The Accession and Dismissal of An Upstart Handmaid

Abstract

From early in the Christian era?certainly from the time of Clement of Alexandria?and for centuries thereafter, Western philosophy was con sidered the handmaid of theology. Its job was to be of whatever assistance possible to seeking understanding. In the modern period, with the gradual waxing of a liberated science and waning of ecclesiastical dominance over every facet of intellectual life, the functions of the maid became recognized as of comparable value and validity with those of the mistress. (It is arguable that Hume was the first to produce a full-fledged philosophy of religion, no longer subordinate to the strictures of theological doctrine.) While ostensibly finding it necessary to deny knowledge, in order to make room for faith, Kant sought to establish faith philosophically as rational, his theology emerging from a more fundamental moral philosophy. In this dialectical competition, philosophy and theology were usually recognized as distinct and respectable intellectual processes, the issue between them being one of relative status. But in the first half of the 19th cen tury, Hegel and Kierkegaard developed two radical views regarding the relationship of philosophy and theology; and it is with these extreme positions that this paper will attempt to deal. If I may press the metaphor a bit further, with Hegel the maid not only dominates the mistress, but the two are virtual ly identified (as if two personae of the same psyche); while with Kierkegaard, the two are so alienated as to make impossible any relation between them. Thus it is as if the once humble maid tried to assume the role of her mistress, and the mistress, having sacked the upstart, set about convincing herself that she could do without her services.