Taking Religion Seriously? Habermas on Religious Translation and Cooperative Learning in Post-Secula

What is it about?

Does liberalism sustain itself on the basis of borrowed theological capital inherited from its Judeo-Christian past? Jürgen Habermas, Europe’s leading contemporary philosopher, suggests that liberal theorists can no longer easily dismiss this question through an appeal to the foundational neutrality of liberalism. Habermas claims that religious traditions articulate truths on which democratic societies continue to depend for their civic and moral health. “Post-secular” societies, in his view, should seek to appropriate the “moral intuitions” of Christianity in the service of democratic goals. Although in this way he appears friendlier to religion than John Rawls, Habermas also calls for the “modernization of religious consciousness.” This theological transformation not only reveals the foundationalist presuppositions of liberalism, but also points to a highly attenuated conception of learning from religion. Taking religion seriously will require us to be open to its insights not only when they agree with, but especially when they challenge, our secular presuppositions. This article demonstrates that this important dimension of religion is at risk of getting “lost in translation” in the Habermasian paradigm. If it is to enrich the moral and civic life of liberalism, then we need a more dynamic account of learning from religion than mere unidirectional “translation.”

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Why is it important?

Jürgen Habermas’s recent efforts to correct Rawlsian political liberalism by accommodating religion point to then need to transcend the framework of public reason altogether.

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