The pre-political bases of the liberal State. Some aspects of the dialog about “reason and faith” between the philosopher Jürgen Habermas and the theologian Joseph Ratzinger

Abstract

The changes produced in the last few decades are a concern for contemporary thinkers, such as a philosopher of the Frankfurt School, and a Roman Catholic theologian who later became a pope. Both of them address the fundamental aspects of secularism in the early 21st century in cultural relativism, postmodernity and incomplete modernity from a new perspective. They converge in the non-sacralization of the state and politics with regard to the value of human rights. Analyze the dialog as part of the modernism-postmodernism debate, focused on the relation between reason and religion in a “post-secular” (Habermas) or “global” society (Ratzinger). The complexity of modern reason as part of theoretical and practical philosophy; a convergence and an open contradiction in the 21st century. The center of this exchange, an expression of reason and faith, lies in the recognition that the liberal State finds two bases in the moral foundations that make it possible. In this sense, the roots of modern secularism are not only the rationality of modernity, but also the contribution of Judeo-Christian, and in some contexts Islamic, religious meaning. This has an impact on the comprehension and development of the discipline, and the practice of law in the West as a pre-political substrate of democratic principles.