
Summary
of
tlw
Course
in
4g7-zgg8
that is, of satisfaction
by
the
real
or active
synthesis
of the
particu-
larist
ernd
univnsalist
tendencies
of human
existence.
This
idea
fint
reveals
itself
to Man in the form
of the
(Christian)
theological
notion of the
(divine)
individualitv of the
Christ
or the
men-God.
And this ideal-idea realizes
itself in and by the French Revolution,
which
completes
the evolution
of
rhe Christian World
in
rhe
real
(and
at the same
time
symbolic)
person
of
the god-Maz
Napoleon,
who
is both
Creator-Head of
the
perfect State
and
Citizen
actively
contributing to
the
indefinite
maintenance
of that
Stare.
When the
real
opposition
berween the
Particular
and
the
Uniaersal
is
tlfus
overcome,
the ided
conflict berween "philosophice,l" dnthropology
and
religious theology
disappears too. Hence the Philosopher,
and
this
philosopher is Hegel,
who
reaeals
Man to himself
by
speaking
about
his Napoleonic redlization,
reveals him
both in
his
particu-
larist
espect an.:l
in
his
uniaersalist
especr. Thus
his
doctrine
is both
"philosophical"
and
"theological"
at the seme time. But,
being both
the one
and the other,
it
's
neitber
the
one nor the other. It
is not
a
"Philosophy"
in
the
pre-Hegelian
sense of the word, because
it
does not work
with
the notion of an ideal or abstact Spirit-
i.e.,
a
Spirit
distinct
from natural
and
social reality
and
action. And
it is
not a
"Theology,"
eitherl for
if Theology speaks
of a
real
and
concrete
Spirit, it situates it outside of Man
and
the World.
Hegel's
doctrine
rs absolute Knouledge
(absolutes
Wissen), which
com-
pletes and
ouercomes
(dufhebt)
both
"philosophical"
evolution
and
religious or theological evolution,
by
reveoling
the
perfect
Man who is
realized at
the
end
of History and
by presupposing
the
real
eristence
of this
Man.
Perfect
Man-that
is, Man fully and
defnitively satisfied
by
what
he
is-being
the realization
of the
Chrhtian
idea of Indi-
viduality,
the
revelation of this
Man
by
absolute
Knowledge
has
the
same
content as
Christian Theology, minus the notion of
transcmdence:
it is sufficient to
say
of
Man everything
that
the
Christian says
of
his
God
in order
io *orr"
from ihe
a6solute or
Christian Theology
to
Hegel's absolute
philosophy
or
Science.
And
this movement
from
the
one
to the
other can be carried out
thanks to Napoleon,
as
Hegel showed
in
Chapter
VI.
In
Chapter VII,
Hegel
shows us why
and how the most
primi-
tive theological
doctrine
was
progressively transformed into
this
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