Reality of Christian faith: Hegel, Bonhoeffer, and the Church

Abstract

In his famous Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel unfolds a speculative theory of the Christian congregation. His reflections are based on his concept of the spirit, which can integrate its other at the place of finite subjectivity. In this way, the Christian concept of the Trinity is incorporated into the idea of ‘God existing as congregation’. Dietrich Bonhoeffer takes up this consideration in Sanctorum Communio, where he subjects Hegel’s concept of the congregation to a Christological critique. The mere realisation of the absolute in the history of Christianity is replaced by ‘Christ existing as a church-community’. Against this background, the Christian character of a theological ethics can be exemplified, which is committed to the Trinitarian idea of God without letting Christ disappear in a philosophical concept of spirit.