Hegel’s God

A scholarly concept referring to G.W.F. Hegel’s conception of the divine as an absolute presence or infinite that actualizes itself through history and dialectical process. It is frequently contrasted with a personal, free, or transcendent God, and is critiqued (e.g., by Barth) as reducing God to an apprehensible rational essence rather than a sovereign subject that acts freely.

Claims that use this term

• Hegel’s God of absolute presence requires an original passivity foreshadowed by Origen
• Barth rejected Hegel’s God as an apprehensible essence rather than a free new beginning.
• Hegel’s God can present itself yet never truly happen