Kelly Taylor
HACU 227
Philosophy of Religion
Question #2
October 31,
2001
"From Virtue to Grace"
Immanuel Kant's Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason
In
this work, Kant goes beyond Hume's earlier discussion of a religion in which "nothing but morality could gain the
divine favour" (Hume, 70) and offers both a critical analysis of
the fallacies of modern Christianity, as well as a plan for the foundation of a
more intellectual, ethical form of Christianity, pieced together from elements which, according to Kant, best fit the true
spirit of the founder of the first true church. Using more powerful language than Hume, Kant presents the
fundamental tenet of this new ethical religion: "Apart from a good life-conduct, anything which
the human being supposes that he can do to become well-pleasing to God is mere
religious delusion and counterfeit service of God."(Kant, 166)[1] Adherence to anything other than the
ethical behavior discernable through reason by all humans is extraneous at best
and at worst, is in direct disobedience to ones duties to God. Much of the fourth chapter of Kant's
work Religion Within the Boundaries
of Mere Reason can be
interpreted as a series of opposing forms of religious conduct and form.
These
divisions are in the structure, origin, communication, and performance of moral
duties, all of which are intrinsically linked, and can be divided more simply
into true religion, and church and counterfeit. While certain elements of religion might be found in both
the true and counterfeit religions, some are mutually exclusive and have the
effect of defining whether a particular practice is truly ethical and moral or
merely delusory faith. The
specific details of how each division is defined and the foundation Kant's
particular belief system is discussed below.
Structure:
Visible Historical Religion vs.
Invisible Ethical Community
Given the premise that all humans have
the idea to build an ethical community - the Kingdom of God or Church - the
methods and practices undertaken to fulfill this goal vary widely. (151) The structure of the church or faith
gives the first clue as to whether or not it is a true church.
In the Visible Historical Church the
constitution of the faith is created by God, but organized by humans. This organization is stratified, often
with many varying levels; the
administration consists of ecclesiastics, clerics and church officials who seek
to enforce the rules of the historical church in order to preserve itself. The congregation consists of everyone
else, or the laity, who are made to follow the rules and obey the church
administration and the ecclesiastics believe that a free public reasonable
faith is a damnable endeavor. In
this type of religion, all of the humans involved are "Servants of the
Church" (152) This is
the type of religion Kant condemns most vehemently in his descriptions of
counterfeit service and delusion of discussed religion below.
By contrast, the invisible true church or
"ethical community" has different characteristics and requirements.
In this case, the duties that everyone can agree upon as necessary are
perceived as divine commands. No
organization by humans is necessary, including officials, clerics, or other
enforcers of the church's laws.
Instead, members are understood to be commanded directly by God and
therefore in constant service to God through their duties. (152) This true church contains within itself
the principle of constantly coming closer to the pure faith of reason and its
goal is to "dispense w/ ecclesiastical faith" and to have a
"public religious faith" instead.(152) Any true church might require "staff ministering,"
but not officials, and "teachers but no dignitaries."(156)
Since God cannot receive anything from
us; we cannot act on or influence him, no knowledge of the existence of God is
necessary.(153) Rather, we need
only the hypothesis that there is a
"supreme cause of things" or an "idea of God" and do
not need to pretend we can prove in objective reality the existence of
God. Therefore, true religion is
the recognition of all duties as divine command and not a collection of
particular duties, which prevents the tendency to perform "works of
courtly service" over and above the ethico-civil duties of humanity.(153) Additionally, the command to "obey
God before humans" should not
present conflict because anything prescribed by civil authority should be a
duty because we can't know what god commands. (153)
Religion Divided by Origin and Inner
Possibility - Revealed vs. Natural
Another way in
which religion can be divided is by origin and inner possibility
(natural/revealed). Religion can
be both revealed and natural if it consists of elements that humans "could
and ought to have arrived at" using their own reason.(154) A
true religion must have the "qualification for universality" meaning the religion has "validity
for every human being", or "communality of insight" to be the
true church.(156) The pure religion of reason is natural,
first and foremost, rationalist (natural religion alone is purely necessary)
which can also contain supernatural revealed elements, but the supernaturalist
perspective that revelation is necessary for a universal religion is not
required within a pure religion of reason.
