Tragedy in Hegel's Early Theological Writings

Book excerpt: “Wake argues, the young Hegel experimented with using tragedy as a diagnostic tool to explain the rise and fall of religions and even history itself.” —Hegel Bulletin Tragedy plays a central role in Hegel’s early writings on theology and politics. Hegel’s overarching aim in these texts is to determine the kind of mythology that would best complement religious and political freedom in modernity. Peter Wake claims that, for Hegel at this early stage, ancient Greek tragedy provided the model for such a mythology and suggested a way to oppose the rigid hierarchies and authoritarianism that characterized Europe of his day. Wake follows Hegel as he develops his idea of the essence of Christianity and its relation to the distinctly tragic expression of beauty found in Greek mythology. “Elegant. Combines the virtues of close reading of extraordinary subtlety with a wide-angle scope not only to Hegel’s work as a whole, but also to the enduring value of the early work.” —Cyril J. O’Regan, University of Notre Dame “Wake’s book is provocative and helpful because it sharpens appreciation of the complexity of the material in the ETW; it brings into focus tensions and contradictions in the texts. It contributes to the recognition of the subtlety and enduring importance of this early work.” —Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews