Oldal 241 [241]
WHICH INITIATION DOES NOT LEAD ÁSTRAY FROM THE IRUE MYSTERIES
merit.”!® For theoretical reasons, the assumption of this Christological article of
faith is completely beyond Kant’s scope ("an unfathomable mystery"""), though
not assuming this mystery of a saving faith"" "might be disadvantageous to
reason in many respects, most of all morally.”
3. The third mystery which Kant discusses is the mystery of election
[Erwählung]. It concerns an issue that pertains to Kant’s eschatological
doctrine of “the last judgment,” namely “some unconditional decree
[Ratschluss] [issuing in] electing one part of our race to salvation, the other
to eternal reprobation.”!” As election is also a matter of grace—granted to
one human being, yet denied to another—in this case it concerns “what God
alone can do” according to his attribute of judge and taking into account
the moral property of justice. What complicates any understanding of this
third type of grace is the fact that references to God as lawgiver and as
author of salvation must also be taken into account as being united. In the
fear of God as lawgiver, this first reference entails unconditional obedience
to the law and categorical observance of duty. In this respect, according
to principles of justice, any sentence of the judge (the divine above us and
conscience within us) will be of guilty and not guilty. Before the law, it is
impossible that any merit can be accrued over and above the strict observance
of duty. This judge does not know anything about moral advantage. Hence,
the verdict will be damnation or absolution. In this case, no possibility is
opened up for anything “which God alone can do” regarding the attainment
ofthe final moral end for one and the same person. On the other hand, God in
his goodness (benevolence) and love for humankind (the beneficient Ruler of
the world) will “judge human beings insofar as a merit can yet accrue to them
over and above their guilt, and here his verdict is: worthy or unworthy.”'°®
Worthiness (as merit) must be won by love of the law, and under this moral
condition it implies moral receptivity to God’s goodness (salvation). Hence,
if a human being, though guilty of sin, through conversion has made himself
meritorious and worthy to be loved by God, “then the pronouncement of
the judge proceeds from love”'” and by this, he elects human beings “as his
own” and brings them to salvation. Kant concludes: “this again does not yield
the concept of a divine justice but must at best be deferred to a wisdom whose
rule is an absolute mystery to us."
10
a
Religion, Ak 6, 143.
Religion, Ak 6, 143.
See Religion, 6: 115: “We call the faith of every individual receptive of [worthy of] eternal
happiness, a saving faith."
Religion, Ak 6, 76.
Religion, Ak 6, 143.
Religion, Ak 6, 146n.
Religion, Ak 6, 146n.
Religion, Ak 6, 142.
10.
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