related to the chapter on 'Revealed Religion' in the Encyclopaedia of philosophical sciences (1st edition 1817). they provide, so to speak, the prehistory of the concrete religion of spirit, the revealed religion of Christianity, which has the same contents as the absolute truth of absolute philosophy. the 'religion of life', which is documented in Hegel's systematic writing of the years 1800-1802, is also related to philosophy in an essential way. in 1800, religion is higher than philosophy, because philosophy is restricted to finite thinking. in 1801 and 1802, religion and philosophy are on the same level: the absolute self-consciousness of life is expressed in the religious language of representations or in the philosophical language of concepts. However, there is no prehistory of the absolute religion of Christianity. if i provide in the following text some details about the african religion of life as we can know it today, this will not be part of such a prehistory of the Christian religion. it is the explanation of a religion of life, which shows in a different, but equivalent way, what the details of such a religion can look like.
there is no direct relation between Hegel's ideas about a 'religion of life' and the concrete form of this religion in sub-Saharan africa. nev- ertheless, it should be said that Hegel in this period has thought about africa much more positive than in his later conception, when africa is not part of world-history at all. 23 it can be made credible that the rebellion of the slaves in Haiti in 1802/03, the self-liberation of the black slaves of this island, has inspired Hegel for his conceptualisation of the dialectics between master and servant. 24 in the Systematic Drafts of 1803/04, Hegel does not yet speak of the dialectics between master and servant like in
23 See note 26.
24 S. Buck-Morss, 'Hegel and Haiti', in: S. Hassan & i. Dadi (eds), Unpacking Europe. A Critical Reading, Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen 2001, pp. 42-70.
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the famous chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit, but of a sudden turn in the relation between master and slave. 25
it is in general necessary to depart from a different appreciation of afri- can and other non-Western cultures than Hegel and his time did. other- wise, it would not make sense to connect the 'religion of life' in Hegel's philosophy of 1800-1802 to the traditional animistic religion of african peoples south to the Sahara. these cultures have been regarded as primi- tive by a colonial ideology, which has been justified philosophically also by Hegel in his later writings. as i have mentioned already, the later Hegel in his philosophy of history does not situate africa on the lowest level of world-history, but totally outside of it. 26 if we presently work on a decolo- nisation of the mind, it is part of this endeavour to come to a new esti- mation of animism as the traditional african religion. 'life' is the central notion of traditional african thought and religion. the whole universe, nature on earth and the human world are parts of the interplay of the forces of life. all beings in this interplay have a soul. that is also expressed by the idea that all beings can be the dwelling place of spirits. therefore, the traditional animistic african religion can be characterised as a 'reli- gion of spirits'.
With regard to the dwelling of spirits in all beings, one difference is important: their presence in the visible and the invisible world. 27 in the visible world, the spirits are united to things in nature and to human beings. in the invisible world they exist without such a union, but purely as spirits. they have some kind of a non-physical bodily existence. the vis- ible and the invisible world, however, are not separated from each other. they exist on the same scene. therefore, it would be more adequate to speak of a visible and an invisible dimension of the world.
When a human being passes away, his spirit leaves his body and exists from this moment on purely as a spirit. the spirits of the deceased or more in general of the ancestors, play an important role for the now liv- ing people. the spirits can also dwell in natural things. this makes of the belief in spirits an animistic religion. indeed, animals, plants, rivers,
25 Hegel, Jenaer Systementwu? rfe i (1803/04), p. 311.
26 H. Kimmerle, 'Hegel und afrika', in: Die Dimension des Interkulturellen, amsterdam/ atlanta: Rodopi 1994, pp. 85-112, especially 109-112.
27 See for the following text: H. Kimmerle, 'the world of spirits and the respect for nature: towards a new appreciation of animism' in: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, vol. 2, 2006, pp. 249-263. the most important sources for this article are: g. Parrinder, African Traditional Religion, london: Sheldon Press 19743 and t. fourche & H. Morlichem, Une bible noire, Brussels: Max arnold 1973.
