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Hegelianism and

John H. Gerstner, Jr.

John Oman has written : .. We God." are waiting today for some change in There was one thing more surpris away from Helegianism ing than the stupendousness of Hegel's and the process of thought as the key claim and that was that his contempor to the universe, corresponding to the aries believed it! But they did, and movement of science away from New- following a period of philosophical tonianism, with its assumption of the inebriation came the morning after laws of motion as the efficient cause and then the revulsion from which, it of things."^ This statement reveals seems, are still suttering. two : that Hegel is still things first, When this revulsion in, the phi with that men who us, and, second, losophers not only threw out Hegel's think as Oman thinks wish he were with Hegel's wash, but they not. baby threw out Hegel too. And it is proving Hegel's influence has been greatly veiy difticult for him to get back again. under-rated precisely because his own Hence, we hear much disparagement claims were so greatly over-stated. and little appreciation. Xevertheless, Xever in the history of thought did though Hegel's name may be anath any man profess such exhaustive ema, many of his ideas, as Oman sug and practical omniscience. gests, have become sacred. F. L. that master of verbal Patton, Let us comment briefly on the : "When caricature, states it this way Hegelianism of two of the world's the Zopliar the Naamathite put ques outstanding philosophers, A. N. tion to his class, 'Who by searching Whitehead and John iJewey. Op can find out God?' an amid Hegelian, posed as each of these men is to tiie the silence of the school, courageously Absolute of Hegel, they held his hand."^ : as up Again "Here, nevertheless show striking alfinity for is a o- a witty writer suggests, catasti his fundamental viewpoint. The the reverse of that of the phe Korah; German was most char earth has not swallowed the up man, acteristically dissatisfied with any the man has swallowed the but up thing lurking behind phenomena. universe."-' Unfortunately, though Thus, he refuted the substance theory no one is Hegel explained everything of Spinoza, the thing-in-itself of Kant can It seems sure he explain Hegel. and the absolute of Schelling. As that a student a to brought passage Weber has stated : "In Hegel, the for and the Hegel explanation philos absolute is the process itself; it does : "When that opher replied passage not produce movement and life, it is was there were two who knew written, movement and life.""^ For Whitehead its �God and Xow, meaning myself. and Dewey also process is . In that is alas! there is but one, and the former's Process and Reality and the natural order are 1 and Supernaturalism, (Macmillan. ultimate, and God, if anything, ap 1931), pp. 107-108. pears to be its product, certainly not 2 Fundamental Christianity, (Macmillan, 1926), p. 38. 3 Harris. Samuel The Self-Revelation of God, 4 Weber and Perry, History of Philosophy, 406. (Scribners, 1887), p. 260. (Scribners, 1925), p. HEGELIAXISM AND CHRISTIANITY 139 its producer. Dewey's Quest for Cer was the God-man in a unique sense.^ tainty is significant here. He deplores Biedermann supplemented Hegel by the philosophical endeavor to find teaching that religious faith was a abiding ideas and prefers to believe distinct element not to be equated in the world as flux or process. Thus with or dissolved by . But this Dewey finds uncertainty, and Hegel a faith presupposes revelation which it kind of , but the important discerns immediately. H. R. Mac thing is that they look in the same intosh in Types of place. All of these philosophers find describes Biedermann as the philos- nothing behind phenomena. oi^her "who meant to be as Hegelian Hegel's influence is by no means as possible, but always found Christ restricted to philosophical circles. ianity breaking in.'"' The Rather, as Dr. Brightman says : radical wing found in Feuer- bach and Strauss their ablest and It speaks well for the power of reason today that most Feuer- Hegel is still an influence in the world of affairs. devastating exponents. No Hegel, no Marx-Engels-Lenin ; no commun bach reduced the absolute to man's ism and no socialist critique of communist dogma. size and ultimately, as a materialist, No Hegel, no Nazi theory of the state and no rejected all ideas including those of Liebert to indict it. No no Gentile to or Hegel, God which he called "Wunchwesen" ganize the Fascist system of education and no or wishful In Strauss's Croce to defy Mussolini. It is from Hegel that thinking. Royce received much of his inspiration ; from Leben Jesu, the pictures of Hegel have Hegel that Dewey took bis start, and to Hegel become the "myths'" of Christianity. he still looks as the of the greatest systematic In iilaiih^ nsleJirc, in general philosophers. 