KANT'S CRITICAL RELIGION
by Stephen Palmquist (stevepq@hkbu.edu.hk)
· Copyright Stephen Palmquist
· Last updated on 8 February 2007.
· This is an online version of a book published by Ashgate Publishing Company, Ltd. (Aldershot, England), 2000.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Note on References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
PART ONE:
THE SYSTEMATIC FOUNDATIONS OF KANT’S SYSTEM
I. Kant’s Theocentric Metaphysics
1. Kant: Destroyer or Preserver of Metaphysics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Metaphysics in Kant’s Philosophical Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
3. The Theocentric Orientation of Kant’s Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. The Scope of This Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
II. Kant’s Dreams of a Critical Mysticism
1. The Traditional Myth of Kant’s ‘Awakening’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2. Kant’s Criticism of Swedenborg’s Mystical Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
3. Kant’s Four Major ‘Awakenings’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4. The Dream of a System of Critical Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
III. Kant’s Critical Philosophy: An Overview of KSP1
1. The General Structure of Kant’s System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
2. The Epistemological Underpinnings of the Critical Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3. The Structural Elements of Kant’s Three Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4. God and Religion in the Context of Kant’s Metaphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
PART TWO: KANT’S PERSPECTIVAL FOUNDATION
FOR CRITICAL THEOLOGY
IV. Theistic Alternatives to Proving God’s Existence:
Kant’s ‘Appropriation’ of Lampe’s God:
1. The Problem of Transcendental Theology . .
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. . 64
2. Hypothetical Theology: God as a Regulative Idea . .
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. 68
3. Physicotheology: Judicial
Evidence for the God-Hypothesis . .
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. . 73
4. Moral Theology: The Ultimate Rationale for Theistic
Belief . .
. . .
. . .
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. . .75
V. Symbolic Theology and the Nature of God
1. God’s Transcendence: Human Reason vs. Divine ‘Reason’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2. Philosophical Theology and the Symbolic Immanence of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3. Reason’s Theological Need: Architectonic Perspectives
on the Perspectiveless Ground of Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4. God’s Trinitarian Nature: Holiness, Benevolence, and Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
VI. Religion as the Synthesis of Theology and Morality
1. Kant’s Reductionism: Explanatory or Eliminative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114
2. Prolegomena to Kant’s System of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3. A Preview of Kant’s System of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4. Raising Morality to the Status of Religion . .
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. . 135
PART THREE: KANT’S PERSPECTIVAL FOUNDATION
FOR CRITICAL RELIGION
VII. Kant’s System of Religious Perspectives
1. The Four Stages of Religion in General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
2. The Conditions of Religion in the Moral Individual (-)
A. Radical Evil (--) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
B. Conversion to the Good (+-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
3. The Conditions of Religion in the Moral Community (+)
A. The Founding of a Church (-+) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
B. Service of God (++) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175
4. An Analytic Summary and a Synthetic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183
VIII. Christianity as the Universal Religion
1. Kant’s Copernican Perspective on Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
2. Kant’s Assessment of Biblical Religion
A. The Creation Story and the Fall of Adam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
B. The Gospel Story and the Nature of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
3. Kant’s Assessment of Christian Tradition
A. The Universal Church and its Scriptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
B. Serving God: Clergy vs. Conscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
4. The Harmony between Systemr-C and Systemr-m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
IX. A Kantian System of Biblical Theology
1. The Biblical Theology of a Kantian Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
2. Christian Practice: The Greatest Commandment
A. Worship and the Love of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
B. Fellowship and the Love of Human Beings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
3. Christian Belief: Preaching and Teaching the Word
A. Evangelism and the Gospel of the Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
B. Doctrine and the Authority of God’s Revealed Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
4. A Christian Critique of Kant’s Critical Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
PART FOUR: KANT’S PERSPECTIVAL FOUNDATION
FOR CRITICAL MYSTICISM
X. Reason’s Birth in Immediate Experience
1. Mysticism and Religious Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
2. Kant’s Apparent Rejection of Mysticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
3. Kant’s Disclosure of Critical Mysticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
4. Meditative Metaphors and the Shaping of a Mystical World View . . . . . . . . . . 317
XI. The Tantalizing ‘Gap’ in Kant’s System
1. Förster’s Riddle: What Prompted Kant to Write Kt9? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
2. The Tantalizing Content of Kt9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
3. Kt9 as the Grand Synthesis of Kant’s System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334
4. What was ‘Tantalizing’ about Kant’s Final Dream? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
XII.
Transition to the End of All Philosophy
1. Kant’s Return to Immediate Experience: The Three Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
2. God: The Categorical Imperative as Philosophy’s Moral End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
3. The World: Matter’s Living Force as Philosophy’s Technical End . . . . . . . . . . . . .367
4. The Ideal Human: Christ as Philosophy’s Highest Religious End . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374
APPENDICES
AI. The Story of Kant’s Critical Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
AII. Kant, Swedenborg, and Kantian Mystics
1. Kantian Mystics—Old and New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
2. Laywine’s Account of Swedenborg’s Influence on Kant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .395
3. Florschütz’s Account of Swedenborg’s Influence on Kant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399
4. Johnson’s Account of Kant on Swedenborg in Kt25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
AIII. Further Reflections on KSP1
1. Three New Maps of Kant’s System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402
2. Responses and Rejoinders to Critics of KSP1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404
3. Textual Review of Kant’s Conception of Architectonic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
4. Minor Corrections to KSP1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
AIV. How To Be a Theist without Proving that God Exists
1. Kant’s Critique of the Traditional Theoretical Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .420
2. Recent Attempts to Revive the Ontological Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
3. Clarifications of the Nature and Status of Kant’s Moral Argument 432
4. Kant’s Alleged Atheism:
Can a ‘Fiction’ Replace All Theoretical Proofs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
AV. Jesus and Kant: Four Perspectives on Moral Judgment
1. A Model for Kant-Based Dialogue
between Philosophers and Theologians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .440
2. The Transcendental and the Logical Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .443
3. The Empirical and the Hypothetical Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
4. An Analytic Map of the Four Perspectives on Moral Judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
AVI. Faith in the Face of Evil: Kant’s Solutions to Five Standard Theological Problems
1. Critical Theodicy and the Problem of Evil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .453
2. Critical Soteriology and the Problem of Atonement for Sins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .458
3. Critical Eschatology and the Problem of Assurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .464
4. Critical Redemption and the Problem of Good Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
AVII. The Four Parerga: Reason’s Need for Divine Assistance
1. Workings of Grace (Gnadenwirkungen)
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2. Miracles (Wundern) .
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. . 474
3. Mysteries (Geheimnissen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
4. Means of Grace (Gnadenmitteln) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
AVIII. Kant’s Critical Hermeneutic of Prayer
1. Prayer in Perspective: The Copernican Revolution in Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
2. The Moral ‘Spirit’ of Transcendental Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
3. The Paradoxical ‘Letter’ of Empirical Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
4. Contemplation and Critique: A Framework for Assessing Prayer . 493
AIX. Kantian Christianity: 95 Theses and a Critical Catechism
1. Kantian Christianity as a Catholic-Protestant Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
2. Kant’s 95 Theses for Religious Reformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .499
3. A Catechism Based on Kant’s Critical Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
BIBLIOGRAPHY, GLOSSARY, AND INDEX
Bibliography
Introductory Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Part One: Kant’s Works (Kt) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
I. Primary Systematic Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
II. Other Publications and Lectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
1. The Theoretical Standpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .518
2. The Practical Standpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
A. Ethics and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .520
B. Philosophy of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .521
3. The Judicial Standpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .521
A. Philosophy of Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .521
B. Philosophical Anthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
III. Unpublished Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
1. Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
2. Handwritten Notes and Essays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
3. Reconstructions of Lectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .525
IV. Collections of Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Part Two: Other Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Relating to Kant’s Theology and Philosophy of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .542
Index of Citations, Names, and Selected Subjects
Scripture Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Kt (Kant Text) Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
Names and Other Sources Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Selected Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .558
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This page was last updated on 8 June 2007.