Liberal democracy has been experiencing a crisis of representation over the last decade, as a disconnect has emerged from some of the foundational principles of liberalism such as personal freedom and equality. In this article, I argue that in the third part of Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason we can find resources to better understand and counteract this crisis of liberal democracy. Kant gives a powerful argument to include an invisible ethical community under a political community, and this ethical community has to take the form of a church. Kant argues then that any political system, and so also liberal democracy, requires religion to ally citizens in a foundational way with the general principles of that system. This would commit liberal nations to having their foundational principles buoyed by religion. Towards the close of the essay, I attend to how this might impact on liberalism’s commitment to religious and ideological pluralism.

在过去十年中，自由民主一直在经历一场代表危机，因为与自由主义的一些基本原则（例如个人自由和平等）脱节。在这篇文章中，我认为在康德的《纯粹理性界限内的宗教》的第三部分中我们可以找到资源来更好地理解和应对这场自由民主的危机。康德给出了一个强有力的论据，将一个无形的伦理共同体包含在一个政治共同体之下，而这个伦理共同体必须采取教会的形式。康德接着争辩说，任何政治制度，以及自由民主制度，都要求宗教以一种基本的方式使公民与该制度的一般原则结盟。这将使自由国家承诺其基本原则受到宗教的支持。在本文即将结束时，我关注这可能如何影响自由主义对宗教和意识形态多元化的承诺。