Virtue, Power, Faith

From the earliest times, religious ritual has been an attempt by humans to extend control over conditions, e. g. by appeasing a deity, perhaps via sacrifice.  In other words, such rituals have been attempts to extend the exercise of power over conditions.  Now, unacknowledged by Kant in Spinoza's doctrine is the identity of Virtue and Power.  Likewise, implicit in his charge that Spinoza's concept of Virtue is insufficient is that the criterion of measurement is Power.  For, his proposed correction can be conceived as a variety of extending Power over conditions, via religious ritual, perhaps via sacrifice.  In Kant's version of such ritual, sacrifice consists in the constraint of self-interest, that justifies faith in a deity delivering favorable conditions.  That the sequence is merely hoped-for does not alter its essential structure--a faith-based extension of Power beyond Virtue, even if justified as 'Rational completeness'.  But this 'Rational Faith' is merely a rationalization of the Faith component of conventional Deontic Morality, and its vicarious Power is not likely to impress Spinoza.