David Lê: The End of Art and the Non-End of Religion: Hegel on Aesthetics and Religion
-
David Lê
Abstract
While Hegel’s infamous “end of art” thesis states that art is “for us, a thing of the past” he insists that philosophy and, to a degree that is often underestimated by contemporary readers, religion endure within the structure of modern life. In this paper I aim to demonstrate how by focusing on Hegel’s claim that religion meets no end, we can come to a better understanding of how and why he thinks art does end. This will lead us away from common, but false, picture of Hegel as being indifferent (or even hostile) to art’s sensuous mode of intelligibility. Inasmuch as religion remains both necessarily sensuous and a component of social life that realizes freedom and divinity within modernity, the “problem” with art cannot be its sensuousness per se. What art ultimately finds itself unable to do, and what religion can do, is find a way to reconcile the destabilizing force of individual, subjective freedom with a jointly-held representation of who and what we are and what we value most, what Hegel calls “divinity” (das Göttliche). By countenancing the vital role of religion in Hegel’s thought, we can therefore better understand one of his most famous, and least understood philosophical claims.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Essays/Aufsätze
- David Lê: The End of Art and the Non-End of Religion: Hegel on Aesthetics and Religion
- Jakub Urbaniak, Mooketsi Motsisi: The impact of the “fear of God” on the British abolitionist movement
- Friedrich Wilhelm Graf: The Significance of Troeltsch’s Soziallehren for the Present
- Christopher Adair-Toteff: Troeltsch and Augustine
- Sarah Demmrich, Uwe Wolfradt: Die ‚Gottesidee‘ als Wesensmerkmal der Religion im Denken Karl Girgensohns
- Stuart Bell: The Novel Theology of H. G. Wells
- Reviews/Rezensionen
- Friedrich Schleiermacher, Vorlesungen über die Theologische Enzyklopädie (KGA II/2), hg. von Martin Rössler und Dirk Schmid
- Sabina Becker, Experiment Weimar. Eine Kulturgeschichte Deutschlands 1918–1933
- Karl Barth, Vorträge und kleinere Arbeiten. 1934–1935, Karl Barth-Gesamtausgabe, Band 52, hg. von Michael Beintker, Michael Hüttenhoff und Peter Zocher
- Karl Barth – Bilder und Dokumente aus seinem Leben, Karl Barth-Gesamtausgabe, Band 54, hg. von Peter Zocher
- Christiane Tietz, Karl Barth. Ein Leben im Widerspruch
- Nancy Levene, Powers of Distinction: On Religion and Modernity
- Selbstanzeige/Annoncement of Publication
- Atsushi Koyanagi: Geschichte und Gemeinschaft bei Ernst Troeltsch
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Essays/Aufsätze
- David Lê: The End of Art and the Non-End of Religion: Hegel on Aesthetics and Religion
- Jakub Urbaniak, Mooketsi Motsisi: The impact of the “fear of God” on the British abolitionist movement
- Friedrich Wilhelm Graf: The Significance of Troeltsch’s Soziallehren for the Present
- Christopher Adair-Toteff: Troeltsch and Augustine
- Sarah Demmrich, Uwe Wolfradt: Die ‚Gottesidee‘ als Wesensmerkmal der Religion im Denken Karl Girgensohns
- Stuart Bell: The Novel Theology of H. G. Wells
- Reviews/Rezensionen
- Friedrich Schleiermacher, Vorlesungen über die Theologische Enzyklopädie (KGA II/2), hg. von Martin Rössler und Dirk Schmid
- Sabina Becker, Experiment Weimar. Eine Kulturgeschichte Deutschlands 1918–1933
- Karl Barth, Vorträge und kleinere Arbeiten. 1934–1935, Karl Barth-Gesamtausgabe, Band 52, hg. von Michael Beintker, Michael Hüttenhoff und Peter Zocher
- Karl Barth – Bilder und Dokumente aus seinem Leben, Karl Barth-Gesamtausgabe, Band 54, hg. von Peter Zocher
- Christiane Tietz, Karl Barth. Ein Leben im Widerspruch
- Nancy Levene, Powers of Distinction: On Religion and Modernity
- Selbstanzeige/Annoncement of Publication
- Atsushi Koyanagi: Geschichte und Gemeinschaft bei Ernst Troeltsch