? religion of nature 17
rocks etc. have a soul, for spirits can dwell in them. trees are preferred as dwelling places of spirits. they are bigger, stronger and older than human beings are. their tops reach high into the air so that they can easier make contact with the invisible world of spirits.
there are not only good, but also bad spirits. in the universe, in nature and in the human world harmonious relations are presupposed. that is the case as long as the good spirits prevail over the bad. Human beings or the spirits within them have the task to help maintaining the harmony by contributing to the preponderance of the good spirits. 28 When we consider, what happens presently in and between african countries (the mutual genocide of Hutu and tutsi in Rwanda, the struggles between Hema and lendu in eastern Congo or the long lasting civil war between Moslems and Christians in Sudan and nigeria), we can have heavy doubts about the maintenance of harmonic relations in the universe and in the human world. it is not easy to understand these horrible events. We do not know what really is at stake for the people concerned. it might be possible to compare these events with the terrible stories, which Hegel takes over from Cavazzi. However, also in other parts of world we find different esti- mations of the value of human life than in the West. Just think of the suicide-attacks of Moslem-fighters against their enemies in the western world and even against fellow-citizens and fellow-believers. also in the West, we have experienced horrible examples of genocides in recent times. Stories about the conduct of uS-american soldiers towards prison- ers of war in iraq or in guantanamo testify to exorbitant cruelty.
in african traditional religion the spirits in natural things and those of the ancestors exist close to the now living people, so to speak on the same scene, as i have said already. independently from them there is a Supreme Being, far away, somewhere in heaven, from where He reigns the universe. in certain parts of West africa, there is also a belief in deities, who live in between the spirits and the Supreme Being. they take care of the fertility of the land and of the women, of good weather conditions, preponderance in war situations etc. in many cases, they are responsible for the well- being of certain regions and the people who live there. the Yoruba who live in the present states of nigeria, Benin and niger believe in hundreds of deities with specific tasks. 29
28 M. B. Ramose, African Philosophy through Ubuntu, Harare: Mond Books 1999.
29 Ch. Staewen, Ifa--African Gods Speak. The Oracle of the Yoruba in Nigeria, Hamburg: litVerlag 1996.
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African Philosophers About Animism and the Belief in Spirits
african philosophers have no problem with the religious beliefs of their peoples. they do not find that the belief in spirits is in opposition to a rational way of thought. according to them, spirituality and rationality are not contradictory. i could give many examples for that from the writings of odera oruka from Kenya, appiah from ghana, oluwole from nigeria, among others. 30 gyekye from ghana is critical in respect of the belief in spirits. nevertheless, he does not contest the belief in spirits as such. He is afraid that an "excessive and incessant attention to the ancestors" and what they would have done in the present situation is "an impediment to the cultivation of the innovative spirit or outlook required for making progress in the . . . transition to modernity. " instead, he pleads for an adap- tation of the " 'pristine values and attitudes' to the 'setting of the present'. " Struggling against excessive corruption, he tries to reanimate traditional values under changed conditions. traditional harmonious relations in the human communities are highly appreciated by him: mutual support for each other, especially for those who are in need or in dangerous situa- tions. also in this respect, he warns for sticking in an uncritical way to the traditional ways of thinking and acting. in a final analysis, he suggests for the relations in the human world a "moderate communitarianism. "31
Conclusions
in most of the african countries south to the Sahara, Christianity and islam are the biggest religions. in their present form, they have taken over many elements from animism. also traditional animist representa- tions and practices still exist. 'Black islam' in the countries directly under the Sahara is impregnated by the belief in spirits and the magic powers of their religious leaders. 32 Moreover, within the big number of Christian
30 H.
the finite (of all things) presupposes the infinite However, the finite is.
then is also the infinite.
like the way in which the notion of 'Being' is used in the determination of the 'Religion of nature', this proof of the existence of god is also defi- cient; it is abstract and restricted in its validity. What happens here, is not that god is given 'being', but that 'being' is given god. individual, finite things are made general by giving them a spiritual meaning. But the idea of god, which is expressed in this statement, is not 'adequate' to a 'more profound' explanation. the 'Religion of nature' as a whole cannot really be regarded as a religion at all, at the most as a 'heathen religion' or--Hegel is using a term of goethe here--an 'ethnic religion'.
Because Hegel is uncertain about the 'Religion of nature' as a real reli- gion, the german theologian R. leuze, in his study on 'the non-Christian religions in Hegel's philosophy of religion'--a study which is called a standard work on this subject matter by Jaeschke6--, completely leaves out this form of religion. in contrast to what Hegel himself does, leuze decides, on account of its uncertain status as a religion, not to deal with the 'Religion of nature'. He starts with the religion of the Chinese empire, which comes under the 'Religions of nature' in some years of Hegel's Lec- tures, in others not. 7
The Concept of Nature in the 'Religion of Spirit'
We have seen, that the sentence: 'there is a sensual awareness of nature . . . as god' may not be understood as an expression of pantheism in the sense of Spinoza. Moreover, 'being' as it is used in the explanation of the 'Religion of nature' is not 'being' in the full, concrete meaning of this notion. Both of these critical statements by Hegel about the 'Religion of nature' can be traced back to the concept of nature in the 'Religion of spirit'. for
6 Cf. Walter Jaeschke in: Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manu- skripte. vol. 4b, Hamburg: Meiner 1985, p. 653.
