INTRODUCTION

BIBLICAL REPUBLICANISM

"The truth will set you free." (Jn 8:32)

PARAKLETOS.dk is a philosophical exegesis of the biblical holy spirit within the structure of Kant's critique.

Within the structure of Kant's critique, the biblical holy spirit is the constituent power given by God.

According to the Gospel of John, the biblical holy spirit is the spirit of truth (Jn 14:17) (Jn 15:26) (Jn 16:13).

Immanuel Kant writes:

"The Bible contains within itself a credential of its (moral) divinity that is sufficient in a practical respect - the influence that, as the text of a systematic doctrine of faith, it has always exercised on the hearts of human beings, both in catechetical instruction and in preaching. This is sufficient reason for preserving it, not only as the organ of universal inner rational religion, but also as the legacy (new testament) of a statutory doctrine of faith which will serve us indefinitely as a guiding line." (Text)/(AA VII:64)

Reason

All human beings live in both nature and freedom.

No human being can make and/or abolish the law of nature. Every human being can make and/or abolish theories and hypotheses about the law of nature, but no human being can make and/or abolish the law of nature.

Every human being can take the law into their own hands.

If a human being is denied the ability to make and/or abolish the law, that human being can choose to fight and possibly die for freedom.

Because every human being can take the law into their own hands, all human beings live in a state of war.

Kant writes:

"Just as the juridical state of nature is a state of war of every human being against every other, so too is the ethical state of nature one in which the good principle, which resides in each human being, is incessantly attacked by the evil which is found in him and in every other as well." (Text)/(AA VI:96)

Human freedom (libertas humana) is both a blessing (benedictio) and a curse (maledictio).

How can the human race [Homo sapiens] forsake the state of war and live in nature, freedom and peace?

Reason alone cannot bring peace. That is why Kant writes:

"I therefore had to annul knowledge in order to make room for faith." (Text)/(AA BXXX)

The answer to the question is not either reason or faith. By making room for faith, Kant does not deny that all human beings live in both nature and freedom. Kant simply denies that reason without faith can bring peace, just as he denies that faith without reason can bring peace. The answer to the question is both reason and faith.

Faith

A person of the human race can be either the character human being or the character citizen.

As either the character human being or the character citizen, the person lives in both nature and freedom.

Kant writes:

"However, that someone should become a human being who is not merely legally but morally good (pleasing to God), i.e., virtuous in terms of intelligible character (virtus noumenon) - who, when he cognizes something as a duty, requires no other incentive beyond this presentation of duty itself - this cannot be brought about, so long as the foundation of the maxims remains impure, through gradual reform, but must be brought about through a revolution in the attitude in the human being (a transition to the maxim of the attitude's holiness); and he can become a new human being only through a kind of rebirth, as if through a new creation and a change of heart." (Text)/(AA VI:47)

The Bible says:

"The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason the Son of God was revealed: in order to destroy the works of the devil. Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God." (1 Jn 3:8-9)

The character human being has an inclination to sin (concupiscentia). The character human being can choose a legal behaviour, but the character human being can also choose an illegal behaviour.

The character citizen has no inclination to sin. The character citizen cannot choose an illegal behaviour.

The character citizen has a holy duty to obey the law, but the character citizen also has a sovereign power over the law.

Kant writes:

"The idea of a constitution that is consistent with the natural rights of human beings, the idea, namely, that those who obey the law should also, united, be legislators thereof, underlies all forms of state. And the polity [das gemeine Wesen], which, conceived in accordance with this idea and through concepts of pure reason, is [heißt] a platonic ideal (respublica noumenon), is no mere figment of the imagination, but rather the eternal norm for all civil constitutions, and disposes with all war." (Text)/(AA VII:90)

The formation of the character citizen is a process from rebirth to constituent power.

Rebirth

No one becomes a citizen at the conception. Everyone becomes a citizen at the rebirth shortly after the birth.

