Experience and Spirit : A Post-Hegelian Philosophical Theology

Hegel’s philosophy of religion is a philosophical theology in which God is conceived as a movement of inclusive divine subjectivity – ultimately God inclusive of the world. For Hegel, this inclusive divine subjectivity took the form of a movement of conceptual thought. In an effort to work with Hegel while going beyond him, Experience and Spirit presents God as a movement of inclusive divine subjectivity; however, that movement is understood to be not one of thought but of enriching experience and, thus, of spirit. This argument in favor of a renewed understanding of Hegel’s true infinite proceeds in three major steps: first, a consideration of Hegel’s own problematic proposal; second, the elaboration of a fuller and more contemporary notion of experience; and, third, three constructive phenomenological and philosophical reflections on basic questions in philosophical theology, namely, the experience of God, speaking about God, and the notions of evil, freedom, and mystery. In the end, Experience and Spirit proposes a philosophy of generosity, both human and divine.