7 R. leuze, Die ausserchristlichen Religionen bei Hegel, go? ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht 1975, pp. 9-10.
? religion of nature 7
in this concept, nature is restricted to 'fixed', finite things. in the 'religion of nature' as part of the 'religion of spirit', to worship the 'sun . . . stars, river, sea', the 'sky in general' has to do with an 'undetermined conscious- ness of a mighty being, something mighty, a benevolent spirit'. Such rep- resentations miss clear determinations, which in modern pantheism are applied e. g. to the sun. it is thought of as a ball of a certain kind and mat- ter, surrounded by planets, circling around it according to firm rules. in modern pantheism, in contrast to the 'Religion of nature', finite things are therefore made into something general in a determined way.
in a more developed form of the 'Religion of nature', the power of nature is present in subjective natural beings in a more intensive way than in things. in this connection, animals are mentioned; and on an even higher level human beings. But no firm ontological status is given to those ani- mals or human beings that can make use of the power of nature. they are 'purely immediate, natural' beings, and as such thought of in an 'inadequate' way. their generality is only one of representation or will, not of thinking.
Spirit cannot recognise itself adequately in this concept of nature. Because of the undetermined 'dark' character of the power of nature in the 'religion of nature', the mind is filled with fear, with unclear desires and feelings of scare. 'Coincidental and arbitrary connections' are made. nature is somehow independent, on its own, and ducks out of the uni- versal functions of spirit, which give structure to everything. 'the unity of man and nature', a saying that is often used, is wrong according to Hegel. it should be: the unity of man and 'his nature'. and the nature of man is 'freedom, being spirit'. Due to the presupposed universal determina- tion of all that is by spirit, Hegel cannot understand nature as a meaning- ful whole in itself in which specific natural things have their determined place. in this conception, the attitude of man is not primarily a receiving one with regard to nature as an independent whole.
3. 'Religion of nature' in an earlier Period of Hegel's Writings
The Concepts of Life and Nature in Hegel's Conception of Religion in 1800-1802
it is amazing that in an earlier phase of his thought Hegel defends a con- cept of nature, which is clearly understood as an independent whole that is on the same level as the human world or even can claim priority with regard to the latter. When he started to build up a 'system of philosophy'
8 heinz kimmerle
of his own in the years 1800-1802, philosophy of nature methodologically formed the main part of it. the concept of life was the basic concept of this system. the contents and the structure of this system of philosophy is examined in my earlier research and published in my book: Das Prob- lem der Abgeschlossenheit des Denkens. Hegels 'System der Philosophie' in den Jahren 1800 bis 1804. 8 in the meantime, it is generally recognised that Hegel's systematic drafts of his early Jena period (including some texts of his last year in frankfurt) have a specific meaning, which is different from his later systematic conceptions. 9 this is also documented in the Hegel- Lexikon, which has recently become available. 10
Traces of Earlier Concepts of Life and of Nature in the Explanation of Religion in the Phenomenology of Spirit of 1807 and in the Systematic Drafts from 1802/03 until 1806
Before going into details about the concepts of life and nature and their meaning for the explanation of religion in the systematic conception of the years 1800-1802, i will show which traces of these conceptions still can be found in the Phenomenology of Spirit of 1807 and in the Systematic Drafts from 1802/03 until 1806. in a certain sense traces like these can also be identified in the later work of Hegel.
the path, which is followed in the Phenomenology of Spirit from cer- tainty on the basis of sense data through all forms of knowledge to the 'certainty of the spirit of itself' finally results in the 'consciousness of the absolute being', which means: the phenomenon of religion. But this way through the forms of knowledge is different from the development of spirit in general. 'With reference to religion' this development cannot 'be represented in time'. Consequently, we find in the Phenomenology of Spirit a sequence of religions, which precede the 'revealed religion', that differs from the sequence in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. the sequence in the latter starts also with the 'natural religion'. But this form of religion is obviously related to the structure of the 'philosophy of nature' and not to that of the 'science of logic'. the first form of 'natural
