Early Theological Writings

I. The Positivity of The Christian Religion

H E G E L Early TheologicalWritings Works in Continental Philosophy GENERAL EDITOR JOHN R. SILBER Early Theological Writings Translated by T. M.KNOX Withan Introduction, and Fragments Tramluted RICHARD KRONER PENN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS PHILADELPHIA Copyright O 1948 by the 'niversity of Chicago; copyright O 1975 by 7: M. Knox and Richard Kroner. All rights reserved This book was first published by thc Univcr.ity of Chicago Press in 1948. First Pennsylz~anza Paperback edition published 1971 Eighth ~aperback printing 1996 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831. [Selections. English. 19881 Early theological writingsiG. U7.F. Hegel; translated hy T. hl. Knox; with an introduction and fragments translated by Richard Kroner. p. crn. "With the exception of the speech On classical studies, the translations have been made from Herman Nohl's Hegels theologische Jugendschriften (liibingen, I907)"-Prefatory note. Reprint. Originally published: Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948. "Bibliographical note+ Richard Kroner": p. Includes index. Contents: Introduction: Hegel's philosophical developmentiby Richard Kroner-The positivity of the Christian religion-The spirit of Christianity and its fate-Love-Fragment of a system -Appendix: On classical studies. ISBN 0-8122-1022-0 (pbk.) 1. Theology. I. Knox, T. M. (Thomas Malcolm), 190011 . Title. B2908 1988 200-dc19 88-10188 CIP P R E F A T O R Y N O T E 0F THE translations in this volume, Professor Kroner is responsible for the Fragment o f a System and the speech On Classical Studies, while I am responsible for The Positivity o f the Christian Religion, The Spirit o f Christianity and Its Fate, and the fragment on Love. With the exception of the speech On Classical Studies, the translations have been made from Herman Nohl's Hegels theologischeJugendschriften (Tiibingen, 1907); the page numbers of that edition have been inserted in parentheses for the convenience of readers who wish to refer to the original German. Nohl printcd in footnotes a number of passages which Hegel had written and then deleted; these, along with most of the drafts and fragments printed in Nohl's appendixes, have been omitted from the translation, although a few of them have been used in the explanatory notes. The use of square brackets indicates that what they inclose was not in Hegel's manuscript; this bracketed material is the translator's except where otherwise stated. All footnotes originating with the translator are numbered; Hegel's own footnotes are marked with asterisks. Although this volume does not comprise all the matcrial collected and published by Nohl, it includes all Hegcl's most important early theological writings. In addition to the omissions mentioned above, I have omitted a series of fragments to which Nohl gave the general title "National Religion and Christianity" and an essay on the "Lifc of Jesus." These have not seemed worth translation-the fragments because they are too fragmentary and are concerned in the main with questions treated more systematically and maturely in the essays which I have translated, the "Life of Jesus" because it is little more than a forced attempt to depict Jesus as a teacher of what is in substance Kant's ethics. Throughout his life, and not least in his early period when he was [ v l P R E F A T O R Y N O T E mainly preoccupied with theological problems, Hegcl was stronglv influenced by the civilization of Greece and Romc. It is for thls reason that his speech On Clilssicd Studies, delivered in 1809, has been included in this volume as an appendix. The Positivity of the ChristianReligion, The Spirit of Christianity, and the Fragment of a System, all now translated for the first time,l were left in manuscript at Hegel9sdeath and remained unpublished (except for fragments in Rosenkranz's Life of Hegel and Haym's book on Hegel andHis Time) until 1907. Since then they have given rise to an immense literature in Germany, Italy, and France, but they are almost unknown in Great Britain and very little known in America. Hegel's manuscripts were untitled; the titles now given to them are Nohl's. The sectional headings, except those unbracketed in The Positivity of the Christian Religion (which are Wegel's), are the translator's. The fragments collected by Noh1 under the general title The Positivity of the ChristianReligim are little more than first drafts...