Kant and the Secularization of Christian Eschatology

Abstract

The article intends to point out analogies and fundamental differences between Kant's philosophy and Christian doctrine (especially in augustinian version) with respect to the famous discussion of evil and the eschatological vision of human history. It is suggested that the influence exerted by the thought of Rousseau contributed to making Kant's ideas distinguishable from the traditional Christian vision, expressing the change in the underlying structure in which the genuinely modern thought arose. One demonstrates that Kant's reflection on evil, as well as his philosophy of history, are marked by the prospect of immanence, seeking the origin of evil in the man himself and nurturing a hope of redemption, which is not transcendent, but takes place in history through human action. The article concludes that, while Augustine, with his idea of the "fall" and the resulting corruption of human nature, emphasizes the Christian notion of redemption, Kant replaces this notion by a secularized conception of moral perfection, built along a learning process of reason, which gives human history the character of an increasing clarification of the content and form of the moral law.