Similarities between the moral and political precepts of Confucius and Kant abound—both concern themselves with the universal application of moral principles for individual decision-making, both think in terms of the whole community and a harmonious vision of the common good, and both look forward to a day when a truly ethical commonwealth permeates human relations worldwide. After drawing out these overlaps between the Confucian Analects and Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, I argue that Kant's philosophy recognizes a series of problems related to the moral life that Confucius did not—namely, that morality is unstable without rational religious faith, that divine grace must be understood to accompany moral endeavor, and that human hope requires belief in a divine-human prototype to satisfy the logic of redemption. Kant's philosophy of religion complements the tradition of Confucius in ways that compete favorably with other philosophical syntheses (viz., Buddhism or Zen).