Revealed religions contain the premise
that one must first know something is a divine command in order to acknowledge
it as a Duty.(153) The knowledge
of the existence of the divine command itself requires some form of revelation (153), and therefore one
cannot forget the supernatural origins or the credibility,
"comprehensibility or certainty or in its power over human minds" is
lost. (154)
As a result, if the revelations and duties are not preserved in books
and tradition (as in a learned tradition) the religion as a whole would be
totally lost. (154) The only other
possibility would be a publicly repeated revelation in to maintain the religion
and faith. (155) All religions are
in part revealed, since they are derived "from an obligation under the
will of a moral lawgiver,"
therefore one must assume the revelation is added only through
reason.(155) If a religion is also a revealed religion, but if a religion is
both revealed and natural, its primary disposition is "natural;" it
is objectively natural, subjectively revealed.(154) It is possible for revealed religions to also be learned
religions, as we will see with the example of Christianity, below.
In the case of Natural religions, one
must know something is a duty before it can be described as divine
command. (153) The ways in which followers of
natural religions acquire and perceive their duties varies widely:
·
Rationalist: ethical duty declared as alone morally
necessary (154)
·
Naturalist:
denial of any supernatural divine revelation (154)
·
Pure
Rationalist: revelation is
allowed but not necessary or required (154)
·
Supernaturalist: faith in divine revelation is necessary
to universal religion, but still believes in the universal moral/ethical
"Natural" religion (154)
·
Rationalist
- doesn't deny the possibility of revelation or the necessity as they are
merely irrelevant, but one "must of his own accord hold himself within the
limits of human insight."
Although
they believe opposite sources of the knowledge of their duty, the Pure
Rationalists and Supernaturalists still only disagree on the question of
whether revelation is "necessary and sufficient or only as
accidental." (154) Also
according to this system, the beliefs of the are not inconsistent with any of
the other forms. (154)
Religion Divided by Method of External
Communication
The method by
which a religion is externally communicated is yet a third method of analyzing
a religious faith or church, and according to Kant, in addition to the message
being conveyed, is more important than the
source of the religion. He divides these external communication methods into
"natural" religion (which may be but is not necessarily a
"revealed" religion) or a "learned" religion, which one can
only be convinced to follow a religion by means of study and education, which
believers must be presented with and led through. One cannot determine the
universality of a religion based on the origins alone, but one can determine
this on the basis of communicability: is
it universally communicable or not? (154)
Given the varieties of methods of
classifying and communicating religious practices, one can examine any religion in the context of those
classifications. Can a religion be
all three, revealed, learned and natural? Kant says yes and uses Christianity as an illustration of a
religion that encompasses all three.
Natural/Revealed
Kant's definition of a natural religion
includes human morality and the ability to actualize its ultimate end with the
prerequisite that every human can be convinced of the religion through reason.
(156, 154) A religion is classified
as both natural and revealed as long as humans "could and ought" to have come to the religion
through reason, even if not as easily or quickly as without a divine
revelation, in which case the revelation is "wise and very
advantageous."(154) Once
revealed, anyone must be able to be convinced of its truth, and one should be
able to entirely forget the supernatural origin and still maintain the faith of
that religion in order for it to be considered a natural religion. (155)
The problem with natural religion lies in
the fact that in a religion of rational single individuals, communality of
insight can't preserve and propagate itself to full universality unless the
individuals were all compelled by a person to unite.(156) Therefore, by taking on the form of a
visible church, a union of believers in the rational, universal reason is
formed. This union would have to
be added to the religion from an external source because the believers would
not think themselves in need of a community in order to support their religious
convictions. The community could
only be created through "statutory ordinances" or laws, added to the
laws of reason, thereby fulfilling their special duty, the means to their higher
end, which is "permanent union in
a visible church." (156)
Kant sees the formation of Christianity
brought about by a teacher advocating a "pure and compelling
religion," the message of which is universally applicable or attainable
and can be tested individually.(156)
When first formed, Christianity was proclaimed publicly and in defiance
of the statutory, dominant, oppressive un-moral, ecclesiastical faith
(Judaism). Although Jesus added
certain statutes, forms and observances to the pure rational faith, these were a means of establishing the
church on the principles of the "universal religion of reason" and
not to turn the actions in to "special holy practices, obligatory in
themselves as elements which necessarily constitute the religion." (157)
According to Kant, the teachings of Jesus
contain the "pure doctrines of reason" which carry their own proof.
