TTEASK018U Valgfag: Religion in Crisis: Nineteenth-Century European Thought

Our goal is to explore the challenges to religious thinking in the nineteenth century that resulted from the Enlightenment’s demand that religion justify itself in terms of rationality. We will begin with a careful examination of G.W.F. Hegel’s influential interpretation of the development of the various historical forms of religion and his analysis of religion as a form of knowing. We will then examine some of the most significant criticisms of Hegel’s understanding of religion in the works of Feuerbach, Marx and Nietzsche. Key themes will include: alienation, recognition, history, human nature and mythology. This course is interdisciplinary and will include readings and discussions relevant for philosophy, theology and religious studies.