Book Review: The Intolerable God: Kant's Theological Journey

Abstract

The Intolerable God: Kants Theological Journey. By Christopher J. Insole. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 2016. x + 176 pp. $30.00 (paper).In this more accessible book, Insole reprises much of what he argued at length from primary sources in his and Creation of Freedom (2013). A revision of Insoles McDonald Lectures given in 2013, this book has a more conversational approach for an audience who is less familiar with Kant's work and (most likely) less interested in incessant production of secondary literature on same.Insole's retrieval narrative is that young Kants untroubled compatabilist theism gave way to doubts which were gadfly of Critical project, transcendental idealism, and Kant whose influence is still felt today. Specifically, was increasingly troubled by idea of Gods total causal determination and defended human agents metaphysical independence in order to secure human freedom for moral responsibility. In this book, this narrative is reprised as a journey through pedagogically-minded conceptual rooms which chart changes in Kant's thinking alongside changes in his thought-environment.Insole is a quick but careful guide through these rooms, covering a remarkable amount of philosophical ground with an eye to highlighting essential figures and concepts without bogging down general audience in a morass of unfamiliar names and jargon. Insole is both pedagogically astute in his choice of analogies and an adept writer with surprising humor for a book on Kant. His analogy of the best possible rummage box for possibilities in divine understanding stands out as an example of both (p. 20). Another highlight is his ability to give a sympathetic analysis of divisions of scholarship on tricky concept of noumena and what we can think about them, while demonstrating his own commitment and its basis in a concise and admirably clear ten pages (pp. 95-105).It is tempting to call this a popular theo-biography of Kant, but it is not nearly broad enough in its discussion of Kant's life or work to be a satisfying account of Kant's theological life. Human freedom and divine action are not merely at center; they eclipse other ideas of theological importance or interest in Kant's work. The title of book comes from Lectures on Philosophical Doctrine of Religion (LPR), where says that concept of can neither be resisted nor tolerated (p. 7). While Insole shows how intolerability surmounts irresistibility late in Kant's life, his positive characterization of Kant's belief in during Critical period seems implausibly thin. Insole interprets practical postulates clearly, but they do not reveal character of Kant's beliefs so much as how he warrants those beliefs. They show how vital thought belief in was to stability of a moral life, but fail to otherwise distinguish Kant's living God from blind workings of deists eternal nature. There is substantial room between audacious Swedenborg and metaphysical skepticism of Hume. Insole's failure to draw out more of appeal of implicit and explicit doctrine of from LPR weakens book. …