The Heterodox Hegel PDF
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Page ii The Heterodox Hegel Page iii Suny Series in Hegelian Studies William Desmond, Editor Page iv The Heterodox Hegel Cyril O'Regan With a Foreword by Louis Dupré STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Page v Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 1994 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246 Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Dana E. Yanulavich Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data O'Regan, Cyril, date. The Heterodox Hegel / Cyril O'Regan ; with a foreword by Louis Dupré. p. cm.—(SUNY series in Hegelian studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0791420051(hc : alk. paper).—ISBN079142006X(pb : alk. paper) 1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 17701831—Religion. 2. Lutheran Church—Influence. 3. Mysticism—History—19th century. I. Title. II. Series. B2949.R3073 1994 193—dc20 9336365 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Page vi This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother and father Phyllis O'Regan (19271985) Thomas O'Regan (19221984) Page vii CONTENTS Foreword by Louis Dupré ix Acknowledgments xiii List of Abbreviations xv Introduction 1 Part 1. Ontotheological Foundations 27 Chapter 1. Hegelian Rendition of the Deus Revelatus of Christianity 29 Section 1.1 Against Negative Theology 31 Section 1.2 Narrative and the Deus Revelatus 44 Section 1.3 Trinity as Adequate Theological Articulation 63 Part 2. The Trinitarian Structuration of the Epochal Divine 81 Chapter 2. The First Narrative Epoch: The "Immanent Trinity" 85 Section 2.1 Hegelian Logic as Logica Divina 86 Section 2.2 The "Immanent Trinity" as Speculatively Informed Vorstellung: 107 LPR and Other Hegelian Texts Section 2.3 Trinitarian Swerve: Dynamic, Narrative Modalism 126 Chapter 3. The Second Narrative Epoch: Creation and The Epoch of the Son 141 Section 3.1 Hegelian Legitimation of the Representation of Creation 144 Page viii Section 3.2 Creation as Fall and Evil 151 Section 3.3 Hegelian Swerve from the Normative Christian Tradition 169 Chapter 4. Epochal Overlap: Incarnation and the Passion Narrative 189 Section 4.1 Hegel's Mature Christological Position: Trinitarian 190 Contextualization of Theologia Crucis Section 4.2 Deus Patibilis: Hegel and Luther: Agreement and Swerve 209 Chapter 5. The Third Narrative Epoch: The Moment or Kingdom of the Spirit 235 Section 5.1 Spiritual Community (Gemeinde): Corpus Mysticum 238 Section 5.2 Complex Mystical Determination: Complex Mystical Inflection 249 Chapter 6. The Third Narrative Epoch: The Inclusive Trinity 287 Section 6.1 Holy Spirit—Spirit: Spirit—"Immanent Trinity" 288 Section 6.2 The Genre of Hegelian Apocalypse 298 Section 6.3 The Genre of Hegelian Theodicy 310 Part 3. Narrative and LogicoConceptual Articulation 327 Chapter 7. Representation and Concept: Speculative Rewriting 331 Section 7.1 Representation and Concept in Hegel's Mature Works 333 Section 7.2 Agents of Speculative Rewriting 339 Section 7.3 Hegel and the Perdurance of Narrative 363 Notes 371 Bibliography 465 Indexes 489 Page ix FOREWORD The history of Hegel's succession has been as dialectical as his own philosophy. Almost immediately after the master's death, his disciples divided into two sharply opposed camps and what Marx ironically referred to as the battle of the Diadochi began. The right wing having been charged with publishing Hegel's writings considered itself the legitimate heir. The leftist rebels, though irreverent of the letter, revitalized the dynamic movement of Hegel's dialectic, using its principles to stir up a revolt against the entire social and religious system in which Hegel's philosophy had been born. Yet, when they ended up rewriting the dialectic in the language of philosophical and historical materialism, it became manifest that they could no longer lay claim to the prophet's mantle. With the camps thus emptied of the original combatants, the battles did not cease. As other generations emerged, new "wings" developed. A new right codified Hegel's religious thought for theology courses, created textbooks of his logic, and enshrined his political philosophy in conservative doctrines. A new leftism originated after the war with the French existentialists and the "negative dialectic" of the Frankfurt School. Even now that Hegel studies are moving toward a nonpartisan, historical and textual analysis, the old divisions have not subsided altogether! Philosophy of religion in particular remains hotly disputed territory—specially in these United States. Studies tend to result in allornothing conclusions. Either Hegel was an orthodox, though occasionally somewhat original, Christian—or he was thoroughly secular. Precisely at this point Cyril O'Regan's work differs—not so much by not belonging to either of the warring factions as by changing the perspective. Concern with Christian dogma stands at the heart of Hegel's thinking, he argues, and the fact that he considered the Trinity the central mystery of the Christian revelation shows his theological seriousness. But that theological concern in no way restricts Hegel to the main tradition. The present study uncovers a number of hidden, Page x unquestionably religious, but highly unorthodox sources at the root of Hegelian speculation. Boehme and some Gnostic writings feature prominently. His repeated profession of allegiance to the Lutheran faith ought not to be taken as a brief of trinitarian orthodoxy. Professor O'Regan draws attention to Hegel's unconventional understanding of the dogma of the Trinity as articulating at once God's intimate, selfenclosed life and the essential incompleteness of that divine life if detached from its expression in creation and redemption. The Trinity does not remain enclosed within itself. Its divine mystery is also, and foremost, inclusive of all worldly reality. Indeed, already God's inner life possesses a 'narrative' quality, insofar as it constitutes the 'prolepsis' to the story of creation and redemption. Some may regard Hegel's innovating conceptions forays into theosophical territory, straying too far from the base of orthodoxy still to qualify for the name of Christian thinking. They may detect a transfer of the Christian mystery to dubious Neoplatonic (specifically, Proclean) grounds. Others, however, are likely to recognize the presence of an older, mystical tradition that, though never exactly coinciding with the terms of the established doctrine, was allowed to develop alongside it. Remaining in intimate sympathy with a theological orthodoxy that continued to feed it, it again and again ended up renewing and revitalizing the meaning of orthodox doctrine. Is such a religious, though unorthodox, reading yet another expression of the old 'right'? I believe not, because the conception here presented allows so much room even for the secular religiosity of our time that the categories of the earlier division no longer apply. Hegel's theory, as interpreted by Cyril O'Regan, presents us with something new—unquestionably religious, even faithful to the basis of the Christian tradition, but so thoroughly transforming its interpretation that it may well point the way toward a different, as yet unexplored, understanding of religion. This study paradoxically shows Hegel as a revolutionary (the leftist battle cry!) precisely in being a Christian religious thinker. The conservative reading of Hegel as the theologian of Lutheran orthodoxy has been decisively abandoned, yet the new interpretation, however comprehensive of the secular, stands at the opposite end of the 'secularist' spectrum of the left. Any innovative vision of the classical system demands a recapturing of the innocence of that original readership to which the text still appeared in its own light, uncluttered by libraries of subsequent commentary. But innocence itself turns into naïveté if one treats an old script as if it were a new writing. This produces the kind of original
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