Publication Date
1981
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Aesthetics | Biblical Studies | Comparative Methodologies and Theories | Epistemology | Ethics in Religion | History of Philosophy | History of Religions of Eastern Origins | History of Religions of Western Origin | Other Philosophy | Other Religion | Philosophy | Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Abstract
This chapter identifies the results of Kant's philosophical system on the contemporary discussion concerning an inerrant revelation. Knowledge, for Kant, is possible only as the forms and categories of the mind organize the raw data of the senses. Beyond this phenomenal world, the mind can only postulate what must or ought to be. It cannot know what is. The first postulate of this practical reasoning is freedom. The individual is autonomous, knows the good, and is capable of willing and doing as he ought.
Within such an epistemological framework, revelation becomes unnecessary, useless, and unverifiable. Inerrancy is not only false but incomprehensible in such a system. Since Kant's theory of knowledge largely dominates contemporary theology, it is inevitable that inerrancy cannot be seen as an option.
Recommended Citation
Beck, W. David, "Agnosticism: Kant" (1981). SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations. 160.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/160
Included in
Aesthetics Commons, Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Epistemology Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Other Religion Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons
Comments
Book Contribution in Biblical Errancy: An Analysis of Its Philosophical Roots, ed. N. Geisler (Zondervan, 1981), pages 52-78.