ABSTRACT
Theology obscures the identity of the individual with society by dividing the mind of the believer from its object, from God. Absolute idealism aims at uniting the social dimensions of religion with the abstract individualism of Enlightenment. Enlightenment thought, which Hegel also refers to as finite thought or the understanding consciousness, develops out of and in relation to religious consciousness and theology. For Hegel, there are three fundamental truths in Christian theology: the notions of incarnation and of resurrection, and the concept of the Holy Trinity. The Protestant religion is the highest form of religious consciousness. Protestantism everywhere cleared away the barriers which separate the individual from God. Hegel argues that the revolution in language was one of the major achievements of the Reformation. Hegel's observations on the importance of language are taken up by Marx in The German Ideology.
