{"id":8332,"date":"2013-11-27T05:31:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T05:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/11\/27\/is-hegel-the-protestant-aquinas-2\/"},"modified":"2013-11-27T05:31:45","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T05:31:45","slug":"is-hegel-the-protestant-aquinas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/11\/27\/is-hegel-the-protestant-aquinas-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Hegel the Protestant Aquinas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Howard Kainz writes<\/a>,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s a good question. Hegel and Aquinas are certainly comparable in the sense that they treated a wide variety of topics in philosophy and theology, and unified and organized them. Another similarity resides in the prominence of theology in their writings \u2013 but with the following caveat: Whereas, in the scholastic approach adopted by Aquinas, philosophy (Aristotelian, Platonic, Stoic, etc.) is the \u201chandmaid of theology,\u201d with Hegel the relationship is inverted: theology becomes the handmaid of philosophy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is certainly true that for Aquinas, philosophia ancilla theologiae<\/em>, "philosophy is the handmaiden of theology," where the theology in question is a reflection on, and systematization of, the data of divine revelation, and not a branch of philosophy.  But it strikes me as not quite right to say that, for Hegel, the relationship is inverted.  <\/span><\/p>\n

First of all, in what sense is philosophy a handmaiden to theology for Aquinas? Philosophy takes us some distance toward the knowledge of the ultimate truth about the ultimate matters, but not all the way, and not to the truly essential.  It takes us as far as we can go on the basis of experience and discursive reason unaided by revelation  But if we would know the whole truth about the ultimate matters, and indeed the saving truth, then we must accept divine revelation.  We can know that God exists by unaided reason, for example, but not that God is triune.  Thus, for Aquinas, theology supplements and completes what we can know by our own powers.  It neither contradicts the latter, nor does it express it in a more adequate form: it goes beyond it.  A second sense in which philosophy is ancillary to theology is that philosophy supplies the tools of theology, though not its data.  It supplies concepts and argumentative procedures with which the data of revelation can be articulated and organized and shown to be rationally acceptable, a reasoned faith, though not a rationally demonstrable faith.
<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hegel\"<\/a>For Hegel, however, the content of theology and philosophy are the same; it is just that philosophy expresses this content in an adequate conceptual manner whereas theology expresses it in an inadequate pictorial manner.  To throw some Hegelian jargon, the thinking of theology is vorstellendes Denken<\/em>; the thinking of philosophy is superior: begriffliches Denken<\/em>. If Hegel were Aquinas on his head, then Hegel would have to be saying that philosophy brings in new content beyond that of theology.  But that's not his view.  And if Aquinas were Hegel on his head, then Aquinas would have to be saying that the content of philosophy and theology is the same, but that philosophy expresses it inadequately.  And that is not what he is saying.
<\/span><\/p>\n

Hegel clearly subordinates theology to philosophy but it is incorrect to say that, for Hegel, theology is the handmaiden of philosophy in the way that philosophy is the handmaiden of theology for Aquinas.<\/span><\/p>\n

 This cavil having been lodged, Kainz's piece is a useful little piece of journalism for those who don't know anything about this topic.  <\/span><\/p>\n

It does annoy  me, however, that  Kainz doesn't supply any references.  For example, we read:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Hegel was critical of Catholicism at times, in his writings and lectures. For example, he once made a scurrilous remark about the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist . . . .
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Very interesting, but what exactly does he say and where does he say it?  Inquiring minds want to know.  Would it have killed Kainz to insert a few references into his piece?  Then a serious dude like me who has almost the whole of Hegel in German and English in his personal library could check the context and amplify his knowledge of the work of the Swabian genius.<\/span><\/p>\n

Related:  Is Hegel Guilty of 'Epochism'?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Howard Kainz writes, It\u2019s a good question. Hegel and Aquinas are certainly comparable in the sense that they treated a wide variety of topics in philosophy and theology, and unified and organized them. Another similarity resides in the prominence of theology in their writings \u2013 but with the following caveat: Whereas, in the scholastic approach … Continue reading “Is Hegel the Protestant Aquinas?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aquinas-and-thomism","category-hegel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}