Hegel's Philosophy of the Historical Religions

Beginning in 1821, philosopher G.W.F. Hegel began a sustained inquiry into the philosophy of world historical religions (contained in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion), in which he sought to systematize the world's religions from the African "religion of nature" to Christianity, which for Hegel was the only true religion, all other religions being "determinate religions." In this volume, the editors (professors of philosophy at Leiden U., the Netherlands) present 11 chapters that collectively follow the same structural schema presented by Hegel in the Lectures in their examinations of his discussion of each form of religion. Each chapter combines a purely textual analysis of Hegel's thought with a critical engagement from the perspective of the religion discussed. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Bart C. Labuschagne, Ph.D. (1995), Groningen University, teaches Philosophy of Law at Leiden University (The Netherlands). He has published on the Civil Dimension of Religion as the Spiritual foundation of Law and Politics, recently: Religion, Politics and Law. Philosophical Reflections on the Sources of Normative Order in Society, co-edited with R.W. Sonnenschmidt, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2009.Timo J.M. Slootweg, Ph.D. (2000) Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands) lectures in Philosophy of Law and Ethics at Leiden University. His publications are concerned with the relation between Law and Love; Knowledge and Faith; Existentialism and Personalism; Dialectical and Dialogical theology; Postmodernism. His thesis dealt with the Idea of Historical Consciousnees and Historicity in the Philosophies of Hegel, Heidegger and Derrida.