Hegel and the Philosophy of Religion: The Wofford Symposium (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 483 philosophy is the re-establishment of the lost divine image in man," and that, "in application to the whole human race," it is "the aim of the philosophy of history to demonstrate the course of this re-establishment in the various periods of worldhistory " (p. 3). After defining (in the first lecture) the broad perspective and the basic orientation of his approach, Schlegel devotes one lecture each to such topics as the division of the human race into various nations; the development of Chinese culture; the emergence of Indian philosophy; the theocratic leadership of the Hebrews; heathen mysteries and Persian world dominance; the emergence of Greek culture and its arts, its science and its philosophy; Roman law and the beginning of the Christian conception of love; the rise of Christianity and the Fall of Rome; the Teutonic tribes and the great migrations; Mohamet and the re-establishment of the Christian empire; the origin of Romantic art and poetry in the midst of the chaotic state of affairs in Europe; Protestantism and the religious wars; the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century; and (in the last lecture) the prevailing Zeitgeist and the problem of the universal re-establishment of the divine image in man. That there is much in these lectures which, in the light of modern scholarship, must be discarded as erroneous and unsupported by facts is, of course, evident; but the spirit in which these lectures were conceived is, nevertheless, impressive. In his Introduction to the volume, Jean-Jacques Anstett puts it this way: "Schlegel took into consideration all kinds of history-determining factors and components, be they of a material or spiritual nature. Yet, the facts and events are judged and evaluated not so much according to their material effects and consequences as according to their inner essence, so that in these lectures the spiritual and the cultural occupy a more prominent place than the political aspects (be they internal or foreign) which are usually favored in such work" (p. xxi). It was Schlegel's firm conviction that the Romantic Movement (in which he himself played a leading role) had not only an aesthetic message for its time, but a general philosophical one--a particular Weltanschauung --as well; and his lectures on the philosophy of history reflect this conviction. Anstett's Introduction gives us the proper setting for an understanding of Schlegel's intentions and Schlegel's efforts to realize his aims. W. H. WERKMEISTER Florida State University Hegel and the Philosophy of Religion: The Wofford Symposium. Ed. with Introduction by Darrel E. Christensen. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970. Pp. xviii+ 300 + index. $11.50) The symposium at Wofford College in 1968 on "Hegel and the Philosophy of Religion" was both effect and cause of the mounting interest in Hegel, here and abroad, since the 1940s. It brought together some 200 scholars and auditors, attracted by the abundant menu that Hegel's philosophy provides--for some a suggestive method of connecting ideas called dialectic, for others light on our cultural crisis in relation to secularism and Marxism, and for still others an impressive, professedly Christian world-view. From the symposium there emerged the Hegel Society of America, The Owl of Minerva as the Society's publication, and a symposium in Boston on "Hegel and the Sciences." In all these events Darrel Christensen, now at Southern Illinois University (Edwardsville) was a prime mover and thus appropriately editor of the volume at hand. 484 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Besides a preface on the genesis of the Wofford symposium Christensen provides an introduction to Hegel's philosophy, interpreting its leading concepts--"mediation," "contradiction," "concrete universal"--through helpful, pointed illustrations but with only sketchy reference to the concept of God. The reader can only regret that illness prevented some systematic introduction to the problems to which subsequent papers were addressed. The main body of Hegel and the Philosophy o] Religion consists of eight papers with commentaries of varying incisiveness. The commentaries are usually illuminating enough to justify inclusion but rarely "definitive," as though the participants widely sensed what Lauer articulated: "With a thought so complex--and even tortuous--as Hegel's it would, of course, be difficult to prove that either...