칸트적 이성 종교의 관점에서 본한국 기독교 현실의 부정성

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to tentatively clarify the normative implications of the standpoint of rational religion which Immanuel Kant(1724-1804), a German philosopher of the 18th century, expressed concerning Christianity, especially in relation to the Korean negative religious realities. Kantian standpoint of rational religion is fundamentally different from the traditional standpoint of revealed religion in one crucial point. Above all, Kant regarded only one concept of God as acceptable, which does not damage, in other words, is compatible with the moral ideals of humans as rational beings. To come to the point, he thought that only a religion satisfying the moral demands of rational beings is a true religion. From this standpoint, he regarded the ritualistic religions as impure, which do not concentrate their efforts on the moral task of developing human good disposition, but only on the ritual task of wishing for the absolution and blessing of God. The reason is because all such religions are the breakaways from the above-mentioned true religion, in short, ‘moral religion’, which encourages us to approach the moral perfection, guided by the perfectly good God. Like this, Kant continuously reminds us that the religions neglecting the moral character-building satisfying the divine will and only begging the blessing of God by means of amoral rituals are nothing but the sheer irrational deviations and fanaticisms. For such reason, Kantian standpoint of rational religion can be considered to have many critical implications for the negative realities of the Korean church where presently the egoistic belief wishing for the blessing of God is a main stream of Christian faith. The reason is because Kantian God is a ‘moral God’ responding not to the unconditional obeyance, the grand worship rituals, a huge amount of offering, and the like, but only to the sincere respect for his moral will to the Creation, whereas a main stream of Korean Christian faith has regarded the stereotyped rituals begging the blessing of God and such amoral forms of belief as the legalistic and biblicist rigor as the signs of pious spirituality, and accordingly granted the ‘magic’ power to decide what we must do to gain the favor of God to the priest class equipped with the professional skill in rituals and the technical biblical knowledge. With this critical mind I will argue that the various religions including Christianity could function as the healthy guides of our life, only if they premise Kantian concept of rational religion understood as ‘moral religion’ as a minimal normative ‘necessary condition’ in this essay. Hereby I will show that Kantian standpoint of rational religion can contribute toward setting up the normative standards with which we could overcome the negative realities of the Korean church as a common ‘moral filter’ to judge the healthiness or illness of various religions with.