ABSTRACT
This chapter finds that Hegel's concern with the struggles of time and absolute reconciliation, represented religiously in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hegel's admirers are drawn by his ambition to take history seriously. The relation of God and history is at stake. Here we approach the historical concretion of the relation of two forms of transcendence: human self-transcendence (T2) and divine transcendence (T3). Hegel presents his philosophy of history as a theodicy, one different to Leibniz's in this regard. Leibniz offers a rational argument said to hold together the absolute goodness and power of God, and without denial of the 'reality' of evil. Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion offers his most extensive discussion of evil, though scattered throughout the large systematic works are many mentions of the issue, especially the story of the fall as a Vorstellung illustrating the dialectical development of spirit.
