Phenomenology of Spirit

Hegel connects his previous chapters to religion by suggesting that consciousness has the goal of absolute essence, the ultimate reality that may be interpreted as the true and divine reality. Just as Spirit pervades all parts of community, religion is present in ethics and reason.

Hegel views religion as a higher realization of Spirit: “Consciousness, self-consciousness, Reason, and Spirit—return and have returned as into their ground, they together constitute the existent actuality and the totality of Spirit” (413). Like the other topics covered in the work, Hegel shows that religion has developed over time and continues to evolve toward self-awareness. As religion becomes more self-aware, the flaws in its universality become clearer and are reconciled through philosophy.

Hegel outlines three stages of religious consciousness: natural religion, the religion of art, and revealed religion.

Natural Religion

Natural religion is the most basic stage of religious consciousness. This stage occurs when Spirit recognizes itself as Spirit. This stage is still marked by division, as the divine is seen as separate from the individual. God is understood through the senses and natural forms; Hegel points to Zoroastrianism, which views God as light. Natural religion suffers from immediacy and superficial focus on sensory experience. This stage emphasis symbolic representation and idols designed to take on human characteristics.

Religion in the Form of Art

The second stage of religious consciousness is the religion of art. As the inadequacy of natural religion is revealed, religion moves to a more complex understanding through aesthetic representation. Hegel idealizes Greek religious art and its depiction of ethics. He draws a distinction between those who create art through intuition and those who curate self-aware, ethical creations. The latter is a more elevated form of religion. It is important to note that Hegel’s focus in this section moves away from the collective and communal forms of consciousness of spirit and returns to a discussion of individual self-actualization: In the religion of art, the individual transcends community and conjures Spirit through creation.

Within this stage, Hegel details three forms. The lowest form is imprecise, abstract, and focused on individual experience. The second form is the living work of art, in which the art of the individual is aligned with collective self-consciousness. The final stage is the spiritual work of art which expresses universal humanity: “[T]he national Spirit combines with the others with which it constitutes through Nature a single nation” (439).

The Revealed Religion

The final form, revealed religion, represents the apex of religious awareness. Some interpretations of this section suggest that Hegel offers Christianity as the pathway to greater consciousness. When Spirit reaches its full self-realization, it coincides with an experience of consciousness that is fully connected with the divine. In baser forms of religion, such as natural religion, the divine is an object. In the revealed religion, the divine is made explicit through revelation of knowledge.

Revealed religion increases self-awareness and embraces both alienation and the unified whole. The opposite of religious good is evil, which turns the eye inward on the self and the self’s desires rather than the collective. A higher religious consciousness causes Spirit to die and resurrect each day in a process of continual growth.