Varieties of Philosophical Theology Before and After Kant

Abstract

In discussing philosophical theology (PT) before and after Kant there are at least five stories to be considered. They all start with the theistic project, i.e. natural and rational theology as purely philosophical accounts of God based on grounds independent of Christian theology and the traditions of faith. They all run into the fundamental crises of philosophical theism in the wake of Hume and Kant. Critical PT (CPT) is Kant's constructive alternative to DPT after the collapse of natural and rational theology. In many versions, PT has been practised as the mistaken attempt to provide religious orientation itself, a better, more comprehensive, more rational, better justified orientation than a particular religious tradition of lived and practised communal faith is allegedly supposed to do. That is true of the foundationalist versions of philosophical theism (DPT), subjective transcendentalism (IPT), realist panentheism (RPT) as well as the directive versions of philosophy of religion. Keywords: Christian theology; critical philosophical theology (CPT); Kant; philosophical theism; philosophy of religion; realist panentheism (RPT); subjective transcendentalism