Firestone, Chris L. Immanuel Kant: A Companion to His Philosophy and Its Theological Reception. Cascade Books, forthcoming. In progress
A one-volume introduction to Kant's philosophy and what theologians have made of it, now in progress.
Academic publications
Academic publications
Books, edited volumes, journal articles, chapters, and reviews from 1999 to the present, most of them on Immanuel Kant, the philosophy of religion, and the relationship between philosophy and theology, with a detour into friendship.
37 publications
Books 4
Firestone, Chris L., and Alex H. Pierce. Why Does Friendship Matter?. Lexham Press, 2021.
A short, accessible book on the lost art of friendship, using Aristotle, Augustine, and Scripture to explain what real friendship is and how to become a better friend.
Firestone, Chris L. Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason. Ashgate, 2009.
Argues that Kant's philosophy gives Christian theology three distinct grounds to build on (moral, poetic, and ontological), unlocked by his idea of rational religious faith.
Firestone, Chris L., and Nathan Jacobs. In Defense of Kant's Religion. Indiana University Press, 2008.
Takes on the long-standing charge that Kant's Religion is incoherent and argues instead that it gives core Christian ideas a rational footing within his critical system.
Edited volumes 3
Firestone, Chris L., Nathan A. Jacobs, and James H. Joiner, eds. Kant and the Question of Theology. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Twelve new essays asking what room Kant's philosophy leaves for theology, from proofs of God to resurrection, with contributors from both the analytic and continental camps.
Firestone, Chris L., and Nathan A. Jacobs, eds. The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought. University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.
Fifteen essays arguing that the major philosophers from Hobbes to Hegel were trying to reconcile faith and reason rather than remove God from philosophy; a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
Firestone, Chris L., and Stephen R. Palmquist, eds. Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion. Indiana University Press, 2006.
The anthology that gave the affirmative reading of Kant's philosophy of religion its name: fourteen scholars arguing that it is a resource in its own right, not morality in disguise.
Guest-edited symposia 2
Firestone, Chris L., and Nathan A. Jacobs. “Symposium on In Defense of Kant's Religion.” Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2012), Articles 2-8.
A full journal-issue debate on the book, arising from the 2009 AAR "Authors Meet Critics" session; listed on his CV as a co-edited special edition, with the guest introduction by Andrew Chignell and replies from Firestone and Jacobs.
Firestone, Chris L., ed. “Special Symposium Edition: Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion.” Philosophia Christi, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2007). Evangelical Philosophical Society.
Papers from a 2005 AAR session asking what Christian theologians can learn from Kant, the EPS-sponsored companion to the 2006 Indiana anthology.
Journal articles 12
Firestone, Chris L. “The Impossible Possibility of Palmquist's Kant and Mysticism.” Kantian Review 26(1): 99-104 (March 2021; published online 21 Dec 2020).
A critical notice arguing that while Palmquist rightly challenges the picture of Kant as hostile to religious experience, his "critical mysticism" reading of the Opus Postumum can be neither proven nor disproven.
Firestone, Chris L. “Kant's Existential Dualism.” Evangelical Philosophical Society, Web Project on the Philosophy of Theological Anthropology (published March 31, 2021).
Argues that Kant's transcendental rationalism and his phenomenal/noumenal distinction rule out materialism and ground a form of dualism that is ultimately underwritten by faith.
Firestone, Chris L. “Certainty in Science and Theology: An Introduction.” Sapientia / Areopagite series, Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding (online), February 2019.
A short essay proposing that most conflict between science and theology comes from both sides claiming more certainty than they have.
Firestone, Chris L. “Can the New Wave Baptize Kant's Deism? Maybe.” Philosophia Christi 19(1): 123-134, 2017.
Concedes that Kant is deistic in a strictly epistemic sense, then asks whether theological considerations can carry his philosophy beyond deism.
Firestone, Chris L., and Alex H. Pierce. “Friendship Matters: Honoring God in All Our Relationships.” Christ on Campus Initiative (online essay; Henry Center, TIU), 2017.
The online essay on friendship as a lost art that later grew into Why Does Friendship Matter?
Firestone, Chris L. “A Response to Critics of In Defense of Kant's Religion.” Faith and Philosophy 29(2): 193-209, Article 7, 2012.
Firestone's rejoinder to Michalson, di Giovanni, Anderson, and Palmquist, defending the book's close textual reading of Kant's Religion.
Firestone, Chris L. “Tillich's Indebtedness to Kant: Two Recently Translated Review Essays on Rudolf Otto's Idea of the Holy.” Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society 35(2), 2009. (Academia.edu also lists a version in Correlatio, 2018).
Uses two newly translated Tillich essays on Rudolf Otto to trace how both thinkers depend on Kant's critical philosophy.
Firestone, Chris L. “What Can Christian Theologians Learn from Kant?” Philosophia Christi 9(1): 7-19, 2007.
Introductory essay to the symposium, making the case that Kant offers Christian theology rational stability rather than a threat.
Firestone, Chris L., and Nathan Jacobs. “Kant on the Christian Religion.” Philosophia Christi 9(1): 63-72, 2007.
Symposium piece on how Kant's rational religion relates to specifically Christian doctrine.
