“Found In Translation. Jürgen Habermas and Anthropotechnics”

In his most recent work on postsecular societies Jürgen Habermas has argued in favor of establishing a reciprocal dialogue between religious and nonreligious citizens aimed at strengthening social and societal integration and rejuvenating the moral bases of modern political and juridical institutions. According to Habermas, this dialogue between religious and nonreligious citizens should focus on the translation of the varied and deep symbolic heritage of religious traditions into rational, secular ones. More recently, he analyzed the social functions of rituals and has rejected any Durkheimian understanding of public secular rituals as mechanisms for fostering social integration. In this paper I summarize Habermas’s early reflections on postsecularism, and assess his recent interpretation of public religious rituals as sources of social integration. I then suggest a shift in focus from religious symbolic content to behavior-regulating technologies aimed at the elevation of individual human beings as the starting point of a process for creating the dispositional resources needed to establish a continuing postsecular dialogue between religious and nonreligious citizens.