Immanuel Kant

===Religious writings===
{{Main|Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason}}
Starting in the twentieth century, commentators have tended to see Kant as having a strained relationship with religion, although in the nineteenth century this had not been the prevalent view. [[Karl Leonhard Reinhold]], whose letters helped make Kant famous, wrote: "I believe that I may infer without reservation that the interest of religion, and of Christianity in particular, accords completely with the result of the Critique of Reason."<ref>Karl Leonhard Reinhold, ''Letters on the Kantian Philosophy'' (1786), 3rd Letter</ref> According to [[Johann Schultz]], who wrote one of the first commentaries on Kant: "And does not this system itself cohere most splendidly with the Christian religion? Do not the divinity and beneficence of the latter become all the more evident?"<ref>Johann Schultz, ''Exposition of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason'' (1784), 141.</ref> The reason for these views was Kant's moral theology and the widespread belief that his philosophy was the great antithesis to [[Spinozism]], which was widely seen as a form of sophisticated pantheism or even atheism. As Kant's philosophy disregarded the possibility of arguing for God through pure reason alone, for the same reasons it also disregarded the possibility of arguing against God through pure reason alone.

Kant articulates his strongest criticisms of the organization and practices of religious organizations to those that encourage what he sees as a religion of counterfeit service to God.<ref>Kant, ''RBMR'' Part IV, First part, First section [6:157–163]</ref> Among the major targets of his criticism are external ritual, superstition, and a hierarchical church order. He sees these as efforts to make oneself pleasing to God in ways other than conscientious adherence to the principle of moral rightness in choosing and acting upon one's maxims. Kant's criticisms on these matters, along with his rejection of certain theoretical proofs for the existence of God that were grounded in pure reason (particularly the [[ontological argument]]) and his philosophical commentary on some Christian doctrines, have resulted in interpretations that see Kant as hostile to religion in general and to Christianity in particular.<ref>E.g.,
Walsh, W. H., 1967, "Kant, Immanuel: Philosophy of Religion", ''The Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Volume Four, Paul Edwards (ed.), New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc. & The Free Press, 322.</ref> Other interpreters, nevertheless, consider that Kant was trying to mark off defensible from indefensible Christian belief.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Pasternack|first1=Lawrence|last2=Rossi|first2=Philip|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-religion/|title=Kant's Philosophy of Religion|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|edition=Fall 2014|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=9 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709212423/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-religion/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Regarding Kant's conception of religion, some critics have argued that he was sympathetic to deism.<ref>For example Peter Byrne, who wrote about Kant's relationship with deism. Byrne, Peter (2007), ''Kant on God'', London: Ashgate, p. 159.</ref> Other critics have argued that Kant's moral conception moves from deism to theism (as moral theism), for example, Allen W. Wood<ref>Wood, Allen W. (1970), ''Kant's moral religion'', London and Ithaca: Cornell University Press, p. 16.</ref> and Merold Westphal.<ref>Westphal, Merold (2010), ''The Emerge of Modern Philosophy of Religion'', in Taliaferro, Charles, Draper, Paul and Quinn, Philip (editors), ''A Companion to Philosophy of Religion'', Oxford: Blackwell, p. 135.</ref> As for Kant's book ''[[Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason|Religion within the Bounds of Mere Reason]]'', it was emphasized that Kant reduced religiosity to rationality, religion to morality, and Christianity to ethics.<ref>Iţu, Mircia (2004), ''Dumnezeu şi religia în concepţia lui Immanuel Kant din Religia în limitele raţiunii'', in Boboc, Alexandru and Mariş, N.I. (editors), ''Studii de istoria filosofiei universale'', volume 12, Bucharest: Romanian Academy.</ref> However, many interpreters, including Allen W. Wood<ref>Wood, Allen W. (2020), ''Kant and Religion'', Cambridge University Press, p.2.</ref> and Lawrence Pasternack,<ref>See e.g., Lawrence Pasternack, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kant on Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (New York, Routledge, 2014), pp. 239–240.</ref> now agree with [[Stephen Palmquist]]'s claim that a better way of reading Kant's ''Religion'' is to see him as raising morality to the status of religion.<ref>Palmquist, Stephen (1992), "Does Kant Reduce Religion to Morality?", ''Kant-Studien'' 83.2, pp. 129–148.</ref>
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