Some thoughts about Kant’s “What Is Enlightenment?”

Last updated on: November 10, 2011 at 2:44 pm by Roger E. Olson

Some thoughts about Kant’s “What Is Enlightenment?” 2011-11-10T14:44:50-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Lately I’ve been re-reading and studying Immanuel Kant’s 1784 essay Was Ist Aufklarung? (What Is Enlightnment?) It’s available all over the internet, just google it if you’re interested.

I grew up in a church and denomination where it was Verboten to think for yourself–unless you were the great spiritual man of God du jour. Even then, of course, nobody thought he or she (as in Aimee Semple MacPherson) thought for themselves; they received it right from God.

I found Kant’s essay liberating when I first read it. And, actually, before I first read it I had already found encouragement to think for myself, to ask and wrestle with important questions that some people considered “settled,” in the evangelical seminary I attended after college. The great thing there was that we were encouraged to think for ourselves within a community and tradition that knew what it believed about the important matters of Christian faith. But I never felt condemned or even criticized for asking any question even though I knew if I strayed too far from the center of that tradition-community I would no longer be able to remain there.

I’ll never forget an article I read in Eternity magazine (now defunct but very important in my spiritual and theological journey out of a narrow, sectarian religious context into the larger evangelical mainstream) called “Courage to Allow for Leaders.” The author called on influential movers and shakers of evangelical denominations and organizations to nurture and encourage and mentor young men and women of faith who dared to think for themselves and even question time honored beliefs and customs. As I was exiting my home denomination I showed that article to one of my mentors who angrily rejected it as nonsense.

I hope and pray that over the years I have modeled the kind of encouragement of young, free thinking Christians that I found in my seminary from my God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving non-fundamentalist (!) professors. I heard a motto once about Christian higher education that our task is to help students question what they believe while continuing to believe what they are questioning. Of course, that’s a very fine line to walk. Most don’t do it very successfully, I’m afraid.

Back to Kant’s essay. Even as an evangelical Christian I think it is right to think for yourself. Horrors! I can just hear the outrage from fundamentalists. But listen. I have come to think that Kant was not only right to encourage mature people to think for themselves; perhaps without knowing it he was simply describing what everyone really does whether they know it or not.

Let me illustrate. Some years ago one of my favorite students came to me to tell me was joining the Catholic church. (Until then he had been a member of a rather liberal Protestant denomination.) I asked him why. He said (I’m paraphrasing) that he was tired of trying to figure out what to believe and needed an authority to tell him. He also said he had come to believe it was wrong to decide what to believe for yourself; people ought to bow to a magisterium. Well, first, I volunteered to be that authority, that magisterium, for him, but for some reason he didn’t accept my invitation. Second, I told him that by deciding to join the Catholic church he was figuring out what to believe for himself; nobody was making him join it. It’s a paradox, isn’t it? People who claim they are simply accepting authority in deciding what to believe are actually deciding what authority to accept!

My point is that I don’t see how anyone can avoid thinking for themselves (except perhaps children or the mentally impaired). All mature people, capable of thought and responsible for their actions, DO think for themselves. Suppose I decide to reject Kant’s dictum. What am I doing but thinking for myself? Oh, sure, people can PRETEND to not think for themselves and often have to avoid persecution, for example.

Now, not for a moment do I think we are tabula rasa–a blank slate that we then fill in by ourselves. Of course not. We all grow up with beliefs given to us by our elders. But, ultimately, we decide whether to continue embracing those beliefs or change to something else. When someone says “I don’t think for myself [often expressed as ‘I don’t interpret, I just believe’]” I don’t believe them–even when they mean they believe the Bible and do not think for themselves. In fact, they are deciding to believe the Bible! What else? Who else is thinking for them in deciding to believe the Bible.

Sure, someone might say God causes us to believe certain things. But even then, it is we who are doing the believing. And people talk about being “brainwashed” under “mind control.” I accept that can happen. But even then it was the person who decided to undergo that and continue in it. I’m not arguing that people possess some transcendental Self that floats freely above the fray of influences; I’m simply arguing that within one’s own context of influences, one ultimately decides what to think and believe. To the extent they don’t and are actually programmed to believe something by someone or some thing outside themselves, they are not really thinking at all. They are functioning as a machine.

Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I have taught for almost 30 years “The unexamined faith is not worth believing.” Mature people, including mature Christians, need to realize they are choosing to believe and question whether their choices are responsible ones justified by valid sources as norms such as Scripture, tradition, reason and experience.

At some point in my past, when I was about 20, I realized I no longer believed a crucial doctrine of my denomination. I looked deeply into why I no longer believed it and realized it was not justified by Scripture, the larger Christian tradition, reason or experience. Somehow I had chosen to stop believing it and then discovered why as I reflected on my subconscious decision. Ultimately I had to leave my denomination because of that. I knew others who came to believe as I did–to not believe that doctrine, but they pretended to themselves and others that they did somehow still believe it because they didn’t want to leave the denomination. But, ultimately, THEY decided what to believe and what to do with that. Nobody thinks for you or decides for you what to believe. And even if you try to let them, it is you who are letting them which is thinking for yourself.

My next post will be on the meaning of all this.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 7, 2011

And now...kudos to J. I. Packer for this brilliant article

Next Post

November 10, 2011 Kant, thinking for oneself, etc. (continued)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who opposed the rebuilding of the Temple and tried to discourage the Jews?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Their enemies/Samaritans Moabites Philistines Amalekites