Culture, Religion and Inclusive Public Discourse

Abstract

Religion has an enduring presence in the moral discourse of the "civic culture," but is unwelcome in the governing discourse of the institutional order. This essay focuses on two underlying reasons for the disconnection: the secular episteme and the nature of religious convictions. The secular episteme brackets religion by defining away its presence, while religious faith maintains its integrity by relativizing the secular institutional order. Yet religious convictions can offer a more inclusive basis for public discourse than secular reason. Paradoxically, while religious convictions can value secular reason, secular reason cannot even acknowledge religious convictions except for what it outwardly sees as socially shared symbols or myths sustained in rituals or uncritical social conventions. Since religions differ in their truth-claims and demands on public conduct, an inclusive public discourse requires the democratic contestation of truth-claims and their exemplification in civic conduct.