ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how Kant portrays the Christian religion (or systemr-C) as filling these gaps with a revealed content (or systemr-s) that adequately meets the needs of natural religion (or systemr-m) without contradicting any of its fundamental precepts. The outward manifestation of religion in its imperfect, historical form is just as necessary for the realization of universal religion as empirical judgments are for the realization of the categories in theoretical knowledge, or as virtuous actions are for the realization of the moral law in practical activity. The chapter devotes to a thoroughgoing explanation of just how Kant sets out to demonstrate the adequacy of the Christian religion. In the Christian tradition, the New Testament accounts of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the ‘last Adam’ furnish an effective conceptual structure whereby human persons can counteract the problem of sin that has plagued mankind ever since the ‘first Adam.’.
