Abstract

Ternay proposes a radical reinterpretation of Kant's stand towards revelation and religion based on a thorough rereading of the corpus from the perspective of the third Critique, a study of Kant's imagery, and of his annotated Lutheran Bible. Ternay's project is to trace the influences of the Bible on Kant's thought, and reciprocally to lay bare the lasting and distinctive way Kant assimilated the Bible into his own philosophy. As a first result, the traditional picture of Kant as the enemy of all revelation, reducing religion to morality, must be left behind. Nor is the moral law sufficient by itself to transform our lives, without belief in God. Ternay follows Kojève's suggestion that, rather than representing the end of Christianity, Kant proposes a purification of Christianity, freeing it finally from its insertion in the Greek problematic. What Kant puts forth is not a religion based on an autonomous law, set between God and man, but rather one based on a personal God who calls man into a relationship with himself through his revelation.