Kant writes:

"The one-time solemn initiation into the church-community, i.e. the first reception of a member into a church (in the Christian church through baptism), is a solemnity rich in meaning ... ; it has something holy for its end (the formation of a human being as a citizen in a divine state)." (Text)/(AA VI:199)

Process of formation

Formation

The formation of the citizen is a process in three phases:

Within the first phase [minimum] the citizen has not developed school readiness. Within the second phase [medium] the citizen has developed school readiness. Within the third phase [maximum] the citizen is a possessor of the constituent power.

Everyone begins the process of formation within the first phase [minimum].

Not everyone passes from the first phase [minimum] to the second phase [medium]. A very small percentage of a population do not develop school readiness and therefore remain within the first phase [minimum].

Only children with severe or profound mental retardation do not develop school readiness.

Documented severe or profound mental retardation is registered by the civil registration.

Documentation of severe or profound mental retardation is a matter of national sovereignty.

Age of majority

For all those citizens who pass from the first phase [minimum] to the second phase [medium], the process of formation is completed automatically when the citizen reaches the age of majority and because of the age automatically passes from the second phase [medium] to the third phase [maximum].

The age of the citizen is reckoned from the date of birth, which is registered by the midwife, where the birth takes place.

Within the first phase [minimum] and the second phase [medium], every citizen is under parental authority. Within the third phase [maximum], no citizen is under parental authority.

The age of majority is the cessation of parental authority, but the age of majority is more than just the cessation of parental authority.

Within the structure of Kant's critique, the age of majority is also an authorization, where the citizen becomes a possessor of the constituent power.

The age of majority is a matter of national sovereignty.

Constituent power

The constituent power is the sovereign power. The nation possesses the sovereign power.

Kant writes:

"A people must not be hindered by other powers in giving itself a civil constitution that it itself regards as good." (Text)/(AA VII:85)

No one becomes a possessor of the constituent power without both a registered date of birth and a registered nationality.

The constituent power is not immediately given.

Kant writes:

"One can conceive of external lawgiving that would contain only positive laws; but then a natural law would still have to precede it, which would establish the authority of the lawgiver (i.e., his authorization to bind others by his mere choice)." (Text)/(AA VI:224)

Within the structure of Kant's critique, the constituent power is given by God.

Jn 20:19-23

The Gospel of John says:

"Now when it was evening on that day—the first day of the week—and the doors had been shut where the disciples were because of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ... “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”" (Jn 20:19-23)

During the Reformation, the exegesis of Jn 20:19-23 was a divisive factor between Martin Luther and the Catholic Church.

Martin Luther writes:

"Here [Jn 20:19-23] you can see that his object is to deliver the people from sin, or to permit them to remain in sin, and show that they are condemned. Certainly, we cannot say that he has thereby founded a worldly kingdom, as the pope boasts of his power of the keys, that he has the power to loosen and to bind even that which is not sin, yea, even that which Christ neither binds nor loosens, thereby making of it a worldly power. But Christ shows clearly enough here what his keys are, namely, they are not to make laws and abolish them again, as the pope is doing, but to remit or retain sin." (Text)/(WA 49:144)

The pope makes and/or abolishes laws with reference to the so-called apostolic succession.

Liber pontificalis says:

"He [Peter the Apostle] consecrated St Clement as bishop and entrusted the cathedra and the whole management of the church to him, saying: »As the power of government [gubernandi], that of binding and loosing, was handed to me by my Lord Jesus Christ, so I entrust it to you.«" (Text)/(Latin)

Exegesis (Jn 20:19-23)

The power to forgive/retain sin (Jn 20:23) is the same power as the power of the keys (Mt 16:19) and that power is the sovereign power we call the constituent power.

The constituent power is given by God once and for all in the evening on the third day (Jn 20:19-22) and the constituent power is the sovereign power over sin (Jn 20:23).

Sin is doing something that is not allowed.

The pope is not the supreme possessor of the constituent power.

This exegesis of Jn 20:19-23 is in agreement with the following principle by Kant:

"And so, when conflict arises about the sense of a scriptural text, philosophy - that is, the lower faculty, which has truth as its end - claims the prerogative of deciding its meaning." (Text)/(AA VII:38)