ABSTRACT

Hegel's speculations about the trinity are of importance for a number of reasons. There is the obvious one for philosophical theology: Hegel purports to give an account of the immanent life of the divine, which claims its religious warrant in the Christian understanding. Hegel is attracted to the Trinitarian claim as signalling beyond homogenous monism to an internally self-differentiating absolute. The immanent life of the divine can be accounted for according to an intelligible logic that is articulated by the immanent dynamism of the speculative concept. Overall, Hegel's concept of the immanent life of the divine reflects the metaphysical metaphor of an erotic absolute. The dialectical-speculative God of Hegel suggests this metaphorics of erotic being. But notice one contrast with Platonism and Neoplatonism: in the latter the ascent of finite being to the One may be likened to an erotic seeking; but the descent by the One is described in terms of the overflow of an origin that needs nothing.