Early Theological Writings 9780812206135

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HEGEL Early Theological Writings

Works in Continental Philosophy GENERAL EDITOR JOHN R. SILBER

Early Theological Writings Translated by

T. M. KNOX With an 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~anzaPaperback edition published 197 1 Eighth ~aperbackprinting 1996 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-183 1. [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 O n 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 of a system spirit of Christianity and its fate-Love-Fragment -Appendix: O n 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

PREFATORY NOTE

0F

THE translations in this volume, Professor Kroner is responsible for the Fragment of a System and the speech On Classical Studies, while I am responsible for The Positivity of the Christian Religion, The Spirit of 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 theologische Jugendschriften (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. T h e 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 [vl

PREFATORY NOTE

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 Christian Religion, 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 and His 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. T h e sectional headings, except those unbracketed in The Positivity of the Christian Religion (which are Wegel's), are the translator's. T h e fragments collected by Noh1 under the general title The Positivity of the Christian Religim are little more than first drafts; this is clear from their general form as well as from the repetitions they contain. Nonetheless, the gifts of a great historian are foreshadowed in the section on how Christianity conquered paganism, and passage after passage already witnesses to Hegcl's remarkable mastery of language. The Spirit of Christianity is much more carefully elaborated. T h e manuscript, full as it is of "erasures, reveals prodigious l a b o ~ r . " ~ After years of theological study, Hegel came to the conclusion that the spirit underlying the letter of Christian dogma could be discerned only if he first placed the teaching of Jesus in its historical context; but, when he had done so, what he found was so diffcrent from his earlier rationalism that to understand its implications and to describe it adequately was a formidable task. Throughout the essay his concern is with the spirit of Judaism and the spirit of 1. So far as I know, the only one of Hegel's early theological writings which has previously been translated into any language is his "Life of Jesus." O f this, there is a French translation, with an introduction, by I). D. Rosca (Paris, 1928). 2. Roques, Hegrl, sa vie et ses oeuvres (Paris, 1912), p. 45.

P R E P A T O R Y N O T E

Christianity, and he takes the biblical records as true in spirit without raising the gcncral question of their authenticity in matters of fact. Dilthcy even goes so far as to say of this essay that "Hegel never wrote anything finer."3 This may be an over estimate; I have more sympathy with other German writers who describe it as "enigmatical" (ratselhaft). Yet it is certainly a powerful and shrewd piece of work; and, whatever theologians may think of it, philosophers u~illbe interested to find in it Hegel's first criticisms of Kant's ethics, the germ (in $ iv) of the later dialectic, and the clue to several hard passages in The Phenmnmology of Mind. T h e amount of annotation has had to be limited, and, instead of providing the numerous historical notes which might have been appended to The Positivity of the Christian Religion, I have thought it better to use most of the space at my disposal in an attempt to unravel some of the perplexities in The Spirit of Christia7?ity. In doing so, I have derived help from Dilthey's Die Jugendgeschichte I-legels (in Gesammeltc Schrvten, \Jol. I V [Leipzig and Berlin, 19251) ; from Haering's Hegel, sein Wollen und sein Werk, Volume I (Leipzig and Berlin, 1929); and from my friend, Professor Richard Kroner, who read my translations in manuscript. H e solved for me many problems in translation and exegesis and made some valuable suggestions, but the final responsibility for any blemishes that remain is mine. In reading these essays, it is essential to take account of their dates. T h e first two parrs of The Positivity of the Christian Religimz were written in 1795-96, when Hegel was twenty-five and living in Bern; The Spirit of Christianity was written in Frankfort, probably in 1798-99; Part III of The Positivity of the Christian Religion was also written in Frankfort, probably in 1800. In 1795 Hegel was still strongly under the influence of Kant and eighteenth-century rationalists, but a change in his point of view shows itself in his manuscripts from 1797 onward. On the reasons for this change and the importance of this early work of Hegel's both in itself and for the understanding of his later philosophy, it is unnecessary to 3 . Die Jugendgeschi~httI-frgels (Leipzig and Berlin, 1925). p. 68.

