Is the Ability to Have Faith Universal? On the Possibility of Religious Practices of People with Strong Cognitive Impairments by Birth
Final Report Abstract
The project addressed the question of whether and if so, to what extent people with severe cognitive impairment can develop the ability to believe. Because belief requires not only an emotional component of trust but also a cognitive dimension, with reference to the beliefs that are believed. If this dimension is impaired, however, the question is how faith can be accomplished in both of its dimensions. The project linked anthropological and religious-philosophical reflections with considerations from the field of disability studies. The assumption that this possibility can be justified by a pre-reflective theory of consciousness, body phenomenological approaches, intuitive forms of cognition or the characterization of belief as trust on the level of faith was not confirmed. Rather, aporias are to be stated here insofar as a determination of the content of the faith must always be presupposed in some way. However, this is not possible in the case of people with the most severe cognitive impairments because, unlike what is claimed in pre-reflective theories, it does not appear immediately. The justification of the conviction that even the most severely cognitively impaired persons are subjects of faith can therefore only be achieved through a change of perspective, which e.g. refers to practices of recognition in which vulnerable people are recognized and respected in their subject status, regardless of their assets. In the context of religious interpretation of life, they are honored in their image as God and can be included in religious practices, for example through acts of blessing or prayers.
