This foreword is the most lucid and succinct statement of Hegel's mature position on the question of faith and reason insofar as that position begins with a negative critique of prevailing approaches to the problem. Sometimes, as here and in Glauben und Wissen (1802), that critique is allowed to stand alone. But it is never omitted from its role as the dialectical point of departure whenever Hegel presents his own positive proposals. Thus this obscure foreword is a valuable introduction to the Phenomenology, Encyclopaedia, Logic, Philosophy of Religion, and the 1829 Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of God, since all of these are, in their most fundamental intention, attempts to reconcile faith and reason.