Chapter Two. Kant On Contingency In Christian Religion

Abstract

Kant's rational religious faith, which is defined entirely in moral terms, deems the contingent historicity that characterizes the Christian religion irrelevant from an argumentative point of view. The contingent historical content of faith can be translated into philosophical terms, thus making it relevant to the struggle between the predisposition (Anlage) toward the principle of the good and the propensity (Hang) toward evil. The practice of noumenal freedom is based upon the free acceptance of the contingent empirical motives in the maxims of our practical decisions. The ineluctable symbolism of humankind, which is always already fallen together with its conversion and resurrection to the good, implies an inevitable but contingent choice that is given within the phenomenal intricacies of free (noumenal) man. Reversal of the priority of the moral maxim is conceived as belonging to human moral nature. Finally, the author concludes with some remarks on the aesthetics of the sublime.Keywords: Christian religion; human moral nature; Kant