Palmquist - Comprehensive commentary on Kants Religion within the bounds of bare reason

Stephen R. Palmquist

This edition first published 2016
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Palmquist, Stephen.
Comprehensive commentary on Kants Religion within the bounds of bare reason / Stephen R. Palmquist.
1 online resource.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed

ISBN 978-1-118-61928-5 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-118-61931-5 (epub) ISBN 978-1-118-61920-9 (cloth)
1. Kant, Immanuel, 17241804. Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft.2. Philosophy and religion.I. Kant, Immanuel, 17241804. Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft. EnglishII. Title.
B2792
210dc23

2015017197

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Abbey church of Notre-Dame, Beaugency, France. Photo Dorling Kindersley/UIG/Bridgeman Images

(26 December 1995 to 3 July 2015)

as a testimony to the original goodness of the animality in us all.
She provided years of constancy and joy to an ever-changing family,
yet her only prayer was for her daily bread.

What is religion? Are its essential features grounded in human reason, or does it necessarily appeal to extrarational elements that can be verified only by experience or some external authority? When a religious tradition does make historical truth claims, how can we discern whether they are essential or merely peripheral to genuine faith? Moreover, what is the proper role of symbols and rituals in religious practice? These questions, and many more like them, are the focus of Kants highly influential yet often confusing book Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloen Vernunft (1793/4). Ever since its first publication 222 years ago, readers have debated what Kant was trying to accomplish, often refusing to believe that the philosopher of pure reason, creator of the Critical philosophy, even might have been attempting to make room for something as messy as empirical religion.

Time is ripe for a revolutionin Kant studies as in the academic (and, if possible, the popular) understanding of the nature of religion. That Fichte is the key to the entire tradition of modern continental philosophy (Wood 2010: xxvii), his influence on modern developments in theology and philosophy of religion having been even more direct than Kants (xvi), is commonly recognized; indeed, as Dorrien 2012 aptly demonstrates, Fichtes understanding of the religious implications of Kants philosophy has dominated the subsequent history of modern liberal theology. What is rarely acknowledged is that another option exists. In Kants own day the influential Tbingen theologian Gottlob Christian Storr (17461805), a defender of orthodoxy and the originator of the now standard theory of the priority of Marks Gospel, was an ardent defender of Kants Critical philosophy, viewing it as a welcome respite for a supernaturalist theory of divine revelation, after several decades of harsh Enlightenment skepticism in relation to empirical religion. And now, after two centuries of neglect, a recovery of something akin to Storrs more affirmative way of interpreting the implications of Kants philosophy for empirical religion has gained momentum: in recent years more and more interpreters have been willing to take Kants moderate position at face value, as a genuine attempt to elucidate one of the most significant aspects of human life, in hopes of reforming Christian theology and religious practice rather than abolishing it. The present commentary is an attempt to consolidate thirty years of work on this project, with the aim of bringing this moderate reading of Religion into the mainstream.

Aside from Critique of Pure Reason, his magnum opus, Religion is the only book Kant bothered to publish in a significantly revised edition after its initial publication. Why did Kant take such pains over the publication, revision, and republication of a work that many Kant scholars have ended up treating as but an anomaly in the Kantian corpus? Answering that question is one of central goals of the present project.