1793–1874

Sin in Modern Thought: Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Müller, Ritschl

Leibniz saw the evil of the world as metaphysical – the natural result of the limitation of creation. Kant, in Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone (1793), postulated "radical evil" – a propensity to evil that humanity cannot root out by its own powers; it is rooted in the autonomous will and entails guilt, but Kant did not connect it with a historical fall and inheritance. Hegel saw sin as a necessary stage in the development of self-conscious spirit. Schleiermacher in The Christian Faith (1821–1822) understood sin as resistance to the growth of God-consciousness, and the Eden narratives as historically untrue but expressive of God-consciousness; he affirmed creation out of nothing for the sake of absolute dependence. Julius Müller sought the source of sin in a pre-temporal choice of the will, and Ritschl replaced original sin with the "kingdom of sin".