Reading Kant in the Light of Political Theology

Abstract

This chapter examines the political theology that underpins Immanuel Kant’s theorization of International Relations (IR) in his seminal essay, Toward Perpetual Peace. The chapter presents three reasons why a political-theological reading of Kant is necessary. First, Kant’s texts rely upon theological ideas: Kant’s constant invocation of providence, radical evil, God (in various roles) and the afterlife play important roles in his systematic inquiry into IR. Removing these central elements from the complex series of intersecting and connecting ideas and concepts that compose the architectonic structure of Kant’s thought has serious implications for both Kant’s theorization of global political problems and his solutions to those problems. The second reason is to explore the extent to which Kant’s wider oeuvre and his IR works interrelate: particularly in Toward Perpetual Peace, in which elements of Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason, the three Critiques, Idea for a Universal History and several other works are brought together in systematic fashion. The third reason relates to those authors who would dismiss the importance of theological and metaphysical elements of Kant’s theorization of global politics. The recovery of Kant’s political theology of perpetual peace challenges such writers by asking with what concepts and ideas of equivalent weight do they propose to replace the theological elements that provide the deep foundations of Toward Perpetual Peace?.