Abstract

The former president of the German Constitutional Court, Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, coined the formulation, "The liberal, secularised state is nourished by presuppositions that it cannot itself guarantee."1 In the first part of this article I would like to discuss the deliberations of one who is considered the chief philosopher of the Federal Republic of Germany, Jürgen Habermas, in particular his thinking regarding the epistemological and existential status and role of religion in a modern democracy. I investigate Habermas's concept of philosophy with the intention of exploring the possibility and range of a philosophy of religion allowed for in his approach. This is why the reactions to Habermas's discourse on...