(157) Kant sums up all duties
given to us by Jesus in one universal rule which covers one's internal
relationship to god and to others:
"love God above all else" and "Love every one as
yourself" (158)
Kant interprets the laws taught to us by
Jesus as not ones of virtue, but of holiness, and sees the act of striving as
virtue. "And he confronts anyone who leaves unused the natural disposition
to goodness that lies in human nature (as a capital entrusted to him) in lazy
confidence that surely a higher moral influence will somehow make up for his
lack in moral constitution and perfection, with the threat that even the good
which he might have done by natural predisposition may not come about in him because
of this neglect." (158)
Therefore, there is no room for passive
waiting for moral goodness, one must go out and actively achieve virtue and
morality. Kant also interprets the
command to love everyone as yourself as the idea of promoting welfare of everyone
"from an unmediated good will, one not derived from selfish
incentives." (158) This is also upheld by his belief that "[w]hen the
teacher of the Gospel speaks of a recompense in the world to come, he did not
mean thereby to make this recompense an incentive of actions" but as an
indication of God's approval.(159)
In Kant's view, the "teacher of the
Gospels" was merely bringing these concepts to the attention of large
numbers of people who "without exception and blindly, clung to the
old" but that he was not creating the religion himself, but merely
bringing those people who accepted his vision together in a community, thereby
founding the first true church. (160)
In this interpretation, Jesus was merely a teacher, presenting a path to
following a moral ethical religion, not presenting laws, rituals, and means
without and end. He was presenting
the revelation of the pure religion of reason.
Learned
According to Kant, all of these things
comprise in and of themselves a "complete religion" which can be presented
to and understood by all humans "through their own reason"
(159-60) However, it is
understandable to Kant that since Jesus presented these ideas in the context of
Judaism (which Kant considered to be "statutory" and
"dogmatic") they are now "enigmatic and in need of careful
interpretation" which leads us to the way in which Christianity is also a
learned religion. (159, 160)
In a solely learned religion, dogmas that
are not immediately obvious as necessary through reason are interpreted as a
"sacred possession entrusted to the care of the learned" for even religions that might have
been easily understood at their inception, become more obscure through time and
"in the passage of time
necessitate a written, documented, and unchanging instruction to
posterity." (160) Where
"faith" is an acceptance of the tenets of a given religion,
Christianity is both a rational faith, accepted by everyone given its precepts,
and a revealed faith, maintained as a "commanded faith." (160) These two facets of the foundation of
the church lead to the expectation of service to the historical church as well
as the application of the "practical and moral faith of reason,"
neither of which, according to Kant, can stand on their own in the example of
the Christian church. (161)
However, if the belief in the unconditional moral laws legislated by God
were not made duty, it could still be a free faith, or one "derived from
insight into theoretically sufficient grounds of demonstration" as long as
all humans had the initial instruction. (161)
Kant seems to be saying that in order to
be accepted by people without learning, the commands of faith must be obeyed
blindly, without investigating the actual divine origins of the
commands.(161) Christianity as a
revealed religion, however, cannot begin with unconditional faith and then
ascribe meaning and education to it, but instead must begin with the learning
and understanding of the faith and lead the uneducated laity.(161) If this is not possible, reason and
revelation must be made the primary motivation for the religion, with
revelation used as the means for providing meaning and continuity.(162)
These ideals of Christianity form a true
service to the church, as opposed to a counterfeit service, but Kant is not
unaware of the ways in which certain forms of Christianity have been influenced
to demonstrate more counterfeit services than true.(162) In this way, service to the church is
made into a "domination of its members," which requires a greater
effort on the part of the church officials. Kant seems to blame this attitude on the perception that
Christianity must be founded on the statutes and history of Judaism, without
which "nothing would then be left over, except pure moral religion
unencumbered by statutes."(163)
Kant
demonstrates that although it is possible for a religion to exist that is both
a true moral religion as well as learned and revealed, it is clear that he
finds it very rare, and great caution must be excercized to prevent the
religion from slipping into counterfeit faith. Later in the text he discusses at great length what a
counterfeit faith consists of, and many of the faults he describes are to be
found in Christianity. By analysing Christianity in the context of natural,
revealed and learned, religions we find that it is still possible to be a
Christian and follow a true religion.
In this work, Kant lays out a path for creating the ideal religion:
private prayer, public gathering of others with similar beliefs, transmission
to others, or baptism in Christianity, and fellowship or communion. All of these things are present in the
Christian religion, and as long as they alone along with moral and ethical
behavior are the composition of the religion, the transmission and origins of
the religion are to Kant, irrelevant.
[1] All following citations
from Kant, Immanuel. Religion
within the Boundaries of Mere Reason.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.