8 Bonn: Bouvier 19822 (Hegel-Studien. Beiheft 8), see pp. 135-146.
9 H. Kimmerle (ed. ), Die Eigenbedeutung von Hegels Jenaer Systemkonzeptionen, Berlin: akademie Verlag 2004.
10 P. Cobben (ed. ), Hegel-Lexikon, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2006, pp. 44-50.
? religion of nature 9
religion' is the 'religion of light'. Pure light is characterised by differentia- tions within itself. it contains the same structure as the 'system of the sun' in the philosophies of nature from 1801 to 1804. then follow, similar to the historical sequence in the Lectures, the religions of plants and animals. in contrast to the historical explanations, the indian 'religion of flowers' gets a specifically positive place here. in 'conscious animal life' we encounter in the text of 1807, like in the Lectures, the first subjective form of religion. in addition to that, moral qualifications are connected already with this stage of 'natural religion'. in the Phenomenology, 'natural religion' is fol- lowed by the 'religion of art'. in the centre of this form of religion stands the 'living piece of art' in the feasts of certain gods in ancient greece. Here we find a clear accent on the concept of life. the 'revealed religion' of Christianity is the highest form of religion, which is identical to 'abso- lute knowledge' as the highest form of knowledge, as far as the content is concerned. 11 this is in accordance, of course, with the identity of 'absolute religion' and 'absolute philosophy' in the Encyclopaedia from 1817 on and in the Lectures on the philosophy of religion from 1821 on.
in the Systematic Drafts from 1802/03 until 1806, the 'philosophy of spirit' has a dominant position with regard to the 'philosophy of nature'. this is, however, only the case since the article on 'natural law', which is published in two parts in 1802 and 1803 in the Kritisches Journal der Philosophie, commonly edited by Hegel and Schelling. in this article, we can find the blunt formulation that 'spirit is higher than nature'. 12 in the Jena Systematic Drafts after that date, the 'philosophy of nature' neverthe- less still forms the main part of the system as far as size is concerned. in the Systematic Drafts of 1803/04 the text of the 'philosophy of nature' is unequally longer than that of the 'philosophy of spirit'. this prepon- derance of the 'philosophy of nature' only gradually becomes less in the Drafts of the following years: 1804/05 and 1805/06. in all these Drafts, the concept of life clearly plays an important role also in the 'philosophy of spirit' as the 'life of the spirit'. in the texts of 1803/04, we read in the 'phi- losophy of spirit' that the spirit as 'spirit of a people' returns to its 'absolutely
11 Hegel, Pha? nomenologie des Geistes, ed. W. Bonsiepen & R. Heede, in: Hegel, Gesam- melte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 9, 1980, pp. 363-421. the writings of the Jena-period are quoted from the critical edition. Quotations here are also my translation, (HK).
12 Hegel, Jenaer Kritische Schriften, ed. H. Buchner/o. Po? ggeler, in: Hegel, Gesammelte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 4, p. 484.
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general element', the 'ether', and consequently to the beginning of the 'philosophy of nature'. 13
The Concepts of Life and Nature in the Systematic Conception of 1800-1802 and Their Meaning for the Explanation of Religion
in the years 1800-1802, Hegel's 'system of philosophy' contains, different to the later conceptions, not three, but four parts. Part 1, the 'Science of the idea', is divided into a 'logic' as an introduction to metaphysics and a 'Metaphysics' as the explanation of the idea itself. the parts 2 and 3, as a 'Philosophy of nature' and a 'Philosophy of Spirit' respectively, show the reality of the idea. the 'Philosophy of nature' presents in the 'system of the sun' the principle of a unity, which is differentiated within itself. the development of nature on earth (the 'earthly system') starts from the multiplicity of phenomena in 'mechanism' and returns via 'chemism' to the mentioned type of unity in the 'organic'. in the 'Philosophy of Spirit' the idea presents itself as the unity of consciousness, which divides into different elements. then the idea "will summarise its . . . elements, repre- sentation and desire, which correspond to mechanism and chemism of nature, in itself. " as a following step the idea will, in correspondence with the organic in nature, organise 'the realm of needs and of law' and be real as the 'free people'. from here on, the 'system of philosophy' will" finally in the 4th part in the philosophy of religion and of art return to the pure idea and organise the perception of god. "14
this summary of the contents of the 'system of philosophy' of these years is taken over literally for most parts from the manuscript for his lectures in the winter-term 1801/02. Part 4, the 'Philosophy of religion and art', which stands for the 'philosophy of the absolute', is also labelled by Hegel with a Schellingian term 'philosophy of the absolute indifference'. this part returns, however (different from Schelling's conception, as we know it from his writings), to the 'pure idea', as it has been presented in part 1, the 'logic and Metaphysics'. in Schelling's conception of the 'system of philosophy' of that time, 'nature' and 'intelligence', the uncon- scious and the conscious way of producing, are united in the 'philosophy of art'. Hegel refers always, different from Schelling's conception, to both
13 Hegel, Jenaer Systementwu? rfe i (1803/04), ed. K. Du? sing/H. Kimmerle, in: Hegel, Gesammelte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 6, 1976, pp. 316 and 265-266.
