Thinking Our Common World. Conditions of Intercultural Coexistence in Jürgen Habermas and Eilert Herms

• Applicant: Professor Dr. André Munzinger
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2015 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 265446231

How can different cultures and religions coexist in one world? In our increasingly connected world a growing number of societal issues require globalized answers. One may think of problems like climate change, the regulation of financial markets and security policies. The world-community must tackle these problems together. But on what basis can these be addressed? Whereas some posit that a common understanding is difficult or impossible due to the clash of cultures (Samuel Huntington), others argue that humanity is connected through universal reason. So can we think and argue for a common world?My work aims at analyzing the conditions of making coexistence possible by looking at the interrelationship of religion and reason. For this purpose I analyse the works of the philosopher Jürgen Habermas and the theologian Eilert Herms whose positions can be seen as opposing each other in a fundamental manner. For Habermas communicative reason is central for it connects and enables us to exchange our arguments on a universal basis. Religions on the one hand have become more important to Habermas as he sees that they play a fundamental role in holding societies together. But they are not of influence to the communicative process in the exchange of reasons and arguments. From the start this public use of discursive reason is aimed at humanity as a whole. Insofar it is essential for the egalitarian and peaceful development of a global constitution for the ¿postnational constellation¿ (Habermas). For Herms our outlook on the world is defined by our vision of life, which in turn is based on religious experience. The most basic distinction of human beings is religious difference. The use of reason is always dependent on this difference. There is no universal reason which can guide us toward an egalitarian society. We need to understand and work through our differences. Hence the difficult issues of globalization can only be dealt with in respecting the nature of humanity, which for Herms means understanding the fundamental role religious outlooks play in politics, economics and even science. My own work attempts to combine the insights of these protagonists by showing that religion and reason may be rivaling forces, but they also have complementary roles. Both the particular and the universal are core elements of human understanding and agency, both play essential parts in the process of shaping a common world. The discursive exchange of arguments about how our religious differences can be dealt with in the growing world-society is the only possible manner of giving egalitarian and peaceful coexistence a chance.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants