Abstract
With the democratization process in Brazil, legal guarantees were obtained for political mobilizations and organizations. At the societal level, the emergence of new social actors helped expand the boundaries of the political and consolidate a politically influential public sphere. Although communication between the public sphere and the political system occurs under many limitations, new experiences at the local level such as the Participatory Budget enable a clearer link between society and state. In theoretical terms, this means a complement to a discursive conception of the public sphere as developed by Jurgen Habermas, as a deliberative function is assigned to it. In this paper, after considering the social and theoretical context of reception and rereading of the concept of public sphere in sociological studies in Brazil, we engage the question about a public theology that can be developed in a dialogue with Habermas’s theory. Resorting to the criticism of South African theologians James Cochrane and Tinyiko Maluleke against public theologies that based on Habermas reject the democratic potential of liberation theologies, we affirm that criticism and resistance are constitutive elements of democratic dialogue. This affirmation is not inconsistent with the political theory of Habermas; rather, his theory allows to identify the relevance of a public theology precisely in its connection with spheres of life in which the suffering caused by the social problems to be denounced and discussed in the public sphere are more directly perceived. Besides the link between lifeworld and public sphere, as well as between public sphere and political system, other themes of Habermas’s political theory regarded in this article as relevant to be considered in discussions of public theology are the creative potential of language and the presence of religion in the public sphere.
Highlights
There are many studies in the field of public theology marked by a theoretical connection with the concept of public sphere developed by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas.[2]
Relying on the criticism of South African theologians James Cochrane and Tinyiko Maluleke against public theologies that based on Habermas reject the democratic potential of liberation theologies, we affirm that criticism and resistance are constitutive elements of democratic dialogue
The same, I believe, can be said about public theology in Brazil. This raises an important question that public theology has to face: why talk about Habermas if the way we understand what is public does not depend on--and is sometimes very different from--his approach? one can argue that the public sphere as a space for political claims and discussions is an important element of life in society and is, part of what has been understood in a less restrictive way as being the “public” which public theology addresses and on the basis of which it is constituted, there remains the open question about what is precisely the relevance of Habermas’s political theory for the reflection of public theology
Summary
There are many studies in the field of public theology marked by a theoretical connection with the concept of public sphere developed by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas.[2]. One can argue that the public sphere as a space for political claims and discussions is an important element of life in society and is, part of what has been understood in a less restrictive way as being the “public” which public theology addresses and on the basis of which it is constituted, there remains the open question about what is precisely the relevance of Habermas’s political theory for the reflection of public theology An approach to this issue is made in the first section of this article, from the historical perspective of the creation of a communicative network of political challenges begun in Brazil in opposition to the military dictatorship. In the last section of the article the question about the importance of Habermas’s political theory for public theology is taken up again based on these main topics: 1) public and private; 2) language and politics; 3) system and lifeworld; 4) religion and public sphere
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