14 Hegel, Schriften und Entwu? rfe (1799-1808), ed. M. Baum/K. R. Meist, in: Hegel, Gesam- melte Werke, Hamburg: Meiner, vol. 5, 1998, pp. 257-265, 263-264.
? religion of nature 11
religion and art, which have to bring together what had been divided, 'nature and intelligence' or 'nature and spirit'. from 1801 on, it is clear for Hegel that, together with religion and art, also 'speculative philosophy' must lead to the return to the 'pure idea' of 'logic and metaphysics' and by that to the restoration of unity. in his book Differenz des Fichte'schen und Schelling'schen Systems der Philosophie, of which the preface is signed in 'July 1801', Hegel formulates as Schelling's conception, with which he agrees, but which is not documented in Schelling's texts, that 'religion,' as the middle-term between 'art' and 'speculative philosophy,' is 'the living perception of absolute life'. 15
these words refer directly to certain formulations in the System- fragment of 1800. in this text, Hegel does not yet speak of 'speculative philosophy' and the 'power to unite', which is inherent in it. 16 in this text-- actually, these are two texts or two text-fragments--philosophy remains bound to finite thinking. it produces series of oppositions, which tend to a higher unity, but do not reach their aim. only religion can lead to the highest unity and as a consequence to the experience of the infinite. therefore, 'philosophy must end up with religion'. in and with religion human beings are elevating themselves 'from finite life to infinite life'. the 'infinite whole [is] an infinite universe of life'. When man 'elevates himself to the living [universe], unites himself with it most ardently, then he worships god'. 17
the concept of life is obviously of fundamental importance, when reli- gion is taken into consideration. the same holds true for the 'system of philosophy' as a whole. the 'philosophy of nature' is dealing with natu- ral life, which is explained in the first instance as the 'system of the sky' that is called by Hegel--in his Habilitationsdissertation, which is written mainly in 1800--an 'animal'. 18 the 'system of the earth', from 'mechanism' via 'chemism' to 'the organic', is presented as the path towards life in the full sense of the word. the inner dynamics of spirit, by which it is pushed forward from one shape of the human world to the other, is thought of as the 'life of the spirit'. and the 'philosophy of the absolute indifference' is understood, as we have seen already, as a presentation of 'absolute life'.
15 Hegel, Jenaer Kritische Schriften, p. 76.
16 idem, p. 14.
17 Hegel, Fru? he Schriften, ed. e. Moldenhauer/K. M. Michel, Theorie-Werkausgabe, vol. 1,
frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1971, pp. 421-422. this edition is relatively reliable and for everybody at hand. i quote from it in my translation (HK).
18 Hegel, Schriften und Entwu? rfe (1799-1808), p. 237.
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the different parts of this 'system of philosophy' are not documented in the remaining passages of the Systemfragment of 1800. they can be recon- structed by using the information on the 'Philosophy of nature' and the 'Philosophy of Spirit', which we have from texts of the years 1801 and 1802. thus it becomes clear that not only the religious dimension of this system is strongly determined by the concepts of life and of nature, but all parts of that system. if this is the case, i dare say that Hegel's thought during this period can be characterised as 'animistic'. everything is understood as 'living', which means also that everything has a soul. the affinity of Hegel's thought in these years with Spinoza's philosophy, especially with the deus sive natura, underpins this interpretation. He contributes to the Spinoza- edition of H. e. g. Paulus, which appears in 1803. 19 Moreover, this affinity is also expressed by the fact that his metaphysics until 1803/04 is based on the Spinozian concept of 'substance'. only in the Systematic Drafts of 1804/05 fichte becomes more important for Hegel again and when the conception of the Phenomenology of 1807 is prepared, which says that there is a unity of 'substance and subjectivity'. 20
up to this point my considerations can be defended easily in the realm of recent Hegel-research.
However, the following step, which i will take, is new and therefore risky. this step is to a certain extent prepared by my contribution to the Rotterdam Hegel-symposium of 2003 on the specific meaning of the Jena systematic conceptions. in the already mentioned Differenzschrift of 1801, Hegel states, also in this respect clearly different from his later convictions, that philosophy 'has no history', but that its task is 'the same at all times', namely to grasp in concepts the conditions of its own time. 21 from an intercultural philosophical perspective, i have added to this statement, that philosophy then also will have this same task 'in all places' and 'in all cultures'. Correspondingly, i want to say here that the animistic conception of religion as it is worked out in Hegel's writings from 1800-1802, can be related to conceptions of the 'religion of nature' and their animistic way of thought as we find them in other cultures.
