Overview

In Kant's Rational Theology, Allen W. Wood explores Kant's views on the concept of God and on the attempt to demonstrate God's existence. ""We cannot have a full or balanced understanding of Kant's thought on religious subjects,"" he writes, ""as long as we fail to take account of his reflections, often exceedingly abstract, obscure, and subtle, concerning the rational origin, content, and status of our concept of a supreme being."" The importance of this aspect of Kantian thought, according to Wood, lies in its originality, in its historical influence, and in the insights it affords into the tradition of rational theology in medieval and modern philosophy. He believes that it also provides a means of understanding Kant's work as a whole and of achieving a proper appreciation of the contents of Kant's moral faith. The author focuses on Kant's chapter on the ideal or pure reason from the Critique of Pure Reason and also discusses other Kantian writings (especially the Lectures on Philosophical Theology, the Critique of Judgment, and several of Kant's precritical essays) where the topic of rational theology is prominent. A concise recapitulation and critical assessment of Kant's more speculative theses, this book is a complement to Wood's earlier book, Kant's Moral Religion.

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Reviews

This splendid little book has two main sections. The first traces the origins of Kant's account of God, the ens realissimum, in the first Critique, and analyzes the very obscure introductory passage which precedes Kant's criticism of the three proofs of God's existence. The second examine that criticism in detail. Wood's prose is simple and concise, and he perfectly combines sound historical exegesis with discussion of the general philosophical issues involved. * Mind * Wood's scholarship possesses both historical insight (helping him to situate Kant in the tradition of Descartes, Leibniz, and Wolff) and analytic subtlety (enriching his discussion of such issues as modality and predication). The result is a book that is both an original contribution to Kant studies and an inquiry into the possibility of theology as a 'rational' enterprise. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *

This splendid little book has two main sections. The first traces the origins of Kant's account of God, the ens realissimum, in the first Critique, and analyzes the very obscure introductory passage which precedes Kant's criticism of the three proofs of God's existence. The second examine that criticism in detail. Wood's prose is simple and concise, and he perfectly combines sound historical exegesis with discussion of the general philosophical issues involved. --Mind Wood's scholarship possesses both historical insight (helping him to situate Kant in the tradition of Descartes, Leibniz, and Wolff) and analytic subtlety (enriching his discussion of such issues as modality and predication). The result is a book that is both an original contribution to Kant studies and an inquiry into the possibility of theology as a 'rational' enterprise. --Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Author Information

Allen W. Wood is Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University. His many books include, as author, Kant's Moral Religion (also from Cornell), Hegel's Ethical Thought, Kant's Ethical Thought, and Kantian Ethics; and, as coeditor and cotranslator (with Gertrude M. Clarke), Immanuel Kant's Lectures on Philosophical Theology, available from Cornell.

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