Philosophical Religion

Christian Atheism (Pre-Course Series: 3)

Raising Mysteries of Feeling to Thought of the Concept

The next Philosophy Portal course starts October 20th and focuses on the concept of Christian Atheism. The course will feature classes on German Idealism, Hegelo-Marxism, Nietzsche and Psychoanalysis, Altizer’s Gospel, Žižek’s Philosophy, and Rollins’ Theology. The course will also feature guest lectures from Slavoj Žižek, Peter Rollins, Barry Taylor, and Mark Gerard Murphy. To find out more, or to get involved, see: Christian Atheism.

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The video below is part of pre-course material for the course on Christian Atheism:

In this video:

1. We start with the historical foundations of Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion in his context of late 18th / early 19th century Europe, and specifically the challenge of major societal transformation calling into question the status of Christianity

2. In order to further develop Hegel’s position on religion we analyse Hegel’s relation to Kant’s transcendental philosophy and specifically the way Hegel attempts to move beyond the dualism of phenomena/noumena

3. This shift moves us from the transcendental philosophy to the speculative philosophy where we are not only interested in conditions of possibility of objective reality but the way the subject is re-inscribed as an excess of it

4. To live with this excess requires a courageous and loving disposition which is for Hegel the dimension of Holy Spirit which is distinct from the big Other (God) in that Holy Spirit only exists through individual relations bound by love

5. The cognitive dimension that Hegel suggests opens up the preconditions for Holy Spirit is Absolute Knowing which is a form of cognition that fully coincides with an “absolute historicism” beyond any transcendental guarantee

6. In concrete historical application Hegel’s philosophy thus invokes a three-fold process whereby the Death of God opens the conditions of possibility for Christ (love) which is the “absolute example” leading to the actualisation of Holy Spirit

Note: in the course itself, this pre-course material will not only be further developed, but also provide us with a foundation for further discussion.