On the Usefulness of Doubt for Faith. Hegel on Religious Scepticism and Theological Knowledge

Abstract

Hegel characterizes the movement of the Phenomenology of Spirit through the different shapes of consciousness as self-consummating skepticism. The article takes Hegel at his word and examines the types of doubt that characterize religious consciousness. Religious doubts concern the need to draw on the testimonies of others, the identification of the absolute with some material object, the manifestation of God in nature, the representation of the Divine by works of human art, and finally God’s revelation of Himself as a spiritual counterpart. Each type of religion in Hegel’s typology – natural religion, religion of art, and revealed religion – correlates with a particular kind of doubt. In Christianity, for instance, doubt regards the assumption that God is a spiritual being to whom the believers stand in a reciprocal relation of recognition. Religious doubt does not have to be avoided at any cost; it is rather an indicator of the respective form of devout consciousness.