5 seems to lose its savor. Finally Nevertheless, our concern in this Strauss asks himself, "Are we still paper is with Hegel's significance in Christians?" and answers: "If we the realm of religion. Himself always would have our yea yea and our nay an avowed Lutheran, Hegel's philos nay, in short, if we would speak as ophy of Christianity was Janus-faced. honest, upright men, we must acknowl His identification of the content of edge that we are no longer Christ religion and of philosophy could be ians."^ Pfleiderer points out Strauss' evaluated diversely. If one is im significance in the histoiy of Hegel pressed with the rational bulwark thus ianism. for as is provided religion, Hocking, Two previous works upon Immortality, the au is If one is the effect conservative. thors of which are Richter and Feuerbach, were impressed with the complete rational reckoned among the Hegelian school, had indeed, the izing of religion, the effect is radical. by radical negative conclusions therein reached by the application of this Ahnost after Hegel the philosophy, immediately shaken the confidence generally felt in Hegelian chose sides, . theologians up forming orthodoxy; but . . produced no very important themselves into right and left wing effect. When, however, Strauss brouglit the Hegelians. heavy artillery of his criticism, distinguished equally by learning and penetration, to bear, first, the conservatives. Daub and Among on the historical foundations of the dogma itself Biedermann are especially examples. the unsubstantial fabric of Hegelian dogmatism Daub could write that the sig-nificance was within a few years completely destroyed.9 of ( hiist was that he exhibited the 6 The eternal incarnation of God and re Pfleiderer, Otto, Development of Theol ogy, (Macmillan, 1890), p. 132. of the world in his own demption 7 H. R. Macintosh, Types of Modern Philos- Thus he pei'son as a historical fact. ohpy. p. 133. 8 Quoted in Smith, H. B., Faith and Philosophy, S Amer In Wieman, H. N., and B. E. Meland, (Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1877), p. 469. 9 ican Philfl'snphii's of Religion, (Willett, Clark & The Development of . (Macmillan, Co., 1936), p. 319. 1890), p. 132. 140 JOHN H. GERSTNER, JJl.

In England Hegelianism prevailed shall see, to overcome them by his in a pure form at Oxford, but was famous dialectical method�thesis and gradually watered down. In the class antithesis taken up into {aufgehohen) room, Dr, Brightman once gave his a higher synthesis. Kierkegaard was rating of some of the British thinkers the policeman who, as soon as he saw and this is the score if my notes do the philosophical machine begin to not fail me: Bradley and Bosanquet, grind its gears, blew his whistle, 100% Hegelian ; Pringle-Pattison, "Stop !" He was the champion of the 60%; Sorley, 40%; Ward, 0%. Dr, unresolved . For Hegel Ralph Barton Perry, rather more glee religion was whole thought; for Kier ful than sad, has a similar story to kegaard it was shattered thought. tell: Hegel relied on ; Kierke gaard cast himself upon the irrational. Thus the weakness of Hegel, from the later deified the intellect Kierke idealistic point of view, lies not in his general Hegel ; crucified it. For programme, but in the fact that he boldly set gaard Hegel religion about carrying it out. He made too many pos was a steady climb; for Kierkegaard itive assertions. The fact that Hegel did make it was a frantic leap.^^ assertions about about positive natural evolution, For all historical development, and about international Kierkegaard's earnestness, we doubt that he ever liberated politics, accounts for the fact that his philosophy truly was of vital consequence, and to many a source himself from . As John of inspiration. But today no one is more ready Wild has pointed out.^^ Kierkegaard than the idealist to point out that Hegel made asserts the good is unknowable and the mistake of forcing 'psychological' categories paradoxical. But this is belied upon and history. He tried to deduce the by two : he makes no actual cosmic process from the laws of spirit; things first, appeal and it is now generally conceded that he failed. to anything than reason. Sec Everyone but the idealist explains his failure by ond, his three stages imply that man the falsity of the project itself; but he attributes naturally comes to a knowledge of the it to the fact that Hegel's categories of spin; were not purely logicalA^ good. The spiritual seed of Kierkegaard, Josiah H, Howison Royce, George Earth and Brunner, show the same and William E. as Hocking stand overt opposition to Hegel and the American of