Illustrated in the history of civilization. In civilization, for instance, this triplicate movement is always repeating itself. Men find themselves living together in one of the primitive stages of society. This rudimentary life is the absolute idea affirming itself; the positive form of the "becoming," or evolution in consciousness. But in the mean time humanity is outgrowing this form of civilization, and recoiling upon it, contradicting and destroying it. The effect of this conflict is another positive manifestation of the absolute idea, in some better form of civilization. And the higher ground thus reached, instead of being a resting-place, is always a point of departure to something still higher. In this way primitive barbarism rose to heroworship, hero-worship to monarchy, and monarchy to the government of society by laws and constitutions. This unfolding of the absolute idea is history, and the recog nition of it, and interpreting of human progress by its action, constitute the philosophy of history. The absolute idea in art. Within the province of art, also, the Hegelian scheme reveals its essential nature. At first men made for themselves a few rude implements and ornaments. Jubal was the father of such as handle the harp and organ; Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. This was an actualization of the absolute idea in art. But that idea, being an eternal process, does not stop at this point. It goes beyond, and reacts upon what is with destructive effect. And it brings back with it, into the place of the forms it destroys, other forms which more perfectly embody its own possibilities. In all departments of life, as in art and civilization, there is forever a conservative party in conflict with Progress and conservatism. a destructive party, and the result of their struggling against each other is constant progress; the further unfolding, that is, of the absolute idea. Whatever be the thesis on any subject for the time being, antithesis is steadily lifting the general consciousness to some higher thesis. The abso lute idea Such being the universal necessity, it follows that religion, like everything else, is subject to its action. The absolute idea was here first actualized, let us assume, in the form of fetich-worship. But immediately it began to recoil upon this affirmation of itself. And the result of the conflict was its higher affirmation as polytheism. Polytheism is now the thesis, and upon this, too, the absolute idea straightway reacts by antithesis, thus lifting the religious consciousness of the world into the form of monotheism. In this way monotheism, as at first imperfectly held, became that which the absolute idea affirmed. But by the necessity of its development, the idea still reacted destructively on what it had affirmed, and thus rose to the positive conception of Christianity. Christianity, as a temporary embodiment of the absolute idea, is now the thesis in religion. The antithesis, which assails this, and destroys its formal expression in the New Testament records, is the Tübingen school of criticism; which criticism, however, so far from doing any harm to religion itself, as conceived under the absolute idea, only clears the way for some manifestation of it more noble than the Christianity of the Bible. Thus it is that pantheism, under the handling of Hegel and his school, finds within itself a place for the Christian religion. That Christianity one of the temporary forms of the absolute idea." Christianity is, however, only a transitory embodiment of the absolute idea, which idea alone is permanent, in religion as everywhere else. This winds its all-crushing folds about the historical Christ, destroying him as it gave him, for the sake of its own higher manifestation. The so-called historical Christ is a myth, and the absolute idea, which wrought in the religious imagination of men to create that myth, and which even now is seeking a nobler incarnation, is the only and the whole, the all-one reality. The followers of Hegel soon separated into a “right” and "left;" and these two parties straightway went to war with each other, and are still at strife, evolving him through their disputes, about as interminably as his contradictories evolve the absolute. His influence, even upon Different views of Hegelianism. The "right." Christian theists, may be easily accounted for. He died suddenly, at the age of sixty, while the praises of his philosophy were resounding far and near. No young thinker, much less any German thinker, wished to set himself against so great a name. Those who held to orthodoxy, and to conservative views generally, yet professed Hegelianism, lest this glory should all pass over to the revolutionary party. They sought to show that Hegel's philosophy did not subvert historical Christianity, nor the positive institutions of the church and the state. But the absurdity of their effort was too manifest to make much headway. Though revived from time to time, even to the present day, the attempt to prove that Hegelianism agrees with orthodox Christianity has been generally regarded as a failure. Julius Müller, a thoroughly competent witness, says, "No place is to be found in this system for a finite 1 The "left." life unfolding itself progressively, in pure and undisturbed harmony with God and with itself, and the attempt to force such an idea into it is vain. Hegel, therefore, in his logic, is fond of using 'infinitude' and 'holiness' as correlatives, and in his lectures upon the Philosophy of Religion, he uses the finite' as the correlative of 'evil,' with the additional limitation that evil is the extreme of finitude.'" Those who take the "left," construing Hegel's system to the overthrow of positive institutions, may well charge their opponents with a lack of the scientific spirit; with looking to practical results, that is, rather than to the real nature of what Hegel taught. Take the self-contradictory thought-process, which is the absolute idea eternally evolving itself, and go on fearlessly with it, say they, never turning back to guard your prejudices, and warning final causes, historical Christianity, and all other obstacles to save themselves as they best can. But this party, even if true to the logical tendencies of the system, were yet false to the spirit of their master. They, too, like their extreme opponents, sought to make use of the new philosophy in furthering their practical views of social and individual life. But was it possible that so great a man as Hegel should wish to be only a destroyer? that he should seek to cast off all bands of order from men, and bring in a social chaos everywhere? This was the question now raised by some of his disciples, to which they could return only a negative answer. And hence arose a third party, called the "centre," though left-centre would have been the These claimed to stand more accurate term, perhaps. 1 Christian Doctrine of Sin, Book II., Chap. IV. The "cen tre." midway between the other two parties, and laid special claim to that scientific spirit which they alike had forsaken. And here again we are reminded of the Hegelian dialectics, the same idea evolving itself anew through the conflict of its opposites in manifestation. Strauss. One of the first and most earnest of this "centre" party was David Friederich Strauss. He, while still a youth under twenty, had sat in the vast audience of learned men who listened with delight and wonder to the ripest utterances of Hegel. None were more receptive than he, none more enthusiastic in their advocacy of the new system. It was under this impulse that he went to Tübingen, where Hegel had been educated, to lecture at the university, and also to be connected with the theological faculty. As we might expect, he looked at all subjects through the system of philosophy which he brought with him. He was a pen in Hegel's hand, a tongue to the Hegelian philosophy. But he wrote and spoke, for the most part, on subjects connected with the biblical teachings. We are at present concerned, therefore, to see what the method was by which he found a place for Christianity in this pantheistic temple. At Tübingen. His Life of Jesus, which has given him so wide a notoriety, was published within five years after the death of Hegel, and when Strauss himself The "Life of Jesus." twenty-seven years old. It was was but a work of youthful enthusiasm, and not free from the faults wont to mar such efforts. Other critics, agreeing with him in the main, especially Ferdinand Christian Baur, |