TY - JOUR
T1 - Could Kant's Jesus be god?
AU - Palmquist, Stephen R.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/12
Y1 - 2012/12
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875335433&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5840/ipq201252443
DO - 10.5840/ipq201252443
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84875335433
SN - 0019-0365
VL - 52
SP - 421
EP - 437
JO - International Philosophical Quarterly
JF - International Philosophical Quarterly
IS - 4
ER -