Immanuel Kant

The concept of Christian millenarianism is a future-oriented philosophy that posits the notion of the future or second coming of Jesus Christ. Within this notion the second coming of Christ is to occur within a specific number of millennia after his death. Such a perspective encompasses an apocalyptic fatalism with the close of a millennium, although in the year 1000 and 2000 no such coming occurred. As one theology scholar maintains, "This vision has an affinity for worldly activism, as believers are religiously obligated to strive for the righteous social reforms that are necessary to establish the millennial period" (Williams 1). Those who ascribe to millenarianism believe that contemporary societies and rulers are corrupt and unjust and not right with God. Only a dramatic change, like the second coming of Christ, will restore societies in a way that is right with God.

If we examine the views of Immanuel Kant's philosophical millenarianism in Idea for A Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View, we see that his ideas and concepts are akin to Christian millenarianism. This analysis will discuss Kant's views in order to demonstrate how his ideas and concepts in this work relate to Christian millenarianism.

The main idea behind Christian millenarianism is that societies and individuals will not be right with God until some cataclysmic event such as the apocalypse and second coming of Christ. The Christian millenarianism wil

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Kant maintains in Universal History, "�history�permits us to hope that if we attend to the play of freedom of the human will in the large, we may be able to discern a regular movement in it, and that what seems complex and chaotic in the single individual may be seen from the standpoint of the human race as a whole to be a steady and progressive though slow evolution of its original endowment" (1963). In the above manner, Kant's views are akin to Christian perfectionism in that the following of universal laws lead human beings to act in a manner that is in keeping with the will of God. Much like Christian millenarianism promises a new heaven and earth in contrast to contemporary societies, Kant's universal laws, when adopted, will slowly but surely lead to the evolution of individuals and societies exhibit right conduct and action according to these laws or God's will. Kant maintains that there is an internal moral order and an external or state order. When states are constructed in a manner that encourages right action in individuals (internal moral order), then states will exhibit external moral order. Kant believes that individuals and states should treat one another or act toward each other by seeing individuals and stat

Category: Philosophy - I