Means of grace

In the final “General Remark” in Religion Within the Bounds of Reason Alone , Kant deals with means of grace. Baptism, he claims is the “first reception of a member into a church” and therefore “is a solemnity rich in meaning which imposes grave obligations either upon the initiate, if he himself is in a position to profess his faith, or upon the witnesses who take upon themselves the care of his education.” But it is not a means of grace.

Communion is “the oft-repeated solemn ritual of renewal, continuation, and propagation of this church-community under the laws of equality.” It “may well assume the form of a ritual communal partaking at the same table,” and it “has in it something great which expands the people’s narrow, selfish and intolerant case of mind, especially in religious matters, to the idea of a cosmopolitan moral community.” It also “is a good means of enlivening a community to the moral disposition of brotherly love which it represents.” But it is not a means of grace.

Unless admission to the church is grace, and the expansive community at the Lord’s table is a gift from God.