Institute of Philosophy SAS
Topic
The Challenges of Hegel’s Determinate Religion
PhD. program
Year of admission
2026
Name of the supervisor
doc. Jon Stewart, DrSc., PhD., Dr. habil phil. et
Contact:
Receiving school
Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach
Annotation
Hegel’s long section on “The Determinate Religion” from his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion has traditionally been one of the most neglected parts of his entire corpus. Here Hegel gives a detailed overview of the history of the religions of the world, ostensibly tracing the conception of the divine in each of them. Only recently have scholars begun to examine this part of Hegel’s Lectures, and there are many questions still to be resolved. What function does this section serve in his system? Does it make sense today to examine religions in the way Hegel does? Or is he simply the victim of the Eurocentrism, ethnocentrism, and racism of his day, which renders his analyses of the world religions meaningless? Is there really a development in the conceptions of the divine? How does Hegel’s theory fit with other religions that he did not treat in his Lectures?