The Religious Foundations of a Political Commonwealth (Kant and his Followers)

The Church is an "ethical community subject to God's moral legislation" which "serves as a model for any government created by man" (RGV, AA 06: 101.11-12). To create an ethical community, it is required to assume the existence of morally good people, however the community is after all the only means that nature uses in its work of moral improvement of man. It seems absurd to assume that people themselves are capable of establishing an ethical community, therefore it is believed that its founder is an external moral legislator (God): "Even with the good will of every single human being, because of the lack of a unifying principle people would be instruments of evil and kept moving away from the common goal of good due to constant quarrels" (RGV, AA 6: 97.05-07). The essence of an ethical community is the fact that it was established solely by virtue of a voluntary agreement, thus becoming the prototype of modern state structures. The prototype of the structure of a secular institution of state is an ethical community, based on respecting the natural freedoms of citizens. A true ethical community (which was to be implemented as a Protestant religious commune) is based primarily on the freedom of religion, i.e. the most important task for the Enlightenment era (RGV, AA 08: 41).