Religious Concepts and Moral Theory: Luther and Kant

From Revelation to Revolution: The Critique of Religion in Kant and Marx

“…For Kant too, the shift from religion as subservience to external authorities to a form of practical faith that follows (rather than conditioning) human being’s duty to act in conformity with the moral law is an important step forward in the transition from institutionalized to moral religion. And while it is certainly possible to trace certain philosophical affinities between Kant’s religion of the heart and Luther’s (see Paulsen (1990) for an early discussion and also Wand (1971)), Kant was just as cautious as Marx in his overall assessment of Protestantism as an ecclesiastical faith that contributed to this transition. The Protestant church, for Kant, stood out as much as the Catholic one for its ‘narrowness’ of mind when it protested against the latter’s claims to ‘universally binding faith’ while ‘it would often gladly exercise them itself, if it could’ ( R , 6: 109).…”