Kant, Religion, and Politics

Description

This book offers a systematic examination of the place of religion within Kant's major writings. Kant is often thought to be highly reductionistic with regard to religion - as though religion simply provides the unsophisticated with colourful representations of moral lessons that reason alone could grasp. James DiCenso's rich and innovative discussion shows how Kant's theory of religion in fact emerges directly from his epistemology, ethics and political theory, and how it serves his larger political and ethical projects of restructuring institutions and modifying political attitudes towards greater autonomy. It also illustrates the continuing relevance of Kant's ideas for addressing issues of religion and politics that remain pressing in the contemporary world, such as just laws, transparency in the public sphere and other ethical and political concerns. The book will be valuable for a wide range of readers who are interested in Kant's thought.

James J. DiCenso is Professor in the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Toronto. He is the author of two previous books: Hermeneutics and the Disclosure of Truth (1990) and The Other Freud: Religion, Culture and Psychoanalysis (1999) and has published several scholarly articles in international journals.

"...The book itself, written at a level suitable for final year undergraduates and upwards, is well organized and opens with a helpful introductory chapter, in which DiCenso sets the scene for what is to follow by outlining his core structuring thesis and by defending a Kantian account of autonomous reason as still relevant to the concerns of human emancipation..." --Anthony J. Carroll, Heythrop College, London, Religious Studies "...This groundbreaking interpretation should prompt many new studies about the relevance of Kant's "Copernican revolution," furnishing both sides in the controversy about the Enlightenment and its critics with abundant textual evidence, splendidly repositioned in light of recent debates about autonomy and intellectual responsibility.... Highly recommended..." -J. G. Moore, Lander University, CHOICE