modified exponents "System." Earth's anathemas are in turned his atten Hegelianism. Royce no sense restricted to Hegel, since, as tion to the of the especially problem be says, whatever is Christian is not individual and while Howison evil, philosophical and whatever is philo that had not allowed objected Royce sophical is not Christian. His com sufficient place for the individual self plete abhorrence of imnianentism and and contended for a of plurality utter devotion to the "absolutely selves. The of in place feeling Objec Other," is hostile indeed to Hegel's tive Idealism is a concern particular God, who is in a very entangling of Hocking. alliance with this woild and is the However, the most significant mod absolutely-not-Other," ern role of is as Hegelian religion Erunner's opposition to Hegel is thesis to antithesis. Kierkegaard's rather more reasoned, which fact ac Hegel's was the original "both-and" counts for Earth's distrust of it. which thrust his against Kierkegaard Fii'st, Brunner estimates Hegel's in When was con "either-or." Hegel fluence : fronted with what appeared to be he as we 11 attempted, Cf. esp. , and Con cluding Scientific Postscript. 10 Present Philosophical Tendencies, (Long 12 "Philosophical Review," Vol. XLIX, No. 5, man's, Green & Co., 1925), p. 177. Sept. 1940, p. 544. HEGELIANISM AND CHRISTIANITY 141

Since the time of Herder, Hegel, and Schleier- ter of the Absolute, Hegelians hesitate macher this scheme of a universal spiritual evo to use the word "person." F. H. Brad lution, including also the Christian religion, has for uses the become a sort of scientific axiom which anyone ley, example, designation who claims to be systematic must simply accept. super-personal. Adherents of the Per- This thesis of idealism has been rendered un sonalist School may regard Hegel's objectionable to the circumstance theology by Absolute as including not one, but that the conception of the individuality of many and feel that the Hegel seemed to give due place to the peculiar persons, character of the Christian faith.l3 ian super-person though he may be more than, is not other than person. Then, he criticizes Hegel's position It is interesting to note, in passing, fundamentally: "The decisive differ that C. S. Lewis thinks of God as ence, therefore, consists in the fact "beyond personality" and that Calvin for the the self-disclos that, idealist, himself was almost tried for heresy ure [of God] is fundamentally imme because he did not like the term whereas for the Christian faith diate, "persona" as descriptive of deity. it is mediated."^"^ fundamentally However, any similarity between the We pass now from a consideration latter's and Hegel's view of the Ab of influence back to Hegel's to date, solute are purely coincidental. Hegel himself and especially his Since the Absolute includes all of The and philosophy religion. Alpha things, it follows that all things re the the Omega of Hegel's system is veal the Absolute. Since all things are inclusiveness of the Absolute. Conse revelations of the Absolute, the Ab his most quently frequently quoted solute can be known. Since all things statement, "Das Wahre ist das Gauze" constitute the Absolute and there is is characteristic of his eminently nothing more, the Absolute may be thought. and all other categor absolutely known. Hegel, in other ies are to be regarded as constituting words, is champion of the knowability the Absolute. In the Science of of the Absolute and opponent of even , this view is set forth as the only partial inscrutability. This is not adequate one, all other ones being merely the logical conclusion of the inherently defective. Hegel's use of /'henonieiiologg and , the term "Inbegriff" is significant. but the prelude to hiw Philosophy^ of The "Inbegriff aller realitat" is the Religion. sum total of all reality and the all- Let us observe this further before inclusive Begriff or concept. It is not commenting. The Absolute unfolds only a sum but a new entity, the whole itselt in the realm of concepts (cf. being more than the sum of its parts.