Could Kant's Jesus be god?

Stephen R. Palmquist*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    18 Citations (Scopus)
    37 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Although Kant had a high regard for Jesus as a moral teacher, interpreters typically assume that his philosophy disallows belief in Jesus as God. Those who regard Kant as a moral reductionist are especially likely to offer a negative construal of the densely-argued subsection of his 1793 Religion that relates directly to this issue. The recent "affirmative" trend in Kant-scholarship provides the basis for an alternative reading. First, theologians must regard Jesus as human so that belief in Jesus can empower believers to become good. Second, theologians may refer to Jesus as divine by identifying his disposition as exemplifying the "archetype of perfect humanity." Third, Judeo-Christian history poses an empirical problem that theologians can solve by interpreting Jesus's divinity according to the schematism of analogy. While this does not constitute a robust (identifiably Christian) doctrine of Jesus's divinity, it does provide clear guidelines for formulating such a tenet of historical faith.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)421-437
    Number of pages17
    JournalInternational Philosophical Quarterly
    Volume52
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 2012

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Philosophy

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