19 Hegel, Schriften und Entwu? rfe (1799-1808), pp. 513-516.
20 K. Du? sing, ? Von der Substanzmetapysik zur Philosophie der Subjektivita? t. Zum Para- digmenwechsel Hegels in Jena? , in: Kimmerle (ed. ), Die Eigenbedeutung von Hegels Jenaer Systemkonzeptionen, pp. 185-199.
21 H. Kimmerle, ? Das Verha? ltnis von Philosophie und geschichte am anfang der Jenaer Periode des Hegelschen Denkens und dessen aktuelle Bedeutung? , in: Die Eigenbedeutung von Hegels Jenaer Systemkonzeptionen, pp. 11-24.
? religion of nature 13
4. the 'Religion of Sorcery' as the first Concrete form of the 'Religion of nature' in Hegel's lectures Since 1821
General Description of the 'Religion of Sorcery' and Its Occurrence with the Eskimos
in paragraph 'b. the Concrete Representation' of the first chapter of Hegel's manuscript of 1821 for his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (in the lecture-notes of students from 1824 this paragraph is called 'b. Rep- resentation of god'), Hegel describes concrete forms of the 'religion of nature' in different cultures. He starts with the 'religion of sorcery'. in my critical reading, i will follow the text of the lecture-notes of 1824. as a general characteristic of this first concrete form of the 'religion of nature', it can be said that it expresses the 'power over nature', which the 'single self-consciousness' possesses or thinks to possess. Human beings can heal sick persons by magic practices or make rain, when it is needed. this power is something 'spiritual'. With the presence of something spiritual the presence of god in the world of man is given. in correspondence with the conceptual determination of the 'religion of nature' (see ii. 1) this is to be understood as the first concrete form of religion, which is not at the same time the foundation for the ensuing forms. the 'religion of sorcery' is described as the 'oldest' and the 'most wild and rude' form of religion.
for a more detailed description Hegel uses rather recent reports of trav- ellers (from 1819), which deal with the religion of the eskimos. the eski- mos call their sorcerers 'angekoks'. about them is reported that they have the power to make storm come up or calm it down, or to bring whales close to men. they do this by using words, making gestures and dancing until they lose consciousness. the eskimos do not have any 'figure, human being, animal, or anything like that to worship'. according to the notes of Jaeschke, related to this passage, Hegel has not read well or not taken over carefully the reports about dancing. the reports on dancing refer to general cultural habits and not specifically to religious forms of conjura- tion. (l2 24, 272-275/176-179) Hegel finds the 'religion of sorcery' also in Mongolia, in africa and in China.
The African Form of the 'Religion of Sorcery'
for his extensive descriptions of the 'religion of sorcery' in africa, Hegel quotes from the reports of missionaries, especially of the Capuchin
14 heinz kimmerle
J. a. Cavacci from 1694 (original italian edition 1687). 22 Hegel is aware of the fact that these reports are old and little trustworthy, because the mis- sionaries are partial when they talk about non-Christian religious habits and representations. However, he does not take pains to get more recent and more trustworthy sources, which were certainly available for him. He takes over the stories of Cavacci almost literally. these stories contain conjuration of bad spirits by strange and exotic means, healing of sick people with most cruel practices and a lot of killing and cannibalism at different occasions. no critical remark is made by Hegel when he quotes from these one-sided stories. He describes in a somewhat more adequate way the knowledge and practices of the rainmakers. these people know much about weather conditions, but they also use magic practices and certain forms of conjuration. this corresponds to the facts. the magic practices, however, have highly negative connotations. in a similar way is spoken about medicine men and -women. they have extensive knowl- edge of healing herbs, but combine it with magic practices. in addition, they take social relations into consideration when they heal sick persons. (l2 24, 274-281/179-185; 281-293/185-197)
Hegel regards the way of doing things by the traditional healers as a higher type of sorcery. He speaks of 'indirect' or 'mediated sorcery'. the healing herbs are the means, by which the power of sorcery can work. a reflection is at stake, a spiritual procedure, which interrupts the direct operation of the power of sorcery. Hegel deems it important that some kind of 'objectification' takes place here. the subject matter of religious worship becomes partly independent, gets the form of a self-reliant object. in this context, fetishism is discussed, which is rather important for afri- can religion. Plants, animals, rocks, rivers and also artefacts can be adored or worshipped. they have the function to protect the house, village or city or to create a holy place. according to Hegel all this is part of the lowest and rudest form of religion. one step higher leads to the religion of the Chinese empire, where all power of sorcery, all power over nature and over humans, is concentrated in one person, the emperor. this form of the
22 Cf. Walter Jaeschke in Hegel, Vorlesungen. Ausgewa? hlte Nachschriften und Manu- skripte. vol. 4b, 1985, pp. 839-840. Jaeschke gives the exact reference of the book of Cavacci, from which he takes extensive documentation of the context of Hegel's quotations: J. a. Cavacci, Historische Beschreibung der in dem unteren occidentalischen Mohrenland ligenden drey Ko? nigreichen Congo, Matamba, und angola. und derjenigen apostolischen Missionen so von denen P. P. Capucinern daselbst verrichtet worden . . . auss dem Welschen in die teutsche Sprache u? bersetzt, Mu? nchen: 1694.
