Idealism Turned against Itself: From Hegel to Rosenzweig

This article was originally given as a key note at the conference Critique, Protest and Reform (Oslo, 2017), aimed at exploring the rich and complex philosophical, political and religious traditions that the Reformation gave rise to. Within this framework, I consider a philosophical example of this complexity. More specifically, I describe how the anti-Jewish strand of Protestant theology became part and parcel of German idealism, but also how this particular strand evolved in a way that later would inspire significant Jewish thinkers to turn against idealism itself. I proceed in three steps. First, I briefly discuss the particular relationship between Protestantism and subsequent German philosophy. Second, I give an overview of how Jews and Judaism are displayed as motifs in idealist philosophy, exemplified through some passages in the philosophies of Hegel and Schelling. Third, I show how Schelling, in particular, inspired Franz Rosenzweig in his seminal endeavour to break free from an idealist and determinist notion of history.