Religion and Life Form - Religious Epistemology Following Jürgen Habermas

• Applicant: Dr. Klaus Viertbauer
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: from 2022 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 507073577

The thesis takes up two characteristics that are contrary to each other for European societies of late modernity: On the one hand, as soon as a person makes himself an object of reflection, he sees himself referred to an alterity (traditionally interpreted in religious terms as „God“). On the other hand, the status of religious claims to validity in the public sphere (for example, in parliaments, courts or schools) is increasingly restricted and degraded more and more to a private matter. This dissertation attempts to resolve this ambivalence by drawing on the work of Jürgen Habermas. Specifically, the distinctions between ethics and morality or faith and knowledge, which are characteristic for Habermas, are to be linked to a religious epistemology with the aim of clarifying the significance and the scope of religious convictions.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants