Rethinking Philosophy in Light of the Bible Graven Images Series Editor Leonard V. Kaplan University of Wisconsin, Madison The Graven Images Series is intent upon publishing intellectual contemplation from the foremost scholars of law, theology, and the humanities. In part, Graven Images returns to the possibility of engaging the real and its analysis without losing the gains of the Enlight- enment. Series authors and editors choose to revisit classical thought and analysis with an aim of understanding contemporary issues, creating trust and meaning in a confused and ever-changing modern world. Titles in the Series The Weimar Moment: Liberalism, Political Theology, and Law Edited by Leonard V. Kaplan and Rudy Koshar Theology and the Soul of the Liberal State Edited by Leonard V. Kaplan and Charles L. Cohen The Law Before the Law By Steven Wilf Cognitive Justice in a Global World Edited by Boaventura de Sousa Santos Thinking Jewish Culture in America Edited by Ken Koltun-Fromm Rethinking Philosophy in Light of the Bible: From Kant to Schopenhauer By Brayton Polka Rethinking Philosophy in Light of the Bible From Kant to Schopenhauer Brayton Polka LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 16 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BT, United Kingdom Copyright © 2014 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Polka, Brayton. Rethinking philosophy in light of the Bible : from Kant to Schopenhauer / Brayton Polka. pages cm. – (Graven images) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-9317-4 (cloth : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-7391-9318-1 (ebook) 1. Philosophy and religion. 2. Bible–Philosophy. 3. Philosophy–History. I. Title. BL51.P585 2014 190–dc23 2014030919 TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction: The Kantian Revolution in Metaphysics 1 2 Hegel and the Myth of the Fall 21 3 Kierkegaard on Coming into Historical Existence as the Critique of Christendom 53 4 What Is Philosophy? Feuerbach and Schopenhauer on the Essence of Christianity 93 5 Conclusion 153 Bibliography 159 Index 167 About the Author 177 v Acknowledgments I want to thank the faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University for the financial support that it provided for the publication of my book. I am additionally grateful to friends, colleagues (at York University and elsewhere), students (both former and current), and staff members (at York) for their kindness and generosity in helping me bring my book to completion. But they are too numerous to name here. Still, I do want to thank, in particular, four individuals without whose kind and generous sup- port I would not have been able to make my book a reality. It was Andrew D. Weiner, then professor of English at the University of Wisconsin and coedi- tor of Graven Images, who originally introduced me to his series by inviting me to contribute to what was at that time an annual volume of essays. His co- editor, Leonard V. Kaplan, professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin and now the editor of Graven Images as a book series, enthusiastically wel- comed my book to his series. I am truly grateful to both Andy and Len for their warm support. I also thank Judith Hawley, Graduate Program Assistant in Social and Political Thought at York University, for ensuring the prompt dispatch of my manuscript to the publisher. Finally, I want to thank Jason Hoult, a graduate student at York, who, as my Research Assistant, helped me make the final revisions to my book. vii Chapter One Introduction: The Kantian Revolution in Metaphysics The aim that I have in my book is to show that, if we are to have a true concept of philosophy, a concept of philosophy that is true to itself, we must comprehend philosophy as biblical in origin, both ontologically and histori- cally. Consistent with my earlier studies, the most recent of which have been on Shakespeare and Spinoza, I argue how important it is to overcome the dualistic opposition, so common today, between philosophy and theology, between reason and faith, and between the secular and the religious. I con- centrate here on the three philosophers that I consider the most important in modernity: Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard (dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants: Descartes and, above all, Spinoza). It is gripping to encounter Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard when and as situated within a shared ontologi- cal and historical framework. While they are, as distinctive thinkers, signifi- cantly different from each other, their differences, we shall see, are to be understood within a common philosophical framework that presupposes bib- lical, not Greek metaphysics. I conclude my book, however, with Feuerbach and Schopenhauer in order to show how untrue philosophy becomes insofar as it is based on a distorted and, indeed, false conception of biblical ideas, above all, in their Christian representation. The issues, then, that confront us—both author and reader—in this study are at once endlessly challenging and profoundly engaging. For we take on the most demanding of modern thinkers in placing them, historically and ontologically, within the context of the question that was famously posed by Tertullian, the first Christian theologian who wrote in Latin, c. 200 CE: What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? What is the relationship between 1