Les rapports de l'Eglise et de l'Etat selon Hegel

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Hegel, when discussing the relationships between the Church and the State, is led to reconsider a classical question of Political Philosophy - i.e. the theologico-political question. More precisely, there is one aspect of this theologico-political issue that has become central in Hegel and in the Hegelian school succeeding him. It is commonly known as the question of secularisation and can be phrased in the following manner : is it possible that, eventually, modern political principles could be theological principles — that is : pre-modern principles — in a secularised form ? The theme has been common enough ever since the publication in 1922 of Carl Shmitt’s Political Theology. According to him, the philosopher who first explicitly posited that the principles of the State were religious principles adapted to this world was none other than Hegel himself, particularly when he came to conceive of the State as "the divine on earth" and the power of the State as divine power on earth.