An awareness of what is missing - Jrgen Habermas

In his recent writings on religion and secularization, Habermas haschallenged reason to clarify its relation to religious experienceand to engage religions in a constructive dialogue. Given theglobal challenges facing humanity, nothing is more dangerous thanthe refusal to communicate that we encounter today in differentforms of religious and ideological fundamentalism.

Habermas argues that in order to engage in this dialogue, twoconditions must be met: religion must accept the authority ofsecular reason as the fallible results of the sciences and theuniversalistic egalitarianism in law and morality; and conversely,secular reason must not set itself up as the judge concerningtruths of faith. This argument was developed in part as a reactionto the conception of the relation between faith and reasonformulated by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2006 Regensburg address.

In 2007 Habermas conducted a debate, under the title 'AnAwareness of What Is Missing', with philosophers from the JesuitSchool for Philosophy in Munich. This volume includes Habermas'sessay, the contributions of his interlocutors and Habermas's replyto them. It will be indispensable reading for anyone who wishes tounderstand one of the most urgent and intractable issues of ourtime.