? religion of nature 15
'religion of sorcery' is not discussed here. as mentioned above, the ancient Chinese religion is not in every year when Hegel has given these lectures, subsumed under the lowest form of religion. like the indian and egyptian religions in those cases, it is part of the 'religion of imagination'.
5. 'Religion of Spirits' in traditional african thought
The Belief in Spirits and the Animist Religion
Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (since 1821) are related to the chapter on 'Revealed Religion' in the Encyclopaedia of philosophical sciences (1st edition 1817). they provide, so to speak, the prehistory of the concrete religion of spirit, the revealed religion of Christianity, which has the same contents as the absolute truth of absolute philosophy. the 'religion of life', which is documented in Hegel's systematic writing of the years 1800-1802, is also related to philosophy in an essential way. in 1800, religion is higher than philosophy, because philosophy is restricted to finite thinking. in 1801 and 1802, religion and philosophy are on the same level: the absolute self-consciousness of life is expressed in the religious language of representations or in the philosophical language of concepts. However, there is no prehistory of the absolute religion of Christianity. if i provide in the following text some details about the african religion of life as we can know it today, this will not be part of such a prehistory of the Christian religion. it is the explanation of a religion of life, which shows in a different, but equivalent way, what the details of such a religion can look like.
there is no direct relation between Hegel's ideas about a 'religion of life' and the concrete form of this religion in sub-Saharan africa. nev- ertheless, it should be said that Hegel in this period has thought about africa much more positive than in his later conception, when africa is not part of world-history at all. 23 it can be made credible that the rebellion of the slaves in Haiti in 1802/03, the self-liberation of the black slaves of this island, has inspired Hegel for his conceptualisation of the dialectics between master and servant. 24 in the Systematic Drafts of 1803/04, Hegel does not yet speak of the dialectics between master and servant like in
23 See note 26.
24 S. Buck-Morss, 'Hegel and Haiti', in: S. Hassan & i. Dadi (eds), Unpacking Europe. A Critical Reading, Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen 2001, pp. 42-70.
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the famous chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit, but of a sudden turn in the relation between master and slave. 25
it is in general necessary to depart from a different appreciation of afri- can and other non-Western cultures than Hegel and his time did. other- wise, it would not make sense to connect the 'religion of life' in Hegel's philosophy of 1800-1802 to the traditional animistic religion of african peoples south to the Sahara. these cultures have been regarded as primi- tive by a colonial ideology, which has been justified philosophically also by Hegel in his later writings. as i have mentioned already, the later Hegel in his philosophy of history does not situate africa on the lowest level of world-history, but totally outside of it. 26 if we presently work on a decolo- nisation of the mind, it is part of this endeavour to come to a new esti- mation of animism as the traditional african religion. 'life' is the central notion of traditional african thought and religion. the whole universe, nature on earth and the human world are parts of the interplay of the forces of life. all beings in this interplay have a soul. that is also expressed by the idea that all beings can be the dwelling place of spirits. therefore, the traditional animistic african religion can be characterised as a 'reli- gion of spirits'.
With regard to the dwelling of spirits in all beings, one difference is important: their presence in the visible and the invisible world. 27 in the visible world, the spirits are united to things in nature and to human beings. in the invisible world they exist without such a union, but purely as spirits. they have some kind of a non-physical bodily existence. the vis- ible and the invisible world, however, are not separated from each other. they exist on the same scene. therefore, it would be more adequate to speak of a visible and an invisible dimension of the world.
