Hegel’s Invisible Religion in a Modern State: A Spirit of Forgiveness

Abstract

This study focuses on the interrelation of freedom, finitude, and reconciliation in Hegel’s understanding of religion. These three moments are found at central stages of Hegel’s treatment of the religious, from Hegel’s early fragments to his mature work. Finitude taking shape in the religious phenomena of a tragic fate, sin, or more generally, failing, is central to Hegel’s philosophical understanding of one-sidedness. As finite, man needs to reconcile with the other, and only as reconciled does he achieve freedom. Hegel credits Christianity with the discovery of the primary essences of spirituality: freedom and forgiveness. Freedom is intensified with the death of God: man realizes that there is no Godgiven, only man-made, legislation. This deepening of freedom does not overcome man’s finitude but instead intensifies it along with a heightened sense for responsibility, and an increased potential for guilt. In this context, forgiveness is the highest spiritual capacity of modern man, whose fate is to bear the freedom of oneself and the other.

Ova studija se fokusira na međusobne odnose slobode, konačnosti i pomirenja u Hegelovom shvatanju religije. Ova tri momenta se pronalaze u centralnim stadijumima Hegelovog bavljenja religioznim, od Hegelovih ranih fragmenata do njegovog zrelog rada. Konačnost koja se oblikuje u religioznim fenomenima tragične sudbine, greha, ili opštije, neuspeha je u centru Hegelovog filozofskog razumevanja jednostranosti. Kao konačan, čovek mora da se pomiri sa drugim, i samo kao pomiren dostiže slobodu. Hegel pripisuje Hrišćanstvu zasluge za otkriće primarnih suština duhovnosti: slobode i praštanja. Sloboda se intenzivira sa smrću Boga: čovek shvata da ne postoji Bogom-dano, već samo ljudsko zakonodavstvo. Ovo produbljivanje slobode ne prevazilazi ljudsku konačnost, već je intenzivira, zajedno sa pojačanim osećajem odgovornosti i uvećanim potencijalom za krivicu. U ovom kontekstu, praštanje je najviša duhovna sposobnost modernog čoveka, čija je sudbina da podnese svoju i tuđu slobodu.