ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at Hegel's early efforts to find an immanent way, negotiating between different commissions and omissions signalled by Enlightenment, Greece and Christianity. It deals more extensively with the relation of religion and philosophy. My concern will be with the role of religion in shaping the distinctive character of Hegelian philosophizing. The book reviews at Hegel's engagement with Kant and his movement beyond this, both with reference to the then prevalent nostalgia for Greece, and the younger Hegel's attitudes to Christianity. It addresses the knotted relation of philosophical concept (Begriff) and the religious representation (Vorstellung), and how one redoubles the other. The book turns to Hegel's concern with history, itself continuous with his inclusive trinitarian view of the self-determining God and concludes with a consideration of what author call the reserves of God, which occasion reservations about Hegel's 'God' that Hegel cannot quieten.
