Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion: The Lectures of 1827

by Peter C. Hodgson

Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and manuscripts. Lectures from specific years are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources.

Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion represent the final and in some ways the decisive element of his entire philosophical system. His conception and execution of the lectures differed significantly on each of the occasions he delivered them, in 1821, 1824, 1827, and 1831. The older editions introduced insoluble problems by conflating these materials into an editorially constructed text. The present volumes establish a critical edition by separating the series of lectures and presenting them as independent units on the basis of a complete re-editing of the sources by Walter Jaeschke. The English translation has been prepared by a team consisting of Robert F. Brown, Peter C. Hodgson, and J. Michael Stewart, with the assistance of H. S. Harris. Now widely recognized as the definitive English edition, it is being reissued by Oxford in the Hegel Lectures Series. The three volumes include editorial introductions, critical annotations on the text, textual variants, and tables,
bibliography, and glossary.

Hegel's "Introduction" establishes the new discipline of philosophy of religion and positions it vis-à-vis the philosophical, theological, cultural, and epistemological issues of the time. "The Concept of Religion" sets forth a speculative definition of religion and discusses the experience, concept, knowledge, and worship of God.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Theology, Nonfiction

572 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1831

About the author

Peter Crafts Hodgson

Reviews

[Max Stoffel-Rosales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of impenetrable tautologies and thinly-veiled mysticism (of the highly readable kind). But then, if you have a face like old Hegel had, you’d better be as interesting to talk to as possible.

The editor has done an admirable job in making some of the author’s ideas slightly more comprehensible to the layperson.

[Cassidy Brinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This and The Brothers Karamazov are the two books which have most influenced my life in a single stroke.

[Naele]

بررسی و تحلیل:
تاثیر وارد شدن مذهب در نظام
تاثیر تبدیل مذهب به یک دولت و تسلط او بر مردم
شناخته شدن مذهب در زندگی اجتماعی به عنوان یک وظیفه و امر مانند هنگامی که در عزاداری خود را موظف به گریه می دانیم.
و در انتها عقیده هگل بر جدایی دین و مذهب است و اینکه مذهب به عقل احترام نمی گذارد و به نوعی می خواهد به صورت مکانیکی عقل را از کودکی طبق خواسته خود تربیت دهد.
یک منبع و مقاله خوب.

[Vinay Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evil is a propellant. Insane, but so sick lol. Teleology can only get you so far; that being said, my radical materialism may be waning.. he may be more right that we’d like to admit. The Deluzians have their adversary

["Nico" · Rating 4 out of 5]

This single volume edition of the more complete lectures is still dense enough that it should put off casual readers, but if you're looking to improve your understanding of Hegel and/or the philosophy of religion, this is for you.

These lectures take as their launching point the mediate nature of our relationship to God ('absolute truth') and what this means for the philosophy of religion as a whole, but particularly to Christianity. Hegel calls his approach 'Speculative Philosophy', it takes reason be the ground for theological speculation into the divine and our relationship to it. So, for instance, Hegel says of Athena that she isn't the goddess of a city, but the living, actual spirit of the Athenian people. When Athena is worshipped, it is humanity that reveals itself: divinity is revealed in the songs of worshippers, and celebrated in honored artists, because the cultus (the faith community) is the god imbued with life. So (I add) it would be a mistake to see the Greek gods as primitive tokens of outmoded belief when it is their very humanity that makes clear the relationship between us and the divine.

This approach has seen Hegel derided as an atheist, but his point is that in every formulation of religion, this rational content is already THE content of the religion. This is a maximalist interpretation, but I will stress that to dismiss this approach entirely is impossible, because even the minimalist interpretation of this work is that it is an inextricable element in any religion, theology, or spirituality. There are major, critical consequences of this, but they are too expansive to get into here.

This represents one of Hegel's mature works, so readers of Hegel may be surprised to discover that he is much clearer in his presentation here than his more famous works, like the Phenomenology or either of his Logics. Especially, spirit and its movement is made (relatively) straightforward. For non-readers of Hegel, I apologize in advance if this got your hopes up too much, but I promise this is much more straightforward than his other works.

