Hegel's view of Jesus changed noticeably during his life as his ideas developed. There were three important developments of Hegel's viewpoints between 1795 and 1807. These different transformations not only helped to strengthen his other works of the period but also the different Jesus' were reflected into those beliefs. The three distinctive views of Jesus are as such "" A) Jesus as a spokesperson for Kant's moral theory, B) Jesus as the voice of universal love, and C) Jesus at the stages of the cross during his suffering and death.
Background is important when accessing Hegel's early beliefs. His beliefs were an amalgam of the views of those who studied before him such as Kant, Fichte and Schelling and the socio-political concerns following the French revolution. This was a turbulent time in philosophic thought. During Hegel's period writing on Jesus, the general philosophic spirit of the time changed from the search for enlightenment into a romantic attitude and finished up with a reintroduction of classical Greek thought and imagery into German culture.
Religion appeared to be breaking down with the initiation of humanistic and scientific view, which were now replacing the Christian mysticism. The philosophers of the period realized that the last time a great belief structure fell, being the Roman Empire, the world was thrown into a period of intellectual barbarianism, also known as the dark ages. The philosophers were attempting to understand and update these religious beliefs to put them into scientific terms, which would enable a new level of understanding, thereby revitalizing the church.
It is important to understand some of the terms that Hegel used in his works. One main concept was Hegel's view of the self. Which comes through frequently in his views. Prior to the German philosophers the self...