Absolute Knowledge and the Experience of Faith The Relevance of the Religious Dimension in Hegel’s Thought

Abstract

I want in this paper to show that Hegel’s claims that philosophy is Gottesdienst — worship or the service of God¹ — and that the object of philosophy is the explication of God², are ones which we can and should take seriously. Hegel’s concept of philosophical knowledge can be neither understood nor defended except in the light of his view of philosophy as a religious activity. Only if we understand the logic of Hegel’s claim that philosophy itself can be religious can we understand the coherence of Hegel’s thought as a whole.