ABSTRACT
One of the most distinguished modern exponents of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s philosophy of religion, Emil Fackenheim, has spoken of a ‘legend of great longevity’, according to which ‘the Hegelian philosophy is not and never was to be taken seriously’. Hegel is a philosopher who asserts that philosophy is the service of God; that the proper object of philosophy as of religion is the contemplation of God. This chapter argues that Hegel’s view of philosophy as itself a religious activity is of crucial relevance to his philosophy as whole. It suggests that the religious character of Hegel’s philosophy, far from being an anachronism, is one of the main reasons why that philosophy continues to be relevant. The chapter shows that, although Hegel’s total vision of experience is itself a religious one, that vision is still capable of encompassing within itself an understanding of the necessary separation, as well as the necessary connection, between philosophy and religion.
