Abstract

The author examines three models of protestant ethics asking the following questions: how do they conceive the distinctive character of the christian ethos, how do they understand the relationship between christian ethos and public sphere and are they capable of refusing the liberal demand for self-restriction. All of these models can be interpreted as attempts to describe the distinctive feature of the christian ethos as something which is an essential element all moralities have in common. Although the autor regards the intuist model as the most plausible, he argues that it is not able to reject the liberal demand for self-restriction. Therefore, this challenge can be met only by demonstrating that the restriction of religious and other comprehensive doctrines does not necessarily follow from the liberal principle of legitimacy. The author outlines how this can done be done.