^'' Science of Logic and in the realm of Hegel's universal is no mere abstrac nature (cf. Encyclopedia, ��245 ff.) tion, because an abstraction is drawn but onlv in the realm of , or off from and excludes reality; but spirit does the Absolute come to con Hegel's universal is concrete, includ sciousness and freedom (cf. Encnfclo- ing reality. Bosanquet devotes Lec pedia, ��482ff.; esp. 553ff.). ture II of his Principle of Individual- The Absolute unfolds itself in triadic of this it if and Value to the explication form also in the realm of spirit; first concept. in , then in religion, and supremely Because of the all-inclusive charac- in philosophy. In art it appears in the form of sense objects which, although 13 Brunner, Emil, , trans. necessary for art, are an impediment 1937), p. 128. by Farrer & Woolf, (Scribners, to a purely rational by I* Ibid., p. 40. spirit. A more refined manifestation Encyclopaedic, �75. is found in the 16 Vol. n, p. 456. representations (Vor- of ^7 Ibid., p. 343. stellungen) religion which are 142 JOHN H. GERSTNER, JR. picture-tlioughts partaking of tlie sen powerlessness to make himself "^^ suous because they are pictures and of known. To the neo-orthodox, not tlie rational because they are thoughts. resigned to but revelling in the irra In philosophy the Absolute is seen tional, he would say: "Things do not immediately as pure thought. agree with ideas because you are on a level of where cannot This brings us to grii)s with Hegel's thought you take all into account. And doctrine of revelation. Manifestly, his things to the and other secularists gnosticism was a great improvement positivists of our he would say : "What over the agnosticism of Kant and day, knowledge is v/ortli if God be Schelling. AV^e agree with jMaier in his knowing unknowable ?"^^ Hegel's Criticism of Kant in which he shows that Hegel exposed the absurd There are two serious defects in ity of Kant's talking about an object Hegel's teaching concerning revelation. which could not be brought in relation He makes too little of the apparatus to our consciousness. Kant's myster for receiving the revelation and too ious underlying reality, having no much of general revelation itself. Even known qualities nt all, could not be Pfleiderer admits that Hegel's sole anvthing other than mind itself. This reliance on thought as the recipient of Hegel argued and then proceeded to the revelation is unwarranted. "Reli conceive of mind as all that has being gion is essentially a matter of the "^^ and thereby made reality knowable by heart. This criticism has been so itself. Likewise, he indicates the generally made that it has become a futility of Sclielling's undifferentiated cliche to classify Hegel as one who Absolute, the hidden reality that in exaggerated the intellectual element cludes everything but in such abyssmal in religion, alongside Kant who did darkness that nothing can be seen, the same with the volitional element "the night in which all cows are and Schliermacher with the emotional. black." ^lure has pointed out that in need not elaborate. his intellectual Hegel is re optimism, While it is conceded that Hegel to the Greeks and from verting away made too little of the apparatus for Kant's revolution which, as Perry by receiving revelation, it has not been the latter succeeded in "internal says, especially noted that he made too izing reason." Hegel thought of Plato and as fundamentally the 19 d.er Vol. same and with them agreed that what Philosophie Religion, 1, p. 195, quoted in Harris, Self-Revelation of God, p. 91. is most real is eo that which is ipso, 20 Science of Logic, Vol. H, p. 397. most The intelligible. philosopher's 21 Philosophie der Religion, Vol. I, p. 27. as saw was to task, Hegel it, prove 22 Development of Theology, p. 73. Cf . Strong, this. Systematic Theology, p. 120. "Religion is not, as a kind of for it would In this respect, we need Hegel today. Hegel declared, knowing then be only an incomplete form of knowledge, To the liberals who despair of all cer and the measure of knowledge in such case would and are of tainty profoundly skeptical be the measure of piety. . . . God is the subject the demon strableuess of he of religion as well as its object. Religion is God's of himself con would say, "In the mental or spiritual knowing through the human sciousness. Hegel did not utterly ignore other there is now an infinite . . . capable of elements in religion. 'Feeling, intuition, and or, "the humil being communicated,"^* faith belong to it,' he says, 'and mere cognition that finite cannot the . . ity which affirms is one-sided.' . 'what knowledge is worth know (lod nor come into direct rela knowing, if God is unknowable.' ... he gave even tion to him, simply ascribes to God less place to the than he gave to the emotions and he failed to see that the knowledge of God of which the Scripture speaks is a knowing, not p. 355. of the intellect alone, but of the \vhole man." HEGELIANISM AND CHRISTIANITY 143 much of general revelation. It would to give that knowledge of God and of his will, it appear obvious that Hegel has oblit which is necessary unto salvation; therefore pleased the Lord ... to reveal himself, and to erated the distinction between general declare ... his will unto his Church. and special revelation. If all things reveal the Absolute, because they are In orthodox thinking special revela the Absolute, there can be no such tion is unique, once for all revelation. thing as special revelation. What con It occurred at one time and one place fuses the matter is that Hegel refers and to one people and is no general to Christianity as absolute religion world phenomenon at all. The late Dr. and calls it "revealed."'