Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:09:36.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Alleged Augustinianism in Kant’s Religion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2020

Lawrence Pasternack
Lawrence Pasternack*
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Both critics and defenders of Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason have raised worries about its alleged employment of an ‘Augustinian’ conception of moral evil as well as the accounts of grace and moral regeneration consequent to it. Combined, these aspects of the Religion are often seen as responsible for its principal ‘wobble’, ‘conundrum’ or ‘internal contradiction’, and are likewise among the key reasons why the Religion is commonly seen as at odds with the epistemic strictures and moral principles which shape Kant’s broader Critical corpus. It is the purpose of this article to reassess these charges and to show thereby that rather than accepting this alleged Augustinianism, Kant engages with and ultimately rejects its core tenets.

Keywords

KantAugustineAugustinianismPelagianismtheologyreligionoriginal sinevilgracechange of heartconundrum
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 103 - 124
Check for updates
Copyright
© Kantian Review, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, Henry E. (1990) Kant’s Theory of Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139172295CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allison, Henry E. (2002) ‘On the Very Idea of a Propensity to Evil’. Journal of Value Inquiry, 36, 337–48.10.1023/A:1016112805381CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgarten, Alexander (1757) Metaphysica. 4th edition. Halle: Impensis C. H. Hemmerde.Google Scholar
Barth, Karl (1947) Die protestantische Theologie im 19. Jahrhundert. Zürich: Theologischer Verlag.Google Scholar
Beiser, Frederick (2006) ‘Moral Faith and the Highest Good’. In Guyer, Paul, (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 588–629.10.1017/CCOL052182303X.018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, Peter (2007) Kant on God. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Clem, Stewart (2018) ‘Dropping the Debt: A New Conundrum in Kant’s Rational Religion’. Religious Studies, 54(1), 131–45.10.1017/S0034412516000408CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couenhoven, Jesse (2013) Stricken by Sin, Cured by Christ: Agency, Necessity, and Culpability in Augustinian Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199948697.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chignell, Andrew (2014) ‘Rational Hope, Possibility, and Divine Action’. In Michalson, Gordon (ed.), Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: A Critical Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 98–117.10.1017/CBO9781139088138.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiCenso, James (2012) Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: A Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Firestone, Chris L., and Jacobs, Nathan (2008) In Defense of Kant’s Religion. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Frierson, Patrick R. (2003) Freedom and Anthropology in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511498121CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1965) Briefe, vol. 2. Ed. Mandelkow, Karl Robert. Hamburg: Wegner.Google Scholar
Hare, John. E. (1996) The Moral Gap: Kantian Ethics, Human Limits, and God’s Assistance. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hare, John. E. (2009) God and Morality: A Philosophical History. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hunter, Ian (2005) ‘Kant’s Religion and Prussian Religious Policy’. Modern Intellectual History, 2, 1–27.10.1017/S1479244304000307CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1992–) The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. General eds Guyer, Paul and Wood, Allen W.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996) Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. Tr. George di Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (2009) Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason. Trans. Werner Pluhar, Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Kuehn, Manfred (2001) Kant: A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107050433CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrath, Alister (2005) Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification. 3rd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mariña, Jacqueline (1997) ‘Kant on Grace: A Reply to his Critics’. Religious Studies, 33(4), 379–400.10.1017/S0034412597004046CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michalson, Gordon E. (1990) Fallen Freedom: Kant on Radical Evil and Moral Regeneration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511554728CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmquist, Stephen (2015) Comprehensive Commentary on Kant’s Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason. Chichester: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Pasternack, Lawrence (2014) Kant on Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: An Interpretation and Defense. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pasternack, Lawrence (2017a) ‘The “Two Experiments” of Kant’s Religion: Dismantling the Conundrum’. Kantian Review, 22(1), 107–31.10.1017/S136941541600039XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasternack, Lawrence (2017b) ‘Restoring Kant’s Conception of the Highest Good’. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 55(3), 435–68.10.1353/hph.2017.0049CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, Philip L. (1988) ‘In Adam’s Fall, We Sinned All’. Philosophical Topics, 16(2), 89–118.10.5840/philtopics198816215CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, Christian (1736) Theologia Naturalis methodo scientifica pertractata. Pars posterior. Frankfurt and Leipzig.Google Scholar
Wolterstorff, Nicholas (1991) ‘Conundrums in Kant’s Rational Religion’. In Rossi, Philip and Wreen, Michael (eds), Kant’s Philosophy of Religion Reconsidered (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press), 40–53.Google Scholar
Wood, Allen W. (1970) Kant’s Moral Religion. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Allen W. (2005) ‘Kant’s History of Ethics’. Studies in the History of Ethics https://www.historyofethics.org/062005/062005Wood.shtml Google Scholar