Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason

Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason Chris L. Firestone KANT AND THEOLOGY AT THE BOUNDARIES OF REASON This book examines the transcendental dimension of Kant’s philosophy as a positive resource for theology. Firestone shows that Kant’s philosophy establishes three distinct grounds for transcendental theology and then evaluates the form and content of theology that emerges when Christian theologians adopt these grounds. To understand Kant’s philosophy as a completed process, Firestone argues, theologians must go beyond the strictures of Kant’s critical philosophy proper and consider in its fullness the transcendental significance of what Kant calls ‘rational religious faith’. This movement takes us into the promising but highly treacherous waters of Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason to understand theology at the transcendental boundaries of reason. Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology Series editors: Martin Warner, University of Warwick Kevin Vanhoozer, Wheaton College and Graduate School Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology is an interdisciplinary series exploring new opportunities in the dialogue between philosophy and theology that go beyond more traditional ‘faith and reason’ debates and take account of the contemporary reshaping of intellectual boundaries. For much of the modern era, the relation of philosophy and theology has been conceived in terms of antagonism or subordination, but recent intellectual developments hold out considerable potential for a renewed dialogue in which philosophy and theology have common cause for revisioning their respective identities, reconceiving their relationship, and combining their resources. This series explores constructively for the 21st century the resources available for engaging with those forms of enquiry, experience and sensibility that theology has historically sought to address. Drawing together new writing and research from leading international scholars in the field, this high profile research series offers an important contribution to contemporary research across the interdisciplinary perspectives relating theology and philosophy. Also in this series The Future of Reason, Science and Faith Following Modernity and Post-Modernity J. Andrew Kirk Kierkegaard, Language and the Reality of God Steven Shakespeare Impossible God Derrida’s Theology Hugh Rayment-Pickard On Paul Ricoeur The Owl of Minerva Richard Kearney Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason CHRIS L. FIRESTONE Trinity International University, USA © Chris L. Firestone 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Chris L. Firestone has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Firestone, Chris L., 1965– Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason – (Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology) 1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804 – Religion. 2. Religion – Philosophy. 3. Theology – History – 18th century. I. Title 210.9’2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Firestone, Chris L., 1965– Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason / Chris L. Firestone. p. cm. – (Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804 – Religion. 2. Religion – Philosophy. 3. Theology – History – 18th century. I. Title. B2799.R4F57 2009 210.92–dc22 2008047925 ISBN 978-0-7546-6130-6 (hbk) ISBN 978-0-7546-9016-0 (ebk.II) Contents Preface and Acknowledgements vii Note on Kant Citations xi 1 ��Can ��Theology Go Through Kant�� 1 2 ��Knowledge ��and Cognition in Kant’s Theoretical Philosophy 15 3 Faith and Cognition in Kant’s Philosophy of Religion 41 4 ��Kant’s�� Moral Grounds for Theology 663 5 ��Kant’s�� Poetic Grounds for Theology 885 6 ��Kant’s�� Ontological Grounds for Theology ��111 7 ��Rational ��Religious Faith and Kantian Theology 13139 8 ��Concluding Comments 16165 Appendix A The Category of the ‘Holy’ in Rudolf Otto 169 Appendix B Thinkers of TodayRudolf Otto—Philosopher of Religion 173 Select Bibliography 181 Index 187 This page has been left blank intentionally Preface and Acknowledgements This project began nearly ten years ago as an attempt to understand Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of religion through the lenses of its religiously- and theologically- affirmative interpreters, but has transformed over the years into something quite different. Those familiar with my early research on Kant will know that I began working on Kant’s philosophy of religion by comparing interpretations of Kant with their corresponding theological appropriations. Using a strategy of abductive inference centred on Kant’s understanding of the necessary conflict between the disciplines of philosophy and theology, I argued that Kant’s philosophy of religion could be best understood by showing how philosophy and theology relate to one another when adopting a particular interpretation of Kant. If, once a particular interpretation of Kant is adopted, philosophy essentially subsumes theology so that no real conflict exists between the two disciplines, then the interpretation in question, however informative, must be considered inadequate. For, as I understand Kant’s vision for the Academy, philosophy and theology are to be principal faculties within the university, and together maintain an unceasing conflict over life’s most important and difficult questions, always chastening and challenging one another from their respective disciplinary perspectives. Although I have since adopted an explicitly exegetical method of interpreting Kant, the fruit of my labours early on remains, and is clustered in chapters four, five and six of this volume. Portions of two early essays – namely, ‘Kant and Religion: Conflict or Compromise?’, Religious Studies, 35:2 (1999) and ‘Kant’s Two Perspectives on the Theological Task’ International Journal of Systematic Theology, 2:1 (2000) – are reproduced in chapters four and five with the permission of Cambridge University Press and Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., respectively. There was a time when I considered publishing much of the content of these chapters as a book unto themselves, a book on interpreting Kant from a theological perspective. However, during the early days of my research into Kant, Peter Byrne challenged me to deal with the difficulties that surround what Kant himself contends in the writings about religion and theology rather than what interpreters, theologically-minded or otherwise, take Kant to mean about religion and theology. In other words, Byrne insisted that I tackle head-on the challenge of finding the supposed room for faith Kant creates in his philosophy by examining Kant’s arguments directly and on their own terms. I gradually came to see that Byrne was right – interpreting Kant’s philosophy of religion well means working directly with Kant’s writings, while dealing with the many thorny issues these writings generate in and around them. In hindsight, it seems like a virtual truism: to understand Kant’s philosophy of religion as possible grounds for theology means to understand the grounds and warrant for theology viii Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason in Kant’s critical corpus. Only then, as Paul Tillich comments, are we ready to go beyond or ‘transcend’ Kant in order to do theology. For these reasons, it became clear to me that the initial project had to be transformed and divided into two projects requiring two books – one handling the difficult task of understanding Kant’s philosophy of religion by offering an interpretation and defence of the relevant texts in Kant, especially the much-maligned Religion, and another dealing with Kant’s philosophy and its relationship to theology. The project of interpreting and defending Kant’s Religion is tackled in Chris L. Firestone and Nathan Jacobs, In Defense of Kant’s Religion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008). Jacobs joined me in this work back when one project was turning into two. Little did I know at the time that six more years, rather than months, would be needed to complete this ‘preliminary’ project. I am happy to report that that work is now complete. Its purpose is to offer an interpretation of Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (or Religion) that is both consonant with Kant’s critical philosophy and internally coherent – something that to my mind has not yet appeared in English-speaking Kant-studies. What distinguishes our book from others in the field is its sustained optimism over Kant’s coherence amid a strict attentiveness to the details of Kant’s arguments in Religion and the many attacks waged against the text by Kant’s critics. Modelled on a trial format, the book begins with an examination of the case against the coherence of Kant’s Religion levelled by key Kant interpreters over the past several decades. We, then, present

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