Abstract:
In the Phenomenology of Spirit G.W. F. Hegel puts forth a number of ideas on
man’s relationship with the world. In his chapter on the “Dialectic of Subject,”
specifically, Hegel looks at the ability of self-consciousness to relate to the world by
putting itself at the center of things. In doing so, Hegel takes the reader through the steps
which self-consciousness undergoes in order to relate properly to the world. In my thesis,
I utilize an interpretation of this text by Alexandre Kojeve in order to demonstrate that
Christians can create the world and thus take a proper place in history as Hegel so
desires. In using figures such as John Howard Yoder and other theologians and biblical
exegetes, I demonstrate that Christianity is not merely an ethereal concept, as Kojeve
seems to think, and that Christians are meant to and do in fact take part in social action in
our relation to the world. In doing so, Christians properly work in the world, as Kojeve
demands, and thus take part in the process of “completing” history, in proper Hegelian
fashion.