Peter Hodgson's editing is thorough and meticulate. Different transcriptions of the text are regularly included in the footnotes, which adds tremendously to the reading but you shouldn't feel obliged to read all of them, the footnotes are often longer than the page itself and are there for additional context. The editorial introduction is remarkable, it is long but absolutely worth it, Hodgson knows his stuff.

The obvious caveat made for us in the editor's introduction is that Hegel, working in 1827, is working at a time when accurate (and non-eurocentric) accounts of many of these religions were not accessible. So his knowledge of certain religions is notably (and noticeably) poorer than those ready-at-hand in Europe. Don't let this discourage you too much—in every case his (un)hidden agenda is to use these accounts to talk about subjectivity—but do keep it in mind.

In short, I *highly* recommend this book if and only if it addresses you, if you find it relevant to your studies or interests. Do not expect it to be easy, expect it to be worth the effort.

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took 15 weeks. Painstaking reading, rereading, and more rereading – but it was worth it. Hegel is an incredibly systematic philosopher, whose internal logic is well argued and compelling. Although his interpretation of world religions and Christian triumphalism is all serious cause for concern, it's hard not to admire his internal consistency. After reading Hegel you will begin to notice how influential his dialectic has been on modern thought – you'll hear intonations of Hegel's ghost in the most unlikely places (It's really fun).

[Chris Nagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The butler did it.

[ZaRi · Rating 4 out of 5]

اگر خواست ادیان، بهبود وضعیت اخلاقی است پس چرا باید بر عقاید و آداب خاص یک دین تعصب داشت و اینهمه بر شریعت تاکید کرد؟ در کتاب «استقرار شریعت در مذهب مسیح» به نسبت شریعت با اخلاق در دین مسیحی بطور خاص توجه شده است. هگل، عیسی را فردی معرفی می‌کند که در مقابل آموزه‌ها و شریعت سختگیرانه و خشک یهود قیام کرد و یادآور شد که هدف اصلی از شریعت نیز اعتلای اخلاقی بوده است. او در برابر علمای یهود می‌گفت که بزرگترین قانون انبیا دوست داشتن خدا و محبت به انسانها است. اما تعالیم اخلاقی و رهایی بخش مسیح نیز در طول زمان تبدیل به قوانین خشک شد و خود بصورت شریعت تازه‌ای درآمد. هگل ریشهٔ این مشکل را نخست در ذهنیت یهودی پیروان مسیح و همچنین تا حدی در آموزه‌های شخص عیسی می‌داند. عیسی که در فضای یهودی موعظه می‌کرد مجبور بود سخنانش را به متون دینی مانند تورات ارجاع دهد پس به نوعی در کنار آموزه‌های اخلاقی، مرجعیت دینی نیز مطرح می‌شد. همچنین اعمالی که مسیح بعنوان معجزه انجام می‌داد باعث شد تا شخص عیسی از آموزه‌های اخلاقی او جایگاه بالاتری در نگاه مردم پیدا کند و سپس پیروان یهودی او نیز مواعظ اخلاقی عیسی را نه بعنوان آموزه‌ها و پیامهایی که به خودی خود درست‌اند بلکه از آن جهت پذیرفتند که متعلق به شخص عیسی بود. از همینجا بود که مرجعیت دینی و شریعت در دین مسیح ریشه کرد و کلیسا را پدید آورد. کلیسا پیروی از مسیح را تبدیل به آموزه‌ها و آداب خشک ساخت و خود بعنوان یک نهاد، مرجعیت آنرا بعهده گرفت در حالیکه این بر ضد آزادی‌ای بود که انتخاب اخلاقی نیازمند آن است.

[ArEzO.... Es · Rating 5 out of 5]

استقرار شريعت در مذهب مسيح»يكي از آثار دوره جواني هگل محسوب مي‌شود كه درباره الاهيات نوشته شده است
و بايد چند بار مطلب را فكر كرد تا بتواني براي خواندن ادامه بدهي

[Grant Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

So close, but so far away

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't appreciate how he makes God a being inside of nature and not someone you can pray to but an ideal. I call heresy but others call heterodoxy.