Abstract

All subsequent English Hegelians were more or less influenced by this eloquent and enthusiastic manifesto. Although later generations were sometimes repulsed by the romanticism of this first adept, they were persuaded that something great could be recognized in Hegel's rational theology. Indeed, I believe this theology attracted the English mind much more than did Kant's critical and negative attitude towards "natural theology." Stirling with his alarming and agitating proselytism awakened Hegelianism on the foreign soil; indeed, he eventually created a new type of English thought, more metaphysically minded than any of the typically English philosophers of modern times.