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P R E F A T O R Y N O T E

write further here, because Professor Kroner has touched on these matters i n his introduction to an extent sufficient for the purposes of this volume. It was for my own use in connection with this project that m y translation of these essays was made. I originally agreed to publish it at the request of Dr. Helmut Kuhn of the University of North Carolina, and I should like to express my gratitude to him for his interest in m y work. I wish also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Erich Frank of Bryn Mawr, formerly professor of philosophy in Marburg, who read my work for the University of Chicago Press and whose criticisms have enabled me to make several improvements in the translation and notes. T. M. KNOX

T h e detailed re-examination of the chronology of Hegel's early writings by Gisela Schuler in Hegel-Studien vol. i (Bonn, 1963) pp. 111-159 confirms the dating given in the penultimate paragraph of this Prefatory Note, except that the word "probably" which occurs twice, may now be deleted. In this reprint a few small corrections have been made in the text of the original edition and of other reprints. T. M. K. NOVEMBER, 1970

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CONTENTS I N T R O D U C T I O N : HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHICAL DEVELOPMENT. By RICHARD KRONER. . . . . . . . , .

I. T H E POSITIVITY O F T H E CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Translated by T. hi. KNOX . . . . . . . . . . PART1. HOWC H R ~ S T I A NBECAME ~ T Y T H E POSITIVE RELIGION OF A CHURCH . . . . . . . . , . . . . I . Preface . . . . . . . . , . . . 2. Position of the Jewish Religion , . . . , . 3 . Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. Whence Came rhe Positive Element in Christianity? . 5. T h e Conception of a Sect . . . . . . . . 6. T h e Teaching of Jesus . . . . . . . . . 7. Jesus Has Much To Say about His Own Individual Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. Jesus Speaks of Himself as the Messiah . . . . 9. Miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10. T h e Positive Element Derived from the Disciples . 1 I . The Disciples Contrasted with the Pupils of Socrates 12. T h e Number of Disciples Fixed at Twelve . . . 13. The Disciples Sent Forth on Their Mission . . . 14. T h e Resurrection and the Commands Given Thereafter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 . How the Teaching of Jesus Came To Be Interpreted in a Positive Sense . . . . . . . . . . 16. What Is Applicable in a Srnall Society Is Unjust in a State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17. Common Ownership of Goods . . . . . . . 18. Equality . . . . . . . . . . . . 19. T h e Lord's Supper . . . . . . . . . . 20. Expansionism . . . . . . . . . . . 21. How a Moral or Religious Society Grows into a State

CONTENTS

22. Conflict between Church and State: (a) In Matters

Affecting Civil Rights Generally .

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23. ( b ) In Matters Affecting Property

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24. (c) In hlattcrs Affecting Education

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25. T w o Incidental Remarlts about Church and State Kcla-

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26. T h e Ecclesiastical Contract: Representation and the . Power of the Citizens in Matters of Doctrine . . . . . . . . 28. Defense of rhe Faith . . . . , , , . 29. T h e Form Morality Must Acquire in a Church . 30. T h e Rise of Sects Inevitable . . . . . .

27. Contract with the State

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PART11. M A ' T E R ~ ~FOR Z L SA CONTIKUATION 01; PART1 . . . 1 . "Is Judaea, Then, the Tcutons' Fathcrlantl?" . . . 2. H o w Christianity Conquered Paganism . . . , 3 . H o w a Disinclination for Military Service Helped the Succcss of Christianity . . , . . . . . 4. Miracles . . . . . . . . . . , ,

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PART111. REVISEDFORMO F SI~CTIONS 1 4 O F PARTI . 1. Preface . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . Judaism . . . . , . . , . . . 3 . Jesus . . , , . . . . . . . .

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11. T H E S P I R I T O F C H R I S T I A N I T Y A N D I T S FATE. Translated / ~ yT. M. KNOX . . . . . . . . . . . .

i. T h e Spirit of Judaism

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ii. T h e Moral Teaching of Jesus: ( a ) T h e Sermon on the Mount Contrasted with the Mosaic Law and with Kanr's Ethics . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii. T h e Moral Teaching of Jesus: (13) Love as the Transccndence of Penal Justice and the Reconciliation of Fate . . iv. T h e Religious Teaching of Jesus v. T h e Fate of Jesus and His Chtirch

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CONTENTS

111. LOVE. Trmr~lirtedby -I-. M . Iixox

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IV. FKA4C;MI