When a human being passes away, his spirit leaves his body and exists from this moment on purely as a spirit. the spirits of the deceased or more in general of the ancestors, play an important role for the now liv- ing people. the spirits can also dwell in natural things. this makes of the belief in spirits an animistic religion. indeed, animals, plants, rivers,
25 Hegel, Jenaer Systementwu? rfe i (1803/04), p. 311.
26 H. Kimmerle, 'Hegel und afrika', in: Die Dimension des Interkulturellen, amsterdam/ atlanta: Rodopi 1994, pp. 85-112, especially 109-112.
27 See for the following text: H. Kimmerle, 'the world of spirits and the respect for nature: towards a new appreciation of animism' in: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, vol. 2, 2006, pp. 249-263. the most important sources for this article are: g. Parrinder, African Traditional Religion, london: Sheldon Press 19743 and t. fourche & H. Morlichem, Une bible noire, Brussels: Max arnold 1973.
? religion of nature 17
rocks etc. have a soul, for spirits can dwell in them. trees are preferred as dwelling places of spirits. they are bigger, stronger and older than human beings are. their tops reach high into the air so that they can easier make contact with the invisible world of spirits.
there are not only good, but also bad spirits. in the universe, in nature and in the human world harmonious relations are presupposed. that is the case as long as the good spirits prevail over the bad. Human beings or the spirits within them have the task to help maintaining the harmony by contributing to the preponderance of the good spirits. 28 When we consider, what happens presently in and between african countries (the mutual genocide of Hutu and tutsi in Rwanda, the struggles between Hema and lendu in eastern Congo or the long lasting civil war between Moslems and Christians in Sudan and nigeria), we can have heavy doubts about the maintenance of harmonic relations in the universe and in the human world. it is not easy to understand these horrible events. We do not know what really is at stake for the people concerned. it might be possible to compare these events with the terrible stories, which Hegel takes over from Cavazzi. However, also in other parts of world we find different esti- mations of the value of human life than in the West. Just think of the suicide-attacks of Moslem-fighters against their enemies in the western world and even against fellow-citizens and fellow-believers. also in the West, we have experienced horrible examples of genocides in recent times. Stories about the conduct of uS-american soldiers towards prison- ers of war in iraq or in guantanamo testify to exorbitant cruelty.
in african traditional religion the spirits in natural things and those of the ancestors exist close to the now living people, so to speak on the same scene, as i have said already. independently from them there is a Supreme Being, far away, somewhere in heaven, from where He reigns the universe. in certain parts of West africa, there is also a belief in deities, who live in between the spirits and the Supreme Being. they take care of the fertility of the land and of the women, of good weather conditions, preponderance in war situations etc. in many cases, they are responsible for the well- being of certain regions and the people who live there. the Yoruba who live in the present states of nigeria, Benin and niger believe in hundreds of deities with specific tasks. 29
28 M. B. Ramose, African Philosophy through Ubuntu, Harare: Mond Books 1999.
29 Ch. Staewen, Ifa--African Gods Speak. The Oracle of the Yoruba in Nigeria, Hamburg: litVerlag 1996.
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African Philosophers About Animism and the Belief in Spirits
african philosophers have no problem with the religious beliefs of their peoples. they do not find that the belief in spirits is in opposition to a rational way of thought. according to them, spirituality and rationality are not contradictory. i could give many examples for that from the writings of odera oruka from Kenya, appiah from ghana, oluwole from nigeria, among others. 30 gyekye from ghana is critical in respect of the belief in spirits. nevertheless, he does not contest the belief in spirits as such. He is afraid that an "excessive and incessant attention to the ancestors" and what they would have done in the present situation is "an impediment to the cultivation of the innovative spirit or outlook required for making progress in the . . . transition to modernity. " instead, he pleads for an adap- tation of the " 'pristine values and attitudes' to the 'setting of the present'. " Struggling against excessive corruption, he tries to reanimate traditional values under changed conditions. traditional harmonious relations in the human communities are highly appreciated by him: mutual support for each other, especially for those who are in need or in dangerous situa- tions. also in this respect, he warns for sticking in an uncritical way to the traditional ways of thinking and acting. in a final analysis, he suggests for the relations in the human world a "moderate communitarianism. "31
Conclusions
in most of the african countries south to the Sahara, Christianity and islam are the biggest religions. in their present form, they have taken over many elements from animism. also traditional animist representa- tions and practices still exist. 'Black islam' in the countries directly under the Sahara is impregnated by the belief in spirits and the magic powers of their religious leaders. 32 Moreover, within the big number of Christian
30 H.