^ Dr. Strong is Machen, who is regarded by Wieman correct when he states that: "Hegel, and Meland,^^ as the outstanding rep in his Philosophy of Religion, says resentative of traditional supernatur that Christianity is the only revealed alism, stresses the strict historicalness religion, because the Christian God is of Christianity: the one from whom a revelation only Christianity depends, not upon a complex of ideas, can come."^'^ Nevertheless, it should but upon the narration of an . Without that be noted that this is quibbling with event, the world, in the Christian view, is al terminology. True, Hegel believed together dark, and humanity is lost under sin. There can be no salvation by the discovering of that the Christian conception of God eternal truth. ... A new face has been put upon was the only adequate, viz., absolute, life by the blessed thing that God did when he one. And only the Absolute could re offered up His only begotten Son.26 veal the Absolute. And so the Chris Brunner also, one of the ablest expon tian God is the only one from whom ents of sees revelation could come. But that is not neo-supernaturalism, through the spuriousness of Hegel's the equivalent of saying that Chris "special revelation," it tians were the ones to whom it contrasting only with the Christian view: came or Christianity the only religion in ii hich it came, which is the historic To him the idealist history is merely a picture- teaching of the Church. book, whose text he knows without the aid of pictures ; to him it means the idea made concrete, The writer was once asked to hence there is nothing decisive about it. In its demonstrate the fact that the church absolute and serious sense, there is no room here has maintained the views here in for the category of uniqueness. . . . Hegel seemed dicated of special revelation. We able to absorb history into thought as Plotinus and did with Nature.27 referred the questioner to Schaff's Schelling three volume Creeds Christendom of Oman, likewise, is not deceived: where anyone who runs may yet read that the churches have uniformly tes Though Hegel's idea that in history we see in the furnace what is now built into life as cold and tified to a unique once-for-all revela commonplace, was a great contribution to the tion in no sense to be confused with whole method of studying history, in the end real that natural revelation which is called history has no place in his intellectual construc "common" precisely because it is tion. What masquerades as history is a show universal and at all times present. staged by , not history as a record of man's slow, laborious, often mistaken, constantly Let me but one citation at ran give discouraged, learning from by the dom. In the Westminster Confession real hazard of dealing with environment.28 of Faith, for example, we read : We return to Hegel's exposition. On Although the light of nature, and the works of so far manifest the creation and providence, do 2i American of Religion, p. 62. of as to goodness, wisdom, and power God, 26 Christianity and Liberalism, p. 70. leave men inexcusable; yet they are not sufficient 27 The Mediator, trans, by Olive Wyon, (Lut terworth Press, 1934), pp. 36-37. 2i Philosophy of Religion. Vol. II, pp. 329-330. '2^ Naturalism and Supernaturalism, (Macmil 24 Systematic Theology, p. 27. lan, 1931), p. 291. 144 JOHN H. GERSTNER, JR. the level of religion, the dialectic, of makes from the concrete reality of the Holy Ghost. course, moves through three stages. This may be the correct doctrine of the Trin The thetic is that of the univer stage ity, but it is not the usual one. It must be noticed sal. God is the universal mind. When that it does not merely place the Holy Ghost this universal mind, which cannot above the other two members of the Trinity, but these latter in the which remain in this splendid isolation, sun merges Holy Ghost, is therefore not only the supreme reality, but ders itself into the anti particularity the sole reality God. And, again, the doctrine is thetic stage is reached. This moment more than the assertion that the relation of the corresponds to the various positive members of the Trinity is not merely external. religions. As a result of the union of Doubtless it is not merely external, but internal and essential. But the is as to the the universal and particular moments point particular sort of relation. The Father and the Son are the is achieved and we have synthesis related to the Holy Ghost as something which what