1770–1831 (Hegel's lifespan)

Hegel: Spirit, Dialectic and Christianity as the Absolute Religion

Hegel considered himself a theologian, but he sought not an exposition of doctrine in traditional formulas but a comprehensive understanding of reality and of Christianity's place in it. He carried Kant's view of the mind's active role to its conclusion: reality is the unfolding of the principle of rationality, Spirit (Geist); "the real is the rational," and logic is dynamic and dialectical. History is not a truth hidden behind it but is itself dynamic truth. Rejecting the rationalist theory of a universal natural religion, Hegel saw Christianity as the culmination of the unfolding of Spirit – the "absolute religion": the incarnation expresses the final union of God and humanity, the Trinity the dialectical character of reality.