Hegel was a deeply religious philosopher who had do settle his Christianity with the rationality of
his times. Hegel rejected the Theistic Rationalism which he compared
unfavorably to the Greek spirit of religion. Hegel thought of the Bible as a
product of an alien race out of harmony with the German soul. His point was
that the Greek religion was a Volksreligion whereas Christianity seemed
something imposed from without. Hegel’s affection for Greek culture and
religion was soon modified by Kant (which led him to see the lack of profundity
in Greek religion) because Kant expounded an ethics free from religion. Hegel
liked Kant ethics and thought it had much in common with Jesus (Life of Jesus, 1795) depicting Christ as
a moral teacher and an expounder of
Kantian ethics. Thus, he rejected a view of Christ as a mediator between God
and man and as imposing revealed dogma (which if Jesus did, it was not his
intent).
The question then arises how did Christianity become
transformed into an authoritarian, ecclesiastical, and dogmatic system (see The Positivity of the Christian religion,
1795-97) which alienated man from his true self by eliminating freedom of
thought and freedom of action? Later Hegel made Judaic legalism the villain
(see The Spirit of Christianity and its
Fate, 1800). Here we have the Jewish God as master and man as slave. In
contrast, Jesus preached Christ-God as love which could overcome the alienation
of man from God. Jesus rises above Jewish legalism and Kantian moralism: according
to Hegel, morality should not be imposed but rise spontaneously as an
expression of man’s participation in the infinite divine life.
Here we already see the themes that would occupy Hegel
later: alienation and recovery of lost
unity. When he compared Judaism and Christianity he was already unhappy
with a remote transcendent God and
adhered to a notion of feeling for
infinite totality. The Absolute is infinite life and love and the Absolute is
the conscious unity of this life, of unity with the infinite and unity with
others. Note the effort after
“wholeness” so alien to scientific materialism, empiricism, individualism, and
instrumental reason.
Summaries of Hegel's works and ideas (best read in succession):
Hegel on Religion, Christianity, Morality and Ethics
Hegel On Self-Consciousness