Autorentext

Judith Butler is the Maxine Eliot Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley and author of numerous works, including Gender Trouble, The Psychic Life of Power, and Subjects of Desire. Jurgen Habermas is a German philosopher and sociologist and former director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt. His recent works are Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Essays and The Divided West. Charles Taylor is a Canadian philosopher and professor emeritus of political science and philosophy at McGill University. He has received the Templeton Prize and the Kyoto Prize. Cornel West is an American philosopher, critic, pastor, and civil rights activist. He is a Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Center for African American studies and the Department of Religion.

Klappentext

The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere represents a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does—or should—religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of "the political" in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere
Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen

1. "The Political": The Rational Meaning of a Questionable Inheritance of Political Theology
   Jürgen Habermas
2. Why We Need a Radical Redefinition of Secularism
   Charles Taylor
   Dialogue: Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor
3. Is Judaism Zionism?
   Judith Butler
4. Prophetic Religion and the Future of Capitalist Civilization
   Cornel West
   Dialogue: Judith Butler and Cornel West
   Concluding Discussion: Butler, Habermas, Taylor, West
   Afterword
   Craig Calhoun