Firestone, Chris L. “On Integrating Christian Faith with Human Reason.” Perichoresis 7(1), January 2007 (Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania).
Essay on the integration of faith and reason, written for a Romanian evangelical journal.
Firestone, Chris L. “Kant's Two Perspectives on the Theological Task.” International Journal of Systematic Theology 2(1): 63-78, March 2000.
Argues that reading Kant's theology through the third Critique (the "poetic hypothesis") collapses theology into philosophy, when Kant held that the conflict between the two faculties can never end.
Firestone, Chris L. “Kant and Religion: Conflict or Compromise?” Religious Studies 35(2): 151-171, June 1999.
Firestone's first major article: the standard "moral hypothesis" reading of Kant produces religious compromises that contradict Kant's own view that philosophy and theology must remain in conflict.
Book chapters and reference entries 8
Firestone, Chris L. “Rational Religious Faith in a Bodily Resurrection.” In Kant and the Question of Theology, eds. Firestone, Jacobs, Joiner (Cambridge UP), Part III ch. 12, 2017.
Argues that Kant's rational religious faith can accommodate hope in a bodily resurrection, not merely immortality.
Firestone, Chris L., Nathan A. Jacobs, and James H. Joiner. “Introduction.” In Kant and the Question of Theology (Cambridge UP), 2017.
Frames the volume's question, what room Kant's philosophy leaves for theology, and its aim of bridging analytic and continental, philosophical and theological approaches.
Firestone, Chris L. “Kant and Contemporary Science.” In Zondervan Dictionary of Christianity and Science, eds. Paul Copan, Tremper Longman III, et al. (Zondervan), 2017.
Reference entry in a dictionary of Christianity and science.
Firestone, Chris L. “The Illegitimate Son: Kant and Theological Non-Realism.” In The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought, eds. Firestone & Jacobs (University of Notre Dame Press), 2012.
Firestone's own Kant chapter in the Persistence volume, taking on the non-realist reading of Kant's God.
Firestone, Chris L., and Nathan A. Jacobs. “Introduction.” In The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought (University of Notre Dame Press), 2012.
Sets out the thesis that the moderns were bent not on removing God from philosophy but on reconciling faith and reason.
Firestone, Chris L. “Rational Religious Faith and Kant's Transcendental Boundaries.” In Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology, eds. Kevin Vanhoozer and Martin Warner (Ashgate), 2007.
Early statement of the argument developed in the 2009 monograph, in the volume that launched the Ashgate series.
Firestone, Chris L. “Making Sense Out of Tradition: Theology and Conflict in Kant's Philosophy of Religion.” In Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion, eds. Firestone & Palmquist (Indiana UP), pp. 141-156, 2006.
Explains Kant's view of the proper roles of philosophers and theologians in dealing with religion.
Firestone, Chris L., and Stephen R. Palmquist. “Editors' Introduction.” In Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion (Indiana UP), 2006.
Introduces the affirmative reading of Kant's philosophy of religion advanced by the volume's fourteen contributors.
Book reviews 4
Firestone, Chris L. Review of Christopher J. Insole, Kant and the Divine: From Contemplation to the Moral Law (Oxford UP, 2020). Journal of the History of Philosophy 61(1): 164-166 (January 2023).
Critically examines Insole's claim that Kant's concept of freedom ruptures with the Christian tradition.
Firestone, Chris L. Review of Lawrence R. Pasternack, Kant on Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (Routledge, 2014). Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, September 21, 2015.
Finds Pasternack's guidebook lucid but says it gives minimal attention to the conundrums, especially universal evil and God's role in moral change.
Firestone, Chris L. Kant on Swedenborg: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer and Other Writings (review essay). Journal of Scientific Exploration, December 2003.
Review essay on the Swedenborg Foundation edition of Kant's Dreams of a Spirit-Seer.
Firestone, Chris L. Review of Garrett J. DeWeese, Doing Philosophy as a Christian. Trinity Journal 33(2): 324-325.
Book review; the year is not given on his CV.
Other 4
Firestone, Chris L. “Immanuel Kant.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston), online 2015; print vol. 'K' 2017. 3 pp.
Encyclopedia entry on Kant's lifelong engagement with the Bible, from his distinction between the lower and higher faculties to his moral reading of Scripture.
Firestone, Chris L., and Nathan A. Jacobs. “Translations: Paul Tillich, 'The Category of the Holy in Rudolf Otto' and 'Thinkers of Today: Rudolf Otto — Philosopher of Religion'.” In Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason (Ashgate, 2009).
Two German-to-English translations of Tillich's review essays on Rudolf Otto, included as appendices to the 2009 monograph.
Firestone, Chris L. “Kant's Rational Foundations for Religious Faith.” University of Edinburgh, Doctor of Philosophy, 313 pp, 2005.
Reads Kant's faith as a mode of cognition rather than knowledge to resolve the coherence problem, and introduces the "Transcendental Union Thesis"; the seedbed of both later Kant books.
Firestone, Chris L. “Rudolf Otto.” In The Dictionary of Historical Theology (Eerdmans), 2000.
Dictionary entry.
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Bibliographic details follow his curriculum vitae, cross-checked against publisher and journal records. Items that could not be verified in a catalog are not listed.