In 1982 I wrote a review article in which I argued, among other things, that Hegel's posthumously published lectures are not a reliable source for an accurate apprehension of his systematic thought. 1 However, the situation with primary texts in Hegel studies has changed dramatically even in those few years, so that I am now persuaded to offer a qualified retraction of that argument. I still stand behind my original thesis with regard to the texts which were available at the time, but not with regard to the excellent new critical editions of Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of religion which have appeared in German, English, and Spanish since 1983. 2 The greatest single advantage of these new editions is that they do not collapse four separate lecture courses into just one allegedly "unified" text, as did Marheineke (1832), Bauer (1840), and Lasson (1925), 3 but instead, by respecting the differences between Hegel's own manuscript lecture notes and students' transcriptions, as well as the differences from year to year, attempt to preserve for the modem reader some real sense of Hegel's development and refinement of his thoughts about religion over the years 1821, 1824, 1827, and 1831. Whereas the earlier editions showed apparent contradiction and confusion in Hegel's philosophy of religion, the