An Awareness of What is Missing: Faith and Reason in a Post-Secular Age

by Jürgen Habermas

In his recent writings on religion and secularization, Habermas has challenged reason to clarify its relation to religious experience and to engage religions in a constructive dialogue. Given the global challenges facing humanity, nothing is more dangerous than the refusal to communicate that we encounter today in different forms of religious and ideological fundamentalism. Habermas argues that in order to engage in this dialogue, two conditions must be met: religion must accept the authority of secular reason as the fallible results of the sciences and the universalistic egalitarianism in law and morality; and conversely, secular reason must not set itself up as the judge concerning truths of faith. This argument was developed in part as a reaction to the conception of the relation between faith and reason formulated by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2006 Regensburg address. In 2007 Habermas conducted a debate, under the title ‘An Awareness of What Is Missing', with philosophers from the Jesuit School for Philosophy in Munich. This volume includes Habermas's essay, the contributions of his interlocutors and Habermas's reply to them. It will be indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand one of the most urgent and intractable issues of our time.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Theology, Nonfiction, History

87 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2008

About the author

Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and American pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his work on the concept of the public sphere, the topic of his first book entitled The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. His work focuses on the foundations of social theory and epistemology, the analysis of advanced capitalistic societies and democracy, the rule of law in a critical social-evolutionary context, and contemporary politics—particularly German politics. Habermas's theoretical system is devoted to revealing the possibility of reason, emancipation, and rational-critical communication latent in modern institutions and in the human capacity to deliberate and pursue rational interests.

Reviews

[Saqib · Rating 2 out of 5]

An attempt to refute the fact that there is a head-on collision between reason and faith.The words "Non-overlapping magisteria"
I didn't get convinced by it,being the naturalist that i am.Several times,the author argues modernity may spin out of control because of a naive faith in science,which is ridiculous.Science works and it has elevated the human condition,despite attempts by religious authorities to undermine the scientific endeavor.
One thing i agree on with the philosopher: religion/faith is a tool for social integration.Tradition is important for social integration.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially Habermas's essay boils down to "can't we all just get along?" -- the 'we' being faith, reason, agnosticism, and atheism -- and his responders get all excited to talk about how they, Kant, and Hegel find this question very complicated. The language (translated) is very industry specific, if we can say that about philosophy, and in retrospect I wonder what exactly I was drinking that inspired me to order this tome.

[Ali Jones Alkazemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meget rik diskusjon om hvordan en sekulær fornuft og og religiøs tro skal samtale, og hvilken plass teknisk-vitenskapelig kunnskap, moral og politikk har i alt dette.

[Dr. Chad Newton, PhD-HRD · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an edited text composed by Jurgen Habermas and his commentators. Habermas and reps from the Jesuit School for Philosophy conducted a podium regarding the topic "the awareness of what is missing". Three main topics of inquiry led the scholars' discussions: (a) the meaning of secularization and its recent development, (b) the problem of defining religion and involving its various descriptions, and (c) the relationship between faith and reason as globalization continues to grow. Habermas's theory of communicative action received mention several times in the chapters.
In the third chapter, Brieskorn (2010) stated that "what is missing" pertains to "a lack of solidarity", a lack of knowledge about "what cries out to heaven" (p. 30). In Chapter 4, Reder (2010) stated that Habermas argued "from the perspective of the theory of deliberative democracy" (p. 36). Habermas invented the concept of "post-secular" which stated that "modern societies not only have to gear themselves to the continued existence of religion, but that religions actively shape social life at different levels and in various forms, thus playing an important role in liberal societies" (Reder, 2010, p. 37). Furthermore, Habermas argued that theologians must struggle with "post-metaphysical thinking" in today's global communities where secularism dominates the social environments.
This book introduces readers to basic concepts of Habermas's thoughts and philosophy. However, much of the writing contains abstract concepts with few descriptions of the various terms. Therefore, the content can appear dry and purposeless sometimes to the reader.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heady stuff, by which I mean I didn't understand most of it.