Hegel wrote two important essays on the subject of Christianity, "The Positivity of the Christian Religion" and "The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate," and these will be compared and contrasted in a way that emphasizes the quasi-Kantian view of the former essay while showing areas in which the latter essay makes significant departures from Kantian philosophy. The essence of the first essay is its criticism of the institutional "positivity of Christianity," while the second essay is primarily a development of what Hegel understood Christianity to be as intended by its founder, assuming, indeed, that Jesus can be considered the "founder" of Christianity. hegel's point is that what has developed through the ages into the religion that is Christianity today is not at all what Jesus had intended. Hegel at the same time attempts to show that the essence of Christianity is not exclusively a mystical or non-rational way of existence or of seeing the world.
Richard Kroner writes in his Introduction to Hegel's Early Theological Writings,
To eliminate the Kantian element in Hegel's philosophy is like eliminating the Platonic element in Aristotle. Hegel became a Kantian the moment he understood the revolution brought about by Kant's Critical Philosophy; and he remained a Kantian throughout his life, no matter how much he disputed many of Kant's doctrines. . . "
Kroner points out that the primary contribution of Kant to Hegel was the former's dialectical method, without which Hegel would not have been able to move beyond Kant into a dialectically-inspired understanding of the teachings of Jesus.
Hegel shows a distinct development of thought in his essays on Christianity, and the two pieces can be distinguished by the way that thought develops from one to the other. In the earlier essay we see Hegel making use of the Kantian method of philosophical analysis as he tries to dismantle what he sees as the prevailing unfounded interpr...