1781–1831

Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel: German Idealism's Challenge to Theology

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) of Königsberg wrote the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), followed by his ethical writings (1785, 1788, 1797) and Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (1793). A later assessment sees his philosophy as the end of the rationalism of Cartesians, empiricists and deists.

Hegel (1770–1831) studied theology at Tübingen and taught in Berlin from 1818. He considered Christianity the "absolute religion." In a later assessment, Kant opened three paths for theology after him: ethics (Ritschl), feeling (Schleiermacher), and absolute reason (Hegel). Hegel's students at Tübingen included F. C. Baur and D. F. Strauss. Elements of his system were later taken up by Darwin and Marx.