Problems with Religion and Politics 369punishment that led to hitherto unknown evils. Thus, the history of nature
begins with goodness, for it is the work of God; but the history of freedom
begins with evil, for it is the work of man.'^1 ''^161 We always find ourselves as
already fallen.
The second essay or book of the Religion, which deals with the struggle
of good against evil, does not postulate a Manichean ontology, as the title
might suggest. Kant does not view the universe as the battlefield of two
forces. Indeed, he claims that ultimately it is irrelevant whether we place
that which tempts us "simply in us or also outside us."^162 If we give in, we
are guilty just the same, no matter whether the temptation comes from
within or without. The same also holds, of course, for the power of the
good. The Son of God, who represents the idea of the perfect human be¬
ing, may be thought of as having existed outside of us, but it is more im¬
portant to view him as an ideal to be emulated. The Son of God, just like
the tempter, is more important as a concept that might help us understand
our moral situation than as anything that has a reality apart from morality.
Just as Lessing had claimed in his "Education of the Human Race," Kant
argues that the Bible has only a moral import. While some of Kant's analo¬
gies between religion and morality seem fanciful, they do show how much
he was concerned to show that there was no necessary conflict between
Lutheran doctrine and moral faith. It might almost appear that he is giving
advice to preachers on how to translate th§ language of critical morality
into the language of traditional faith.
Moral faith makes the miraculous stories of the Bible dispensable, and
"the person of the teacher of the one and only religion, valid for all worlds,
is a mystery ... his appearance on earth, as well as his taking leave from it,
his eventful life and his passion, are all miracles." Indeed, the story of the
life of the great teacher is itself a miracle, since it is thought to be revela¬
tion. We can "leave the merit of these miracles undisturbed" and "even
venerate the external cover" of the doctrine that is written into our hearts,
provided, however, that... we do not make it a tenet of religion that knowing, believ¬
ing, and professing them are themselves something by which we can make ourselves
well-pleasing to God.^163What counts is a moral disposition, not the external cover. In the third book
or third essay, Kant addresses again the question of hope. However, the
hope he has in mind is not for eternal life and salvation for the individual,
but for the "kingdom of God on earth," or the establishment of an "ethic-
civil state" in which human beings are "united under laws without being