Wolfhart Pannenberg

  Theology Today – Post-Hegel; Post-Kierkegaard I want to consider how one thinking theologically might draw upon Hegel, but to do so in a way that both moves with him and moves against him. [1]  The point of these final reflections is to meet Hegel on his ground and learn as Christian thinkers from a man who was not an enemy of the Christian faith and life. Had Hegel provided only a system, it would be relegated to a museum. More importantly, the way he pursued the system continues to provide a way for theology. Certainly, Hegel’s first total philosophical project is in many ways, from both the philosophical and the theological aspects, a problematic enterprise. We can look at how Hegel approached the nature and character of God through a modern lens. The issues here are difficult.  Here are two. In the ontic perspective, orthodox theology would see all God-world occurrences as based on God's free grace, that God chooses rather than being chained, instead of speculative ...

  The System What I want to pursue is a summary of the system Hegel developed, not in historical sequence, but in its logical formulation. [1] Many people at this time genuinely desired to be simultaneously critical and Christian, enlightened and believing, rooted in tradition and progressive, and such persons as these were overwhelmingly impressed by the fact that a thoroughly modern philosopher was here, endeavoring to transcend both criticism of and apology for religion, by furnishing a systematic and concise up-to-date version of Christian truth, which would enable critical modern humanity to give it his well-founded and thoroughly thought-through consent, dispensing him from having to give a naive consent to a heteronomous authority.   That tension—wanting to think hard and still believe—has not gone away. If anything, it is sharper now. He set aside both nostalgia and cynicism. History is the grand theme for the philosophy of Hegel, culminating in the lectures on world h...