Ort und Funktion der Religion in der Zeitgenossischen Demokratiertheorie

In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift: PVS : German political science quarterly, Band 43, S. 45-67

Abstract

The essay situates religion in the debates of contemporary democratic theory. The common silence with respect to religion is juxtaposed to an extreme position as it has been formulated by the "Bockenforde-paradoxon." The latter states that democracy can be understood as emerging out of Christendom as the "religion of freedom" (Hegel) & ultimately relies on religiously formed conscience. Among different readings of this thesis, the one being most worthy to reflect upon is that a merely "inner-worldly" cultural stabilization of democracy may lead to a loss of democratic quality. The reliance on transcendence is then unfolded as a possible way of qualifying democracy by comparing different approaches of normative democratic theory (pluralism, deliberative democracy, communitarianism). It becomes clear: the stronger the normative implications, the more urgently the question of religion arises. 57 References. Adapted from the source document.