The Idea of a Revealed Religion in Fichte’s Work “Attempt at a Critique of all Revelation” (1792)

Abstract

This contribution analyzes and critically assesses the concept of revealed religion in Fichte’s early work Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarung) from 1792. The goal of religion, according to Fichte, is to fortify human morality through the representation of God as the giver of moral law. Revealed religion imagines this divine legislator as appearing sensuously. In Fichte’s project, however, it is not clear how sensuousness can possibly influence human moral disposition. Revelation threatens to miss its mark because it does not find any addressee. A further problem consists in Fichte’s assumption that the imagination is capable of sensualizing intelligible realities like God and the soul in order to render them objects of sensory experience. He claims that it thereby produces “anthropomorphisms” such as the incarnate God or the resurrection of the body, which he deems objectively false, though pedagogically useful. A concluding comparison with Kant’s book on religion demonstrates, contrary to Dieter Henrich’s interpretation, that Fichte is further removed than Kant from fundamental Christian doctrines on evil, freedom, and grace.