corresponds to the absolute is they, and more than they. But the Holy Ghost religion. is related to the Father and the Son�if it is to be called a relation�in a different manner. In Christianity, with which we are very Each of them, so far as it is real at all, is the God is concrete primarily concerned, Holy Ghost. But each of them is less than the the first moment of which is spirit Holy Ghost. And so are both of them taken God as He is before creation, the together.30 second is God in creation, and the have said that third is God in the Church. In the McTaggart might Hegel's doctrine was the procession of first, God, as the universal in itself, is the Father and the Son from the Holy the Father. In the second, God, as Spirit. Mackintosh does say : "This is particular, is the Son. In the third, certainly a piece of heterodoxy ; God, as individual, is the Holy an inversion of Church teach- Spirit.29 possibly ing."^^ The of such a view of pure heresy We have dealt with "God in His the doctrine of the trinity is self- eternal Idea in-and-for-self ; the King evident to versed in the Bib anyone dom of the Father." This phase of lical doctrine. Rather than submit my Christian revelation Hegel associated own criticism I will cite McTaggart with the First member of the Trinity whose on this testimony point and reserved for consideration the is insofar as especially significant other two members under the titles : his concern in comparing Hegelian ''The eternal Idea of God in the Trinitarianism and Christian Trin- element of consciousness and ordinary itarianism is since purely academic, thought, or ; the kingdom of he is not devoted to either apparently the Son;" and "The Idea in the himself. As something of conception element of the Church or Spiritual a neutral he regards observer, Hegel's (Community ; the kingdom of the Trinitarianism as the mark of missing Spirit." It is with the latter two ecclesiastical Trinitarianism. divisions of the discussion that we are According to Hegel's exposition, the Father now concerned. are of a and the Son the Thesis and Antithesis Much in the manner of John's triad of which the Ghost is the Synthesis. Holy statement that "no man hath seen God It will follow from this that the Holy Ghost is at the the sole reality of the Trinity. Insofar as the any time; only begotten Son, Father and the Son are real, they are taken as who is in the bosom of the Father, he correlative with the Holy Ghost, and as on the hath declared him" ; Hegel says : "this same level with the are taken latter, they wrongly Idea is now to be considered as it and are not real. In other words, the Father and the Son are abstractions which the thinker simply ^0 Studies in Hegelian , (University Press, 1901), pp. 203, 204. 29 Cf. Hegel, Philosdphy of Religion, Vol. Ill, 31 Hegel and Hegelianism, (T. & T. Clark, pp. 1,2. 1903), p. 259. HEGELIANISM AND CHRISTIANITY 145

appears in the second element, in the or rather to become what he is essentially; it be element of manifestation in general."^^ longs to the notion of him that he should place himself over-against his nature, his present state, \Vhat was latent in the universal, and enter into the division between his namely differentiation, now becomes and his actual state. And his consciousness is it in patent the particular. Before, dif self the act by which this division is set up, for this ferentiation was "merely a movement, consciousness is the distinguishing of him, from his universal a playing of love with itself, in which particular subject, himself, being.36 it does not get to be otherness or Other-Being in any serious sense, Thus Hegel has a doctrine of the nor actually reach a condition of fall but it is not the fall of man but separation and division.^^ Now, dif- the fall of God. That is to say, God derentiation has become entire other by finite or other, alienates ness: external, independent, alienated, Himself from Himself. This differ diiierent. Nevertheless, we are re entiated and finite self Hegel speaks minded that the separation or differ of as man and thinks of him by entiation is still not yet complete. of his finitude and otherness as fallen, "What we have here is merely abstract as evil. difference in we have not general, yet Man is by nature evil ; his potential Being, his to got ditference in the form which natural Being, is evil. It is just in this his con peculiarly belongs to it."'''