Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)
2012 / 2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Frank Sawyer: Immanuel Kant and Theology
Frank Sawyer Immanuel kant and THEOLOGY I t is a privilege for me to contribute to the Festschrift for prof. dr. Schweizer József. We wish him rich blessings upon the occasion of his 90th birthday! Part of this article on Kant first appeared in Hungarian1 but I have revised it considerably and added new thoughts. I think that prof. Schweizer will be pleased to see that I have made use toward the end of the article of wonderful statements by the eminent Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel. In his many writings Heschel has provided us with a significant way of showing the inadequacy of human reason when it abandons the wonder of the ‘noumenal’. Kant waivered on this topic but provides his own self-critique, perhaps unaware, by speaking of pure reason while also witnessing to the wonder of the ‘starry skies above us and the moral law within us’. Kant himself knew that ‘pure reason’ is not the whole story. Kant’s influence As a great philosopher Kant (1724-1804) is remembered for several important steps, such as, his 1) Attempt to create a ‘critical’ philosophy based on systematic reasoning. He introduced a new view on the limits of reason. 2) The idea of a ‘Copernican revolution’ in our way of knowing which places the subject, or human mind as knower, at the centre of knowledge. Attention to the active constitutional role of the mind. 3) View of autonomy as central to enlightenment. 4) The attention to morality as duty and as based on a good will, never treating other people only as a means for our goals. 5) View on the universality of moral commands. Kant is a typical spokesman of the Enlightenment (.Aufklärung). This movement 1 F.Sawyer, Filozófiai perspektívák: Kanttól Nietzschéig (Sárospatak: SRTA, 2000), 17-42. 2012/2 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 75
