To this day, scholars are unsure why Kant wrote this text, and bicker constantly about Kant's intentions when he wrote it, and his inspiration for doing so. What they can agree on, however, is that it was the most influential writings on the history of theology and philosophy of religion. Most of Kant's work has similar division as a result of it. His main philosophical belief was that man creates his own experience, and therefore the world in of itself exists entirely outside of man's experience of it.
Originally written as four separate journal articles, the book is divided into four parts all of which attack long-held traditional views promoted by the Church. He criticizes superstition, ritual and the Church in general, believing it to be too heavily entrenched in its own hierarchy to the detriment of the beliefs and day to day lives of Christians.
Part One of the book originally appeared in the 1792 edition of the Berlinische Monatsschrift, but Part Two was prevented from appearing in the same magazine by the King's own censor. To circumvent this obvious attempt to silence him, and pander to the influence of the Church, Kant decided to publish all four pieces - the published one, and the three subsequent parts he had prepared for publication - as a book. At the time there was a great deal of theological censorship, to to get around this, Kant published the book as an educational text through the University of Jena, thereby neutralizing the need for royal intervention or censorship review. Not surprisingly this did not please the King at all and Kant was reprimanded for his insubordination. Kant didn't care; in fact, it spurred him on to write and publish a second volume along the same theme, which angered the censor to such a degree that he banned Kant from ever writing anything else on the subject again, and ordered him to never speak publicly about religion.
The book's title is actually a metaphor constructed by Kant himself; rational religion is shown to be a naked body whilst historical and superstitious religions are shown to be clothing that is entirely inappropriate for the person or the occasion; the metaphor means that the church is doing a very bad job of conveying the true message behind religion to the masses.
The seminal English translation of the work was published in 1998 and also became Volume Six in the Cambridge University Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Kant remains one of the most influential philosophers in terms of his influence upon contemporary philosophy, especially within the fields of epistemology, ethics, metaphysics and political teaching.
