The 'Absolute Knowing' and a Verse from Mark

(Now and Forever, Offenbarung)

Abstract

What happens to time in the Phenomenology of Spirit, once the self-consciousness has reached the form of «absolute knowing»? This question has always been crucial for Hegel’s scholars. What does it mean that absolute knowing «deletes» [tilgt] time, since it is here (and just here) that the spirit can begin its «new», true story? The hypothesis presented in this paper is in a broad sense «theological». To understand the diffcult final steps of Hegel’s masterpiece, the essay proposes a parallel reading of a famous verse from the Gospel of Mark (1.15), dedicated to the fulfillment of the kairos as a premise for the advent of the kingdom of God.