The Postsecular Political Philosophy of Jürgen Habermas

Translating the Sacred

By (author) Dafydd Huw Rees

Publication date:

01 September 2018

Length of book:

256 pages

Publisher

University of Wales Press

Dimensions:

216x138mm

ISBN-13: 9781786832726

Jürgen Habermas is arguably the world’s most influential living philosopher – by introducing ideas such as the public sphere, constitutional patriotism, and the discourse theory of law and democracy, he has transformed modern political philosophy. But since 2001, Habermas’s thought has taken an unexpected turn. This book is the first full-length treatment of Habermas’s postsecular political philosophy, and critically analyses his new direction of thought. The author places the postsecular turn in the context of Habermas’s long-standing commitment to developing a postmetaphysical account of morality, politics and human communication; the tension between secular liberal democracy and religious freedom is real, but there may be losses as well as gains to Habermas’s quest to translate the sacred.