Religion in the Public Sphere

Photo: Holberg Prize/ Florian Beier

"We can hardly fail to notice the fact that religious traditions and communities of faith have gained a new, hitherto unexpected political importance. The fact is at least unexpected for those of us who followed the conventional wisdom of mainstream social science and assumed that modernization inevitably goes hand in hand with secularization in the sense of a diminishing influence of religious beliefs and practices on politics and society at large", Jürgen Habermas.

Content:

Religion in the Public Sphere (pdf), Jürgen Habermas, Holberg Prize Laureate 2005.

Faith in religion. Habermas´s post-secular search for Meaning and Solidarity (pdf),
Arne Johan Vetlesen, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oslo.

The Critically Ambiguous Idea of a "Modernization of (Religious) Consciousness" (pdf) ,
Gunnar Skirbekk, Professor of Philosophy, University of Bergen.

The Burdens of the Public Use of Reason (pdf) ,
Cristina Lafont, Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University.

Secular Worries (pdf),
Cathrine Holst, Associate Professor at The Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen.

Post-metaphysical thought, religion and secular society (pdf),
Helge Høibraaten, Associate Professor of Philosophy, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Religion, Secularism, and Public Reason (pdf),
Craig Calhoun, Professor of Sociology, University of New York.

The Discourse of Religion in the Post-Secular Society (pdf),
Thomas M. Schmidt, Professor of Philosphy of Religion, Frankfurt University.

On Artificially Moralising the Morally Irrelevant (pdf),
Jon Hellesnes, Professor in Philosophy, University of Tromsø.

Hard Times for Democracy (pdf) ,
Hauke Brunkhorst, Professor of Sociology, University of Flensburg.

Challenging Habermas on the Moral Legitimacy of Religious Voices in Democratic Politics (pdf),
Tore Lindholm, Associate Professor at Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo.

About the symposium:
The main lecture at the seminar was held by the Holberg International Memorial Prize laureate 2005 Professor Jürgen Habermas. In addition to the main lecture four scholars were invited to give a lecture which theme was in relation to the topic of Jürgen Habermas´s lecture. These lectures had a timeframe of 30 minutes. All of the main lectures were commented by additional scholars, the comments had a timeframe of 10 minutes. The scholars were asked to contribute their papers as they where given at the seminar.