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Kantian Journal

2025 Vol. 44. №4

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Kryshtop L. E.

Johann Joachim Spalding and Immanuel Kant’s Revolution in Disposition

DOI
10.5922/0207-6918-2025-4-1
Pages
7-30
Kant Spalding Spener Pietism neology disposition new birth conversion revolution in the disposition

Abstract

Kant scholars traditionally trace the origin of Kant’s doctrine of revolution in the disposition to the Pietist teaching on a new birth whose main tenets are most fully set forth in the programmatic works of its founder, Philipp Jakob Spener. However, in spite of some similarities between these teachings there are important differences between them. Chief of them is Kant’s characteristic reduction of the usefulness of religion to its impact on the moral sphere and the search for the possibility of a moral interpretation of all the main Chrisitan dogmas, an approach to religion for which there are no grounds in Pietism. Furthermore, it is impossible, proceeding from the Pietist teaching on a new birth, to explain the transformation of the concept of Gesinnung (disposition), which we find in Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason. There is enough evidence pointing to another influence on Kant in this issue, and that is the philosophical-theological views of Johann Joachim Spalding on conversion and the related radical change of heart, most clearly observed in Thoughts on the Value of Feelings in Christianity (1761). An outstanding representative of neology, Spalding stresses the moral significance of religion and seeks opportunities for a moral interpretation of the foundations of the Christian faith, an approach that is much closer to Kant’s. Furthermore in this work the concept of Gesinnung is used in the meaning similar to that which would later appear in Kant’s Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason. Spalding’s book was well-known to Kant, such that it may well have influenced the transformation of the concept of Gesinnung observed in Kant’s philosophy.

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