The Shadow of God: Kant, Hegel, and the Passage from Heaven to History

The writings of 18th-century philosophers Kant and Hegel secularized religious notions of immortality, argues Harvard philosophy professor Rosen (On Voluntary Servitude) in this sophisticated treatise. He suggests that the two philosophers influenced the transmutation of Christian understandings of individual immortality and eternal souls into secular “new conceptions of human self-transcendence through historical community,” or the idea that one’s contributions to a collective live on after one dies and confer a kind of “historical immortality.” Kant proposed that humans should strive to create a “kingdom of grace” composed only of morally upstanding individuals, an idea Hegel built on, Rosen writes, by substituting posterity for grace, envisioning a similar arc toward greater morality but finding its vindication in history rather than heaven. Rosen’s argument is original and provocative, and he excels at deciphering the gnarled writings of the German Idealists and making comprehensible their thoughts about free will (“The goodness of the world lies in human freedom and that freedom... must not be arbitrary”) and justice (“The judgement of posterity on the individual will correct the injustice of the present”). This meticulous examination will appeal to philosophers and historians alike. (June)