Comprehensive Commentary on Kant’s Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason

Stephen R. Palmquist is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Hong Kong Baptist University. He lectures on a wide variety of subjects in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. Palmquist has written numerous scholarly articles on various aspects of Kant's philosophy, and has published 10 books, the most recent of which is Cultivating Personhood: Kant and Asian Philosophy (2010). In addition to Kant, his research interests include depth psychology, philosophy of love, philosophical anthropology, mysticism, logic of symbolism, theology of politics, and philosophy of religion.

Palmquist's Commentary provides the first definitive clarification on Kant's Philosophy of Religion in English; it includes the full text of Pluhar's translation, interspersed with explanations, providing both a detailed overview and an original interpretation of Kant's work.
* Offers definitive, sentence-level commentary on Kant's Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
* Presents a thoroughly revised version of Pluhar's translation of the full text of Kant's Religion, including detailed notes comparing the translation with the others still in use today
* Identifies most of the several hundred changes Kant made to the second (1794) edition and unearths evidence that many major changes were responses to criticisms of the first edition
* Provides both a detailed overview and original interpretation of Kant's work on the philosophy of religion
* Demonstrates that Kant's arguments in Religion are not only cogent, but have clear and profound practical applications to the way religion is actually practiced in the world today
* Includes a glossary aimed at justifying new translations of key technical terms in Religion, many of which have previously neglected religious and theological implications

Preface x
 
Acknowledgments xxiii
 
Abbreviations xxvi
 
Introduction: The Hermeneutic Background to Kant's Religion: The Two Prefaces (R 3-14) 1
 
1. Kant's private beliefs and the writing of Religion 1
 
2. The 1793 Preface: (A) Religion as the final purpose of morality 7
 
3. The 1793 Preface: (B) Unifying philosophical and biblical theology 21
 
4. The 1794 Preface: Two experiments and Kant's responses to critics 31
 
Part I: Human Nature's Transcendental Problem: Evil and the Boundary of Goodness (First Piece) 41
 
1 The Original Goodness of Human Nature: Introduction, Comment, and Section I (R 19-28) 43
 
1. Untitled introduction: Is humanity good or evil by nature? 43
 
2. Comment: (A) Why moral neutrality is impossible 51
 
3. Comment: (B) Could humans be partly good and partly evil? 59
 
4. Section I: Human nature's original predisposition is good 63
 
2 The Propensity to Evil in Human Nature: Sections II and III (R 28-39) 72
 
1. Section II: (A) Three sources of moral evil 72
 
2. Section II: (B) Defining evil as a perversion of moral reasoning 78
 
3. Section III: (A) Empirical evil and its origin on the boundary 83
 
4. Section III: (B) The need for (and form of) an a priori proof 92
 
3 Evil's Rational Origin and the Hope for Recovery: Sections IV and V (R 39-52) 106
 
1. Section IV: (A) Transcendental versus empirical origins 106
 
2. Section IV: (B) Assessing the Bible's account of evil's origin 112
 
3. Section V: (A) Divine aid and conversion's possibility 120
 
4. Section V: (B) God's role in transforming moral character 133
 
Appendix I: Experiencing the Effects of Grace against Evil: The First General Comment (R 52-3) 144
 
Part II: The Individual's Logical Struggle: The Power of Belief in Divine Aid (Second Piece) 151
 
4 The Personified Idea of the Good Principle: Introduction and Section One, Subsections A and B (R 57-66) 153
 
1. Untitled introduction: How to distinguish evil from good 153
 
2. Section One, A: The archetype of perfection as a divine gift 161
 
3. Section One, B: (A) Becoming exemplary via practical faith 166
 
4. Section One, B: (B) An archetypal person's twofold nature 169
 
5 Legitimizing Hope in Divine Grace: Section One, Subsection C (R 66-78) 179
 
1. First difficulty: How can imperfect beings become holy? 179
 
2. Second difficulty: Can we be certain of our eternal destiny? 183
 
3. Third difficulty: How can God punish pre?]conversion evil? 195
 
4. Overview: Grace as the basis for a legal claim to being good 207
 
6 Biblical Symbols of the Struggle with Evil: Section Two (R 78-84) 215
 
1. The Genesis narrative on evil's legal claim to dominion 215
 
2. Advent of a unique person, free from the propensity to evil 218
 
3. In what sense does the crucifixion defeat the power of evil? 223
 
4. The narrative's rational meaning 227
 
Appendix II: Experiencing Miracles as Self?]Negating: The Second General Comment (R 84-9) 233
 
Part III: The Community's Empirical Victory: The Church as Historical Vehicle for Good (Third Piece) 249
 
7 The Founding of a True Church: Introduction and Division One, Sections I-V (R 93-109) 251
 
1. Untitled introduction: Hope for victory in struggling with evil 251
 
2. Division One, Sections I-III: Founding the ethical community 255
 
i. Sections I and II: The duty to leave the state of nature 255
 
ii. Section III: An ethical community requires God 263
 
3. Division One, Sections IV-V: Establishing a true church 267
 
i. Sect