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 ...

  Biography Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, who became one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century. [1] Hegel was born in Stuttgart on August 27, 1770, the son of a revenue officer with the civil service. He was brought up in an atmosphere of Protestant Pietism and became thoroughly acquainted with the Greek and Roman classics while studying at the Stuttgart gymnasium (preparatory school). Encouraged by his father to become a clergyman, Hegel entered the seminary at the University of Tübingen in 1788. There he developed friendships with the poet Friedrich Hölderlin and the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling.  Having completed a course of study in philosophy and theology and having decided not to enter the ministry, Hegel became (1793) a private tutor in Bern, Switzerland. At this early age, 23, Hegel is already poking holes in the cold rationalism of the Enlightenment and in the dusty creeds of the church.   I...

  Introduction I read my first book by Hegel in 1973, under the guidance of Dr. R. Duane Thompson. Since then, I have returned to Hegel sporadically, reading and keeping his published books and lectures, though largely omitting the writings of the young Hegel. The persistence of my interest in him stems from a personal suspicion of easy answers. I resist having truth nailed down for the last time, in part because truth itself keeps moving. Hegel probes doubt and unsettles certainty. He persistently presses the question of what energizes human life beyond the merely instrumental—beyond money, power, and utility—toward the classical concerns of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth, which find expression in the human activities of Art, Religion, and Philosophy. The synthesis Hegel achieved—his speculative philosophy that sought to unite opposites within a system elevated through negation—can fairly be said to be dead. He stands as witness to a reality of modern culture. It resists any attempt ...