在〈基督教的精神及其命運〉之「基督教的精神」前半部分,黑格爾闡釋了耶穌「愛的原則」。本文分三部分。第一部分,「耶穌的訓『道』與舊約的立法、康德的道德命令」,通過耶穌的訓「道」與舊約立法、康德道德命令的區別揭示出耶穌所宣示的新的道義和生活領域。第二部分,「耶穌的『命運的和解』」,講如何與敵對的命運和解。敵對的命運分為兩種情況:害人即侵害另一個生命的情況、被害即生命被侵害的情況。因此,命運的和解亦包括這兩種情況:前一種情況的和解講如何寬恕自己;後一種情況的和解講如何寬恕別人。所謂和解,就是生命的自我修復,愛是修復的根據。第三部分是作為結論的「愛的原則及其揚棄」。黑格爾將基督教的精神理解為「人道主義的愛」。他指明,愛就在人的本性即生命之內,而將生命的全體統一起來的正是愛。生命的真理是愛,愛的真理是自由。但愛只是主觀自由。愛的和解是在命運之外與命運和解,而不是在命運之中與命運和解。黑格爾在「基督教的精神」後半部分指出,愛本身仍然是不完善的本性,而宗教是愛的完成。
In the first half of "The Spirit of Christianity" in The Spirit of Christianity and its Destiny, Hegel explained Jesus's "principle of love." This paper is divided into three parts. The first part, "Jesus's Teaching and the Legislation of the Old Testament, and the Moral Command of Kant," revealed the new morality and life field that Jesus declared through the difference between Jesus's Teaching and Old Testament legislation, Kant's Moral Command. The second part, "Jesus's Reconciliation of Destiny," talked about how to reconcile with hostile fate. The hostile destiny can be divided into two situations: harming another life, and one's life being harmed. Therefore, the reconciliation of destiny also includes these two situations: the reconciliation of the former situation tells us how to forgive ourselves; the reconciliation of the latter situation tells us how to forgive others. The so-called reconciliation is the self-repair of life, and love is the basis of repair. The third part is the "principle of love and its sublation" as a conclusion. Hegel understood the spirit of Christianity as "humanitarian love." The truth of life is love, and the truth of love is freedom. But love is just subjective freedom. The reconciliation of love is to reconcile with destiny outside of it, not to reconcile with destiny in it. Hegel pointed out in the second half of "The Spirit of Christianity" that love itself is still an imperfect nature, and what is religious is the completion of love.