Kant viewed Judaism as a narrow, particular, hostile political entity. The fact that God promised that He would bless the nations through Abraham seems not to have registered with Kant.
Kant’s treatment of Judaism has central importance in his construction of modern, Enlightened religion. And in this context, recent work that rehabilitates the universal promise of Judaism (such as in the New Perspective) is not only important for its contribution to biblical scholarship but for its wider theological and cultural import.
Put another way, the scholarly rehabilitation of the Abrahamic promise brings with it the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise, that through Abraham and his seed God will bless the nations.
Letters
Joshua T. Katz’s (“Pure Episcopalianism,” May 2025) reason for a theologically conservative person joining a theologically liberal…
The Revival of Patristics
On May 25, 1990, the renowned patristics scholar Charles Kannengiesser, S.J., delivered a lecture at the annual…
The Enduring Legacy of the Spanish Mystics
Last autumn, I spent a few days at my family’s coastal country house in northwestern Spain. The…