He Was Made Man: A Hegelian Reading of Reconciliation

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) was a post-Kantian idealist who envisioned a systematic philosophical system that focuses upon a teleological account of history and devised a dialectic for all relations. Additionally, Hegel envisioned his system and the Absolute Spirit functioning as a sort of universal mind that further articulates through time and history. While Hegel is not explicitly Christian, his work has laid a firm foundation for Christian theology which will be explored in this paper through Hegel’s understanding of reconciliation via the Incarnation. For Hegel, God is the Spirit actively working in human subjectivity, and the Trinity is not relegated to numerical abstractions, but rather active via oikonomia – in relationship and through history (Küng, 384). In describing his understanding of Christ and His relation to humanity, Hegel writes: “The son of God is also the son of man; the divine in a particular shape appears as a man. The connection of infinite and finite is of course as ‘holy mystery,’ because this connection is life itself.”

This extreme desire to reconcile the finite (creation) with the infinite (Absolute) is made concrete through the Incarnation, and through this exploration this paper will draw out the understanding that God is Triune in nature and in active relation both within the persons of the Trinity and with humanity through creator-creation relation. In order to understand the full gravity of a relational, Triune God, a case study will be offered that represents essentially the antithetical depiction: evangelical functional subordinationism, which illustrates a hierarchical Trinity which acts as a chain of command where Christ is functionally subordinated to the Godhead. Recent evangelical subordinationism, or theology which supports a prescriptive, hierarchical Trinity in which each person of the Trinity is different in function and therefore permanently subordinate in role, offers a modern representation of a very old heresy coming to popularity once more: Arianism.

This video will attempt to situate the importance of the Trinity in modern society, which creates its own dialectical tension of the religious and artificial/secular, which synthesizes articulations of theological thought such as the subordination of Christ to the Godhead and woman to man – both attempts to address this continuum of sacred and profane, orthodox and heterodox. This paper will set out to examine the impact Hegelian thought has on theology by looking at Hegel’s understanding of the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ, which will work to refute the modern evangelical understanding of Eternal Functional Subordination (EFS) or “Neo-Subordinationism.”

[jessecamping]

As another sad "looking forward to your next video on perichoresis and its importance for our understanding of human relationality."
Wow Great stuff!😊

[phoenixkennedy]

looking forward to your next video on perichoresis and its importance for our understanding of human relationality. hope you are settling into your new place with peace and grace. there are probably some implications for the idea that women should be suitable candidates for the priesthood somewhere in here. you would make a great priest.

[lajphd]

Did you record and post the second part to this? Escaping me at the moment.