^ dition as one of natural Being that his defect is found because he is he is from The Notion, which we have already ; Spirit separated his natural Being, and is disunion. One-sidedness seen consists of three now moments, is directly involved in this natural condition. into nature. "The absolute passes VvIkh man is only as he is according to Nature, freedom of the Idea means that in he is evil. 37 determining itself, in the act of judg It would appear that "man" was born ment, or ditferentiation, it grants the falhm. I'^vil is not alien to iree independent existence of the something his nature but of the essence. He was Other. This Other, as something thus born in sin and in iniquity did his God allowed to have an independent exist conceive him. Because he was a free, ence, is represented by the AVorld independent, particulai- being, he was taken in a general sense."^^ This a fallen being. It was not because he transition is one of logical necessity misused his freedom but because he and is not to be confused with a tem- used it ; not because he violated his l)oral order although the term creation nature but because he expressed is used. Setli maintains that Hegel it, that he was a fallen creature. When does not bridge the gap here between Hegel's God rested from His creative the logically necessary and the tem He saw that he otherness. And activity everything porally generated had alienation is the result of otherness. made, including man, and, behold, it was very bad. Xevei'theless, alienation is not fully This account of the Hegelian con manifested until nmn appears, for, as ception of evil is thus far one-sided I'tleiderer remarks, and inadequate. First of all, Hegel . . . the difference is not fully developed in conceives of an original state of which remains true to its own essence and nature, naturalness, a somewhat non-moral character, faithfully obeys its own laws, and does state; and man even in his not step outside of the substance, the necessity of secondly, fallen state in a its being. Man, on the contrary, is called to be is, sense, good as well as evil. This is what provokes William Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Vol. James' protest that Hegel "encour- Ill, p. 34. 36 33 Ibid., p. 35. The Philosophy of Religion, Vol. II, p. 105. 37 34 Ibid., p. 35. Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 35 Ibid., p. 36. Ill, pp. 47, 48. 146 JOHN H. GERSTNER, JR. aged men to see the world good rather This desire is the tendency toward than to make it good." reconciliation which is as much in the This doctrine of evil proceeding nature of things as is the separation. from the Absolute Spirit implies that Finite are restless till they find God himself includes evil. We have rest in the infinite mind. This recon here the reverse of Christian Science ciliation is realized when the infinite assumes finiteness. This reasoning. Mrs. Eddy argues: God is logically all, God is good, therefore, all is good. necessary, eternally recurr-ing move ment of the infinite to the finite finds Hegel argues : God is all, all includes doctrinal in the Incarna evil, therefore, God is evil. Of course, expression tion and Death of Jesus Christ. this conclusion is a logical one on a If pantheistic . the It is a proof of infinite love that God identified Absolute is all-inclusive, as Hegel be Himself with what was foreign to His nature lieved, it must include evil. Consist in order to slay it. This is tiie signification of the death of Christ. Christ has borne the sins of the ent as the conclusion may be, it is, as world. He has reconciled God to us, as it is Mill believed, the reduction ah- said.4i surdissimum/' The movement back from the finite To say that man is by nature good amounts substantially to saying that to the infinite is expressed doctrinally he is potentially Spirit, rationality, in the Resurrection and in the Ascen that he has been created in the image sion of Christ. God assumes finite of God; God is the Good, and Man as nature even to the extreme point of the Spirit is the reflection of God, he is death of the infinite. This death, how the Good potentially.^^ With this qual ever, is swallowed up in infinity as God rises from death ification in mind, we may state again and ascends "This death is thus once that nmn although good in one regard, again. at yet is alienated from God by nature. finitude and in its most extreme form, This condition of separation, however, and at the same time the abolition and of the natural finitude."'*^ sets up a longing, a feeling in which absoiption His Ascension to the hand of a tendency to reunion is generated. By right "In this division independence is set God, Christ, says Hegel, demonstrates the and up, and evil has its seat ; here is the dignity, worth, identity of human source of evil, but also the point from nature with that of the divine which atonement ultimately arises. It nature. is both the beginning of sickness and We have arrived at the stage where the source of health.'