On Hegel's Idea Of Judaism

For Hegel,the true system of speculative philosophy must contain the philosophy of religion which is the indispensable philosophical department,because for the absolute spirit to manifest itself and realize itself in its entire history in the form of religious representation,philosophy has a mission and have the ability to understand this historical process,and to “purify”the spiritual connotation contained in the form of representation,to make it appear in the pure consciousness of reason,and then to find out the philosophical concept in religious representation,to known that religious representations and philosophical concepts are compatible and consistent,and finally reveals the rationality of religion and the identity of religion and philosophy.This is Hegel's philosophy of religion and his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion.In the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion,Judaism is summarized as “sublime religion”,which belongs to the first link of the “religion of spiritual individuality” and is in the same big stage as Greek religion(the religion of beauty)and Roman religion(the religion of utility or understanding),and its logical status is only lower than Christianity(the absolute religion),but much higher than other “natural religions” in the East.In Hegel's view,the spirit of eastern religions(such as China,India,Persia,Egypt,etc.)is mainly based on the principle of substantiality,and the spirit of western religions(such as Greece,Rome and Christian world)is mainly based on the principle of subjectivity,but the spirit of Judaism fully embodies the transitional characteristics from east to west,from substantiality to subjectivity,and it has become the “intersection” and “watershed” of eastern and western religions.Therefore,Judaism undoubtedly has a very important position and significance in both the history of human religion and of human civilization.For such an important pure monotheism,Hegel naturally conducted a rational investigation from the standpoint of his speculative philosophy,so as to reveal the rational concept and spiritual connotation in Judaism,explain its reasonable position in the historical progress of religious spirit,and finally form his own unique idea of Judaism.Hegel considers that Judaism is the first form of “free subjectivity” which is the pure subjectivity or infinite subjectivity.This purely infinite subject stipulates itself as the absolute or infinite power with the characteristics of substantive negation because of its own abstractness,so the concept of God as the only One is the infinite subject existing for-itself and the absolute power with the negativity of abstract substance.The “infinite subject existing for-itself”embodies the principle of subjectivity in the spirit of Judaism,while the “absolute power with the negativity of abstract substance” reflects the principle of substantiality in the spirit of Judaism.It can be seen from the above provisions that Judaism has these two stipulations both the substantiality and subjectivity,although it has not yet reached the concept of “the absolute identity of the substance and the subject”,it does show,to a considerable extent,this feature which is “the identity of the substance and the subject” in the concept of spirit,and combines the substantiality and subjectivity of the spirit's concept on the basis of the concept of God as a purely only One,so it can be counted as the specific existence of “the absolute identity of the substance and the subject” in a certain abstract form.This shows that Hegel consciously uses the pure concepts of substantiality and subjectivity in his speculative philosophy to inspect Judaism,thus realizing a rational interpretation of Judaism,excavating the rational connotation in the spirit of Judaism to a considerable extent,and coordinating the Judaism and speculative reason.Certainly,the emergence of Hegel's idea of Judaism is under a certain historical environment and cultural background.In the era of Hegel's life,the German Jews had launched the “Haskalah” Enlightenment,and Judaism itself entered the period of reform.This is the historical environment.The negative understanding of Judaism by German Protestant thinkers,such as Luther,Herder,Kant and Schleiermacher,constitutes its cultural background.This is the content of the first chapter: “The historical and cultural background of Hegel's idea of Judaism”.More importantly,Hegel's idea of Judaism regards the spirit's concept and religion's concept in his speculative philosophy as the fundamental premise and absolute foundation.The ideality(Idealit?t)of spirit prompts Hegel to recognize the subjectivity,transcendence,infinity and sublimity in the Jewish concept of God.The concept of the spirit as the “absolute essence in its self-consciousness”,due to the emphasis on freedom,leads to Hegel's criticism on the illiberality and abstractness of the Judaism's spirit,which includes these contents: Judaism is“the spiritual religion in abstractness”,its God is still not considered as free spirit,but the fearing and abstract God.Moreover,the concept of religion and its historical progress ultimately determine the logical and historical position of Judaism in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion: “the religion of sublimity”.These three parts,which include Hegel's concept of spirit,concept of religion and the historical progress of the philosophy of religon,constitute chapter 2:“The theoretical basis and philosophical ground of Hegel's idea of Judaism”.Despite Hegel's philosophy of religion has a high evaluation of the spiritual connotation and the rational status of Judaism,however,his understanding in youth was quite one-sided,which was almost full of negative criticism and lacked sympathetic interpretation,also mixed with a lot of radical words with the European anti-Semitic colors,and failed to recognize the importance and excellence of the Judaism's spirit.In fact,Hegel's understanding and evaluation of Judaism had undergone a complex evolution from early to late,from criticism to sympathy,and finally reached the highest peak of sympathy in the 1827 lecture on the philosophy of religion,thus overcoming the negative effects of European anti-Jewish sentiment.This part belongs to chapter 3: “From criticism to sympathy: the evolution of Hegel's theory of Judaism and his surmounting the bias of European anti-Semitism”.In addition,Hegel's idea of Judaism also has important academic and research significance in philosophical studies of comparative religion,especially related to the debates about the“monotheism” and the only One(or the idea of “unique God”).For example: Is the Amarna religion in the 18 th Dynasty of ancient Egypt a monotheism? What is the difference between the Atun worship and the Jewish monotheism? Does the “Brahman” in Hinduism also have a monotheistic nature? What is the “essential difference” between the uniqueness of “Brahman”and the uniqueness of “Jahweh”? Is there any important difference in the concept of God between the Islam and Judaism which are both the “pure monotheism”,especially in the concept of sublimity and the concept of only One,and what is the specific content of this difference?Besides,there are some clear and significant differences between the God's concept in Christian Trinity and the God's concept in Judaism & Islam,does Christianity still belong to monotheism?We believe that these questions can be better answered according to Hegel's philosophy of religion and his related interpretation of Judaism.This is the content of chapter 4,chapter 5 and chapter 6: “On the Hegel's idea of Judaism from the view of comparative religion”.Based on his speculative reason,Hegel's understanding and critique of Judaism is a rational interpretation of Judaism.This speculative reason combines the rational spirit of ancient Greece with the rational spirit of modern times,which almost can be said to have reached the highest achievement of western rationalism.Therefore,Hegel's idea of Judaism should occupy an important position in the process of Judaism's rationalization and also must be an indispensable part of it.In terms of the rationalization of Judaism,Hegel's contribution to this rationalization is in no way inferior to other Jewish philosophers such as Philo,Maimonides,Hermann Cohen,Martin Buber and Leo Baeck.