Since I've already covered Kant's moral system, let us now move on to how his Ethical system influences his view on religion.

First of all, Kant's religion must be as free and rational as his ethics. There cannot be anything contingent (historical) which cannot be independently deduced from theoretical principles. Kant states this in his book "Religion within the Bounds of Reason Alone," "The Christian faith, as a learned faith, relies upon history . . . it is not in itself a free faith . . . or one which is deduced from insight into adequate theoretical proofs. Were it a pure rational faith it would have to be thought of as a free faith."

Religion, in all its varied practices, is also reduced to morality. Take for example, Prayer. Kant writes, "Here too public prayer is indeed no means of grace, yet it is a moral ceremony . . . and [it embraces] all the moral concerns of men. Such an address . . . cannot only raise the feelings to the point of moral exaltation . . . it also possesses in itself a more rational basis than does private prayer for clothing the moral wish."

Kant does the same with the Lord's Supper: "The formality of a common partaking at the same table, contains within itself something great, expanding the narrow, selfish, and unsociable cast of mind . . . toward the idea of a cosmopolitan moral community; and it is a good means of enlivening a community to the moral disposition of brotherly love which it represents."

And this morality is free and self governing. It cannot be legistlated. Listen to how Kant speaks of the office of pastor: "This name (pfaffentum), signifying merely the authority of a spiritual father, possesses a censorious meaning as well, only because of the attendant concept of a spiritual despotism, to be found in all forms of ecclesiasticism, however unpretentious and popular . . . they take the form of the representataion of this idea (in a visible church) to be the thing itself."

Quick summary: A Pure, Kantian Religion is a Rational Morality based in a priori maxims and is self-governing.
Next time, we will investigate how this influences the early Hegel.