*� the re-union has been effected. God Separation produces sin and sin a and Man are one again. They had desire for reconciliation. As the prod been one from the beginning but their igal son became dissatisfied with his diversity had been implicit. Now, after loneliness and his swine's fare and having affirmed most emphatically. longed for the father's house where and even tragically, their diversity there was plenty and to spare, so the they re-affirm their unity, not in spite particular in the state of separation of diversity but because of it. requires reunion with the universal. The Spirit of God is in ]\lan but not in the individual man. Rather His 38 Cf. Mansel, Limits of Evcyclopaedie. �573; presence is where two or more are Rclig'.ous Thought, 3rd Edition, p, 46; and gathered together in the Community Brightman, The Problem of God, (Abingdon or Church. On the the Press, 1930), p. 83. disciples Holy 39 Hegel, Lectures on Philosophy of Religion, 41 Vol. ni, p. 46. Hegel, Lectures oit the Philosophy of Re 40 Pfleiderer, The Philosophy of Religion, Vol. ligion, Vol. Ill, p. 93. n. p. 106. 42/^7td., p. 93. HEGELIANISM AND CHRISTIANITY 147

Ghost descended at Pentecost and be Church's exposition as embodied in came their immanent life. Real and the historic Church creeds? In spite life present in the Spirit of Christ, of many points of some similarity be that is Hegel's definition of the tween the Christian and Hegelian doc Church. trine, I fear that the differences are In fundamental and radical. the Spiritual Community as actually existing, Hegel may the Church is emphatically the institution in be correct but I doubt if it can be virtue of which the persons composing it reach maintained with any seriousness that the truth end it for appropriate themselves, and he is orthodox. His view of revelation through it the Holy Spirit comes to be in them as we have criticized. real, actual, and present, and has its abode in already sufficiently his of the them; it means that the truth is in them, and Certainly conception Trinity that they are in a condition to enjoy and give is not that of the Church which be active expression to the truth or Spirit, that they lieves in a single substantial identity, as individuals are those who give active expres God, in which single substance there sion to the Spirit.43 are three Persons. The Hegelian Trin For Hegel, the Church is a "think ity is at most a ghost of this. In the ing as well as loving and practical Hegelian deity the world is implicit, communion. It thinks the contents of or at least the idea of an other is the gospel narratives and of the Chris implicit. The Church would question tian sentiment in the form of the first whether this otherness is a con Faith,"'^'^ Hegel's anti-Pietism is never crete world at all; second, it would if seen more clearly or more usefully at deny that it were a world it emanat work than in his insistence that ed necessarily from the nature of God; "dogma is necessary, and must be and, third, the Church affirms that taught as valid truth." It is not suffi this "other" is not the world but the cient that the Community feel, it must Soil of God. also think. When the Son of Man Again, according to the church, God comes again, will He find knowledge? saw His world that is was good, not Hegel asks. evil. Hegel's identification of finitude Proper appreciation of the import and evil is a distinctly pagan concep ance of the sacraments is evident to tion that, so far as I know, has never found in a creed of Hegel. If he was not a Romanist, expression any neither was he a sectarian. orthodox Christian Church. Hegel's insistence that the world, including The Eucharist is the central point of the doctrine man, is in a sense does not offset of Christianity, and the highest act of worship. good the radicalness of his from While, on the one hand, the constant preservation departure

of the Church ... is the continued repetition of the church at this point. the life, passion, and resurrection of Christ in Lastly, if the Church and the the members of the on the other Church, this, be not in error then Christ came into hand, is expressly accomplished in the sacra the Avorld to save sinners and not to ments of the Lord's Supper. merge finitude in the infinite. Since Thus he holds the Lutheran rather Hegel's conception of sin is different than the Catholic or Zwinglian view. from that of the Church, it follows that his notion of and associated We will ask one final question of grace doctrines this Hegelian exposition of Christian must be diverge, Christ came not to call the finite to ity. HoA\' does it compare with the repent ance but sinners; not to preach a reconciliation but an ^Ubid., p. 124. metaplwsical 44 Sterrett, J. MacBride, Studies in Hegel's ethical one; not to make man into Philosophy of